Measuring First-Click Attribution Shows Social Media's True Strength In The Online Purchase Funnel

Source: https://intelligence.businessinsider.com/welcome

Depending on which attribution model is used, social media's role in driving online retail purchases appears drastically different. In the case of Tumblr, a last-click attribution model undervalues the site's revenue per user by 450% compared to a first-click attribution model.

To evaluate a social site's impact on their business, many retailers rely solely on last-click attribution, in which a purchase is attributed to the last click the consumer made before purchasing an item. So, Facebook would only be credited for an online purchase if a user clicked directly from Facebook to a retailer site, and then ultimately bought.

Alternatively, in a first-click attribution model, the purchase is attributed to the first click the consumer makes toward purchasing a particular item. So, Facebook would be credited if it refers a consumer to a product page on a retailer's site for the first time, and he buys that item on a return visit.

Second quarter U.S. retail data collected by Adobe shines light on social media's important role in influencing consumers' purchases early-on in their decision-making process, well before the last click. With every social network tracked in the study, revenue per user went up when tracking first-click attribution versus last-click.

The study found that Facebook drives the most revenue per user ($1.63) on retail sites, when using a first-click attribution model. Last-click attribution only credits Facebook with $0.71 in revenue per user. But that's still higher than most other social sites. 

Tumblr, the most undervalued social network when tracking last-click attribution versus first-click, achieved merely $0.16 in revenue per user based on a last-click model (the lowest of any social network tracked in the study). However, when ! tracking first-click attribution, revenue per user went up to $0.88. 

We've discussed the importance of multi-touch attribution in the context of social commerce before, and this data shines light on social media's important role in influencing purchase decisions near the top of the funnel. 

These findings are based on Adobe's anonymous consumer data to brand sites, which was tracked and collected by 1,000 U.S. online retailers in the second quarter of 2013. 

Download the chart and data in Excel.

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