Attribution & Funnel Questions
Part of the Digital Marketing Roadmap
In short
A customer saw an Instagram ad, read a blog, opened an email and then Googled you before buying. Which channel gets the credit? Interviewers love this question because there's no perfect answer.
'How would you know which channel actually drove this conversion?' — testing your understanding of attribution models and funnel tracking from Phase 8.
Think of it like this
Who gets credit for the goal?
In football, the striker scores, but the midfielder made the pass and the defender started the move. Give all credit to the scorer and you'd drop your best passers. Attribution models are different rules for sharing credit between the channels that set up the sale.
Watch it happen
How different models split credit for one ₹1,000 sale
1/5One customer's path before buying: four touchpoints, one ₹1,000 sale.
The big ideas
What you need to know
Customers take paths
Most buyers touch several channels before converting. One-touch models miss part of the story.
Every model has bias
Last click favours bottom-funnel channels like search. First click favours discovery channels.
Know GA4's approach
GA4 offers data-driven and last-click attribution. Several older rule-based models were removed in 2023.
Incrementality
The strongest proof is a test: pause or hold out a channel and see if sales actually drop.
Save yourself the pain
Common mistakes
Oops
Cutting a channel because last-click reports show few conversions.
Do this instead
Check its role earlier in the path, or test turning it down, before cutting it.
Oops
Saying one attribution model is 'correct'.
Do this instead
Explain the trade-offs and how you'd use tests to check what channels really add.
Your mission
Credit a real path
Quick check
Under last-click attribution, which channel tends to look better than it really is?
Go deeper
- 1Review Phase 8's attribution models and practice explaining the trade-offs of each.
- 2Prepare to discuss why multi-touch attribution matters for longer sales cycles.
- 3Practice explaining UTM tracking to someone unfamiliar with it.
More analytics & metrics at this stop
Marketing Metrics Questions
Campaign Performance Case Studies
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