Goal Attribution

Pro Plan

Attribution helps you understand what drives conversions. Learn which traffic sources and channels deserve credit, and how to switch between attribution models in Zenovay.

What Is Attribution?

Attribution assigns credit for conversions:

User Journey:
Google Ad → Blog Post → Direct Visit → Purchase

Which touchpoint gets credit?

The answer depends on which attribution model you pick.

Why Attribution Matters

Without attribution, you can't easily tell:

• Which channels drive discovery
• Which channels close conversions
• Where to focus your marketing effort

Where to Find Attribution

Attribution lives on the Revenue tab of a website's dashboard:

Each row in the report is a channel (for example Organic, Google Ads, Direct, Email, or AI), resolved from the visitor's UTM parameters and referrer. The bars show how many conversions each channel is credited with under the selected model.

Attribution Models

Zenovay offers five models. Switch between them with the toggle, and the credit splits recalculate instantly. The default is Last Touch.

Last Touch (Default)

Gives 100% of the credit to the last channel before the conversion.

Journey	Credited Channel
Google → Facebook → Direct	Direct
Organic → Email → Purchase	Email

Best for:

• Measuring what closes conversions
• Direct-response campaigns
• Quick, simple analysis

First Touch

Gives 100% of the credit to the channel that first brought the visitor in.

Journey	Credited Channel
Google → Facebook → Direct	Google
Organic → Email → Purchase	Organic

Best for:

• Understanding discovery
• Awareness campaigns
• Brand measurement

Linear

Splits credit evenly across every channel the visitor used on the way to converting.

Journey	Credit Distribution
Google → Facebook → Direct	33% each
Organic → Email → Purchase	50% each

Best for:

• Valuing every touchpoint equally
• Longer consideration cycles
• A balanced, neutral view

Position-Based

Gives 40% to the first channel, 40% to the last, and splits the remaining 20% across everything in between.

Journey	Credit Distribution
Google → Facebook → Direct	40% / 20% / 40%

Best for:

• Valuing both discovery and closing
• B2B marketing
• A balanced view that still rewards the bookends

Time-Decay

Gives more credit to channels closer to the conversion and less to earlier ones, on a 7-day half-life. A touch one half-life before the conversion gets half the weight of one right before it.

Journey	Credit Distribution
Google → Facebook → Direct	more recent → more credit

Best for:

• Shorter sales cycles
• Journeys with many touchpoints
• When recency matters most

Switching Models

1. Open your website's dashboard and select the Revenue tab.
2. In the Attribution section, choose a model from the toggle.
3. The credited conversions and revenue recalculate immediately.

Channel Attribution

Each channel row shows how many conversions it's credited with under the active model, the share of total conversions, and (when goals carry a value) the revenue attributed to it.

Channel	Description
Organic	Unpaid search traffic
Direct	No referrer or UTM data
Email	Referrals tagged as email
Google Ads	Paid search, tagged via UTM
AI	Visits referred from AI assistants and search

AI traffic is treated as a first-class channel. If any AI-referred conversions exist, you can expand the AI row to see the breakdown by AI source.

Reading the Comparison

Switching between First Touch and Last Touch is the quickest way to see how a channel behaves:

• A channel that scores higher on First Touch is good at discovery.
• A channel that scores higher on Last Touch is good at closing.
• A channel that's steady across Linear tends to nurture throughout the journey.

Campaign Tracking with UTMs

Channels are resolved from the UTM parameters and referrer on the visit. Tag your campaign links so traffic lands in the right channel:

yoursite.com/?utm_source=facebook
             &utm_medium=cpc
             &utm_campaign=spring_sale
             &utm_content=ad_variation_1

• utm_source and utm_medium drive how Zenovay classifies the channel.
• utm_campaign and utm_content are captured on the visit and visible in your traffic and source reports.

Goal Value Distribution

When your goals carry a value, the Attribution section also shows the revenue credited to each channel under the active model. That lets you see not just which channels convert most often, but which drive the most value. See Revenue attribution to goals for setting goal values.

Troubleshooting Attribution

Too Much "Direct"

If many conversions land under Direct:

• UTM parameters are missing from your campaign links
• The referrer was stripped (some apps and HTTPS-to-HTTP hops drop it)
• The visit came from a private/incognito context

Tagging links with UTMs is the single biggest fix.

Numbers Don't Match Across Models

The same conversions are split differently by each model, so totals per channel will differ between Last Touch, First Touch, Linear, Position-Based, and Time-Decay. That's expected, not a bug. Compare the same model period-over-period rather than comparing models directly.

Best Practices

Use Consistent UTMs

• Document your UTM conventions
• Use a UTM builder so tags stay consistent
• Audit your links periodically

Compare Models, Don't Rely on One

• View First Touch and Last Touch side by side to separate discovery from closing
• Use Linear or Position-Based for a balanced picture
• Use Time-Decay when conversions happen quickly after a burst of touches

Next Steps

• Revenue attribution to goals
• Creating goals
• Traffic sources analysis