Fractional attribution

Fractional attribution is an attribution model that gives credit to multiple sources for an app install or other conversion. Two of the most common attribution models are first and last click attribution in which 100% of the conversion’s credit is attributed to a single source. Fractional attribution is an alternative to these models that provides credit to various advertisements, ad platforms, or customer touches along the customer journey.

Also referred to as multi-touch attribution, each ad that influences a user to an eventual conversion is referred to as a touchpoint. Fractional attribution tracks each touchpoint that influences the conversion and provides partial credit to each interaction toward the user’s journey to install an app. 

As DigiDay highlights, fractional attribution is an increasingly important part of a marketer’s toolkit due to the fragmentation of media:

Media is incredibly fragmented and, therefore, incredibly complicated. Marketers are reaching people in so many ways, online and offline, desktop and mobile. The model itself isn’t new, but with all the channels that are now available to brands, it’s becoming more and more important.

Unfortunately, fractional attribution is also harder and harder to do today, as SKAdNetwork and other privacy-focused initiatives obscure some of the marketing and advertising touches.

There are various types of fractional attribution models, each of which weighs the credit to each touchpoint slightly differently. Advertisers can choose which attribution model to use based on how they think credit should be divided through the user’s journey, and on what their marketing measurement methodology enables:

• Linear: Each touchpoint towards a conversion receives the same credit.
• Time decay: Touchpoints that are closer to the final conversion receive more credit than those at the beginning of the journey.
• U-shape: Touchpoints at the beginning and end of the user journey are weighted more heavily than those in the middle of the funnel.
• W-shaped: This is similar to U-shaped attribution except that key touchpoints in the middle also receive the same credit as those at the beginning and end of the user journey.

In addition to these standard fractional attribution models, businesses can create custom models that are uniquely suited to weigh the touchpoints that influence their users.

As a leader in mobile attribution, Singular enables marketers and app businesses to measure and analyze the performance of their marketing efforts. Singular records all touch points available in a privacy-safe way, and offers instant access to data both in the Singular platform and your own BI tools, in which you can customize your desired attribution model. Singular provides marketers the ability to measure cross-platform performance across various channels including web, app, email, and more, each of which can be used to measure and report using fractional attribution models. 

With accurate attribution and reporting, marketers are able to better analyze the impact of their ads across the entire user lifecycle. In summary, with Singulars’ suite of attribution and analytics capabilities, marketers are able to improve the ROI of their marketing activities.