First vs Last Touch Attribution: Which One Should You Use?

I've launched over 500 products. And I've watched brands burn tens of thousands of dollars because they picked the wrong attribution model.

Here's the thing nobody tells you: your attribution model doesn't just change how you measure results—it changes where you spend money.

Pick first-touch, and you'll overspend on top-of-funnel ads that look impressive but don't convert. Pick last-touch, and you'll kill profitable awareness campaigns because they don't show up in your "last click" reports.

So which one should you actually use? The honest answer: probably neither. But let me explain why, and what to do instead.

What First-Touch Attribution Actually Measures

First-touch gives 100% credit to whatever brought someone to your site for the first time. That Facebook ad? That blog post? That's what gets the glory.

Sounds logical. After all, if they never discovered you, they'd never buy, right?

Here's the problem: first-touch makes every awareness campaign look like a conversion machine.

Real example: A DTC skincare brand I worked with was spending $8K/month on Facebook awareness campaigns. First-touch attribution showed a 4.2x ROAS. Amazing, right?

Wrong. When we switched to multi-touch, we found out those campaigns had a 1.1x actual ROAS. They were bringing in cold traffic that took 6+ touchpoints to convert—but first-touch was giving them credit for sales that happened two weeks later after email nurture and retargeting did the real work.

When First-Touch Might Make Sense

There are exactly two scenarios where I'd consider using first-touch:

1. Your sales cycle is genuinely short (under 48 hours)
If people discover you and buy within a day or two, the first touchpoint probably does deserve most of the credit. Think: impulse purchases, limited-time offers, flash sales.

2. You're specifically testing top-of-funnel awareness
If you're running experiments on how different awareness channels perform at introducing your brand (not converting), first-touch can isolate that data. But don't confuse "introduced our brand" with "drove revenue."

The Last-Touch Trap (Even Worse)

Last-touch is the default in most analytics tools—including Google Analytics. It gives 100% credit to the final click before someone converts.

This is how most DTC brands are measuring their ads right now. And it's quietly destroying their growth.

Why? Last-touch makes retargeting and branded search look like magic, while killing everything that actually built your brand.

Here's what happens:

Someone sees your Facebook ad (doesn't click). Reads your blog post (doesn't buy). Gets retargeted on Instagram (still no). Then Googles your brand name and buys.

Last-touch gives 100% credit to that branded Google search. Zero credit to Facebook, your blog, or the retargeting that kept you top-of-mind for two weeks.

So you look at your reports and think: "Branded search is crushing it! Let's double down on Google and cut these 'non-converting' Facebook campaigns."

Then six months later, your branded search volume tanks because nobody's discovering you anymore. I've seen this exact pattern destroy brands that were doing $200K/month.

When Last-Touch Might Work

Last-touch can make sense if:

1. You're running pure bottom-funnel campaigns
If you're only running search ads for people already looking for your product category, last-touch is fine. There's no earlier touchpoint to measure.

2. Your entire business is retargeting existing customers
If you're only doing repeat purchase campaigns to people who already know you, last-touch will accurately show which messages drive the repeat sale.

But for 95% of DTC brands running awareness + conversion campaigns? Last-touch is a terrible idea.

Why Both Models Fail for DTC Brands

Here's the reality most attribution vendors won't tell you:

Your customers don't follow linear paths. They bounce between channels. They research for days or weeks. They abandon carts and come back. They see your ad, don't click, then Google you three days later.

Single-touch attribution—whether first or last—is like trying to figure out which ingredient made your recipe good by only tasting one thing. Useless.

Real customer journey I saw last month:

1. TikTok ad (no click) →
2. Instagram retargeting (clicked, didn't buy) →
3. Email campaign (opened, no click) →
4. Google branded search (clicked) →
5. Facebook retargeting (converted)

Last-touch gives Facebook 100% credit. First-touch gives TikTok 100% credit. Both are wrong.

What You Should Use Instead

Multi-touch attribution tracks the entire customer journey and splits credit across touchpoints. There are a few common models:

Linear attribution: Every touchpoint gets equal credit. Simple, but doesn't account for the fact that some touchpoints matter more than others.

Time-decay: Recent touchpoints get more credit. Better for brands with short consideration windows.

Position-based (U-shaped): First and last touchpoints get 40% each, everything in the middle splits the remaining 20%. Good starting point for most DTC brands.

Data-driven: AI analyzes your actual conversion patterns and assigns credit based on what historically drives sales. This is what we use at ClickEngine—and it's usually 2-3x more accurate than the others.

The Model I Recommend for Most Brands

If you're doing $50K–$500K/month and running multi-channel campaigns (Facebook + Google + email + retargeting), here's what I'd do:

Use position-based (U-shaped) attribution as your baseline.

Why? It gives proper credit to both awareness (first touch) and conversion (last touch), while still acknowledging the nurture that happened in between.

It's not perfect, but it's 10x better than first or last-touch alone.

Then, if you want to get serious about optimization, move to data-driven attribution once you have enough conversion volume (100+ conversions/month minimum).

How to Actually Implement This

Most DTC brands don't have a data science team. You need a tool that can:

• Track every touchpoint across channels (not just last-click)
• Connect ad clicks to actual sales (not just website visits)
• Show you which campaigns are profitable vs. which just look good in reports
• Work with your existing ad accounts (Google, Meta, TikTok, etc.)

Google Analytics won't do this. Facebook's native attribution is self-serving. You need something purpose-built for multi-touch revenue tracking.

The Bottom Line

Stop using first-touch or last-touch attribution if you're running multi-channel campaigns. Both will mislead you into cutting profitable campaigns and doubling down on channels that are free-riding on other marketing.

Use position-based or data-driven multi-touch instead. You'll see which channels actually drive revenue—not which ones happened to be first or last in line.

I've seen brands save $20K–$50K/month just by fixing their attribution model. Not by changing their ads. Not by hiring a new agency. Just by measuring what actually works.

Worth the effort.