First-Click Attribution

Definition

First-Click Attribution: First-click attribution assigns 100% of a conversion's credit to the first marketing touchpoint a user had with your brand. It is the opposite of last-click and is used to measure which channels are driving new-customer demand.

# First-Click Attribution First-click attribution gives full credit for a conversion to the first marketing touchpoint — the ad, email, organic search, or referral that started the journey. It treats the discovery moment as the most important one and is the mirror image of last-click attribution. ## Why it matters Last-click attribution over-credits retargeting and branded search, because those are the channels closest to the checkout button. First-click over-credits top-of-funnel prospecting, because that is the channel that earned the discovery. Neither is right on its own, but first-click is the better lens when you are trying to find which channels are bringing in net-new customers. ## How Admaxxer surfaces it Admaxxer supports first-click, last-click, and [linear attribution](/glossary/linear-attribution) side-by-side in the Attribution dashboard. The creative grid shows each ad's first-click ROAS next to its last-click ROAS, so you can see which creatives are net-new-customer engines (high first-click ROAS) versus which ones close sales (high last-click ROAS). ## Example A Meta prospecting ad drives 500 first-touch sessions. 80 of those users eventually convert, but half of them convert after clicking a Google branded search ad two days later. Under last-click, Google gets full credit for those 40 orders. Under first-click, Meta gets full credit — closer to the truth about where the demand originated.

Most related

Continue exploring the DTC ad-analytics vocabulary — every term in this glossary cross-links to the next.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is first-click or last-click more accurate?

Neither. Both are 100/0 splits that ignore the middle of the funnel. Use them together to triangulate: first-click for discovery, last-click for closing, blended MER for the truth.

When should I use first-click?

When optimizing top-of-funnel prospecting (new-customer acquisition), evaluating brand-building channels, or diagnosing where demand actually originates.

Does first-click work with iOS 14.5?

Yes — first-click depends on the first tracked session, not on Meta's attribution window. The main risk is that the first session itself was not tracked (ad blocker, private browsing).

Try Admaxxer Free