What is First-Touch Attribution?
An attribution model that gives 100% of conversion credit to the first touchpoint that introduced the customer to your brand.
The detailed definition
First-touch is the opposite of last-click. Useful for evaluating brand-awareness campaigns, content marketing, and any top-of-funnel work that introduces customers to your brand. The honest model when the question is 'which channels are creating new demand?'. The dishonest model when the question is 'which channels are converting?'. First-touch systematically over-credits whatever brought a buyer's first exposure, even if every subsequent step came from another channel. Use first-touch in pairs — first-touch + last-touch together gives a U-shape that captures both ends of the funnel.
Frequently asked about First-Touch Attribution
›When is first-touch attribution useful?
When evaluating demand-gen channels — content marketing, brand awareness, podcast ads, top-of-funnel social. Anything whose job is to introduce your brand. First-touch credits those channels fairly; last-click systematically zeros them out.
›What's the downside of first-touch?
It over-credits whichever channel happened to be the first exposure, even when every subsequent touch came from somewhere else. A buyer who saw your billboard once a year ago but converted through paid social today gets fully credited to the billboard. Not useful for daily decisions; useful as a counterbalance to last-click.
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