Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)

Definition

Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) is a marketing measurement model that assigns value to every touchpoint a customer interacts with before completing a conversion. Unlike last-click attribution, which credits only the final interaction, MTA provides a more complete picture of how each channel, campaign, or touch-point contributes to the buyer journey.

Why It Matters

It’s important to understand how different marketing touch-points work together in order to optimise budgets and strategy. MTA reveals which ads, emails, social posts, or display campaigns play a meaningful role in driving conversions, allowing marketers to invest more effectively. Without it, businesses risk overvaluing some channels and undervaluing others, leading to inefficient spending and missed opportunities.

Example

A SaaS company runs an email campaign, a LinkedIn ad, and a retargeting display ad campaign to promote an exciting, new product launch. A lead eventually signs up after engaging with all three of these touch-points. With MTA, each interaction receives partial credit as a conversion based on its influence, showing that the combination of channels, not just the last click, drove the conversion. This insight helps the marketing team determine the appropriate budget for each of the touch-points, based on which contributed more revenue. 

Additional Insights

MTA can use different models, such as linear, time decay, or position-based models, depending on how a business wants to weigh interactions. It requires clean, accurate tracking across platforms to be effective and often benefits from integrating CRM and analytics data. While more complex than single-touch models, MTA delivers actionable insights that help improve campaign performance and ROI over time.

Bottom Line

Multi-Touch Attribution gives marketers a realistic view of how every channel and interaction contributes to conversions. By understanding the full customer journey, businesses can make smarter decisions, optimise spend, and drive better results across all marketing efforts.