Attribution

Attribution is the process of identifying and tracking the source of user traffic to your store. Solve categorizes traffic into different channels and sub-channels to help you understand where your customers are coming from. Attribution is determined on the first pageview of each user session.

A new user session starts when:

• A user first visits the store
• After 30 minutes of inactivity

Solve uses three primary data points to determine attribution:

1. UTM Source (utm_source)

• Identifies the specific platform or website sending traffic (Google, Facebook)

2. UTM Medium (utm_medium)

• Specifies the type of traffic (email, CPC, social)

3. Referrer (referrer)

• The website URL or page that directed the traffic to the content (blog post, affiliate link)

Other data points include:

1. UTM Campaign (utm_campaign)

• Tracks the name of a specific marketing campaign (BFCMSale)
• Typically used to identify pageviews from Organic Search, Direct Mail, Cross Network channels

2. UTM Content (utm_content)

• Tracks variations of content or ads in the same campaign (header_ad, footer_ad)
• Typically used to identify pageviews from Organic Search, Direct Mail channels

3. Ad ID (ad_id)

• Tracks specific ads within a campaign
• Typically used to identify pageviews from Paid Social

Attribution Channels

Attribution channels are checked hierarchically by the Solve logic and the channels below have been ordered so - i.e. A channel is checked for being a Display ad before it is checked for being Paid Search or Paid Social ad. For more detailed information about this logic, please contact your Customer Success Manager.

• Display - The traffic has come via a graphical display advertisement placed on a website, social media platform or other digital medium
• Paid Social - The traffic has come via a paid advertisement from a social site (e.g. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok)
• Paid Search - The traffic has come via a paid advertisement that is placed on a search engine results page (e.g. Google, Bing, Baidu)
• SMS - The traffic has come via a link from a text message
• Email - The traffic has come via an email
• Paid Video - The traffic has come via an advertisement from a video site (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo)
• Paid Other - The traffic has come via ads, but not through an ad identified as Paid Search, Paid Social or Paid Video
• Affiliate - The traffic has come via a link provided by an affiliate partner, typically from another website or a content platform
• Organic Social - The traffic has come organically via a non-ad link from a social site (e.g. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok)
• Organic Search - The traffic has come via a non-ad link in an organic search engine result page
• Organic Video - The traffic has come via a non-ad link from a video site
• Direct Mail - The traffic has come via a website link or QR code from a physical promotional material sent to them
• Mobile Push Notification - The traffic has come via a link on a mobile device push notification
• Audio - The traffic has come via an advertisement on an audio platform (e.g. podcast platform or link)
• Cross Network - The traffic has come via ads that come from a variety of channels and not solely from any channel above (e.g. Search and Display)
• Shop App - The traffic has come to the site via shop app - e.g. the shop app marketplace
• Referral - The traffic has come via a non-ad link on an external website (e.g. a blog post, news site or any other non-paid external source)
• Uncategorized - A catch-all. The traffic has a utm tagged on their page-view, but does not belong to any of the channels above
• Direct - The traffic has come from a direct URL into browser and navigating to the website. The pageview’s referrer must not be a valid URL and the pageview must not have a utm_source, utm_medium, gclid or fbclid parameter.

Last-Touch Attribution

Solve implements a Last-Touch attribution model, which means that the last marketing channel a customer interacted with before converting (making a purchase) gets 100% of the credit for that conversion.

Attribution Rules

• Channel Priority
• Direct and internal traffic are excluded from receiving attribution credit
• The last non-direct, non-internal channel gets full credit
• An internal channel is where the referrer is from the same domain as the store
• Lookback Window
• Solves considers sessions within a 5-day window before the purchase
• If no qualifying channel is found within this window, the order is attributed as "uncategorized"

# Scenario 1: Multiple Touchpoints
User Journey:
1. Day 1: Organic Search visit
2. Day 3: Paid Social visit
3. Day 4: Purchase

Result: Paid Social gets 100% attribution credit

# Scenario 2: Direct Traffic
User Journey:
1. Day 1: Email visit
2. Day 3: Direct visit
3. Day 3: Purchase

Result: Email gets 100% attribution credit (direct is excluded)

On This Page

• Attribution
• Attribution Channels
• Last-Touch Attribution