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Understanding First Touch vs. Last Touch Attribution

This article will cover the following:

  • Summary of first touch vs. last touch attribution
  • Where to find the last touch setting
  • Some Example Cases


Summary


Although CAKE is a first-touch tracking platform by default, we allow the option of using a last-touch setting instead to credit conversions to the last source that generated a click from a user.


Normally, a cookie is placed on the user's browser when they first click on a link for an offer. Any clicks that occur for that offer after that first click are de-duped by CAKE within the cookie duration (which is 30 days by default). With last touch, with each click from a new Affiliate, CAKE will count that click as a unique click and overwrite the cookie existing on the user's browser with a new one, re-setting the cookie days from that point. When the user converts, it will read that cookie and credit the conversion to the most recent Affiliate who generated a click from that user.


Where to find the last touch setting



The Last Touch setting is located in the 'Attribution' tab on the Offer card. This allows you to have a longer cookie-duration to de-dupe duplicate clicks from each Affiliate while still crediting the Affiliate closest to the conversion.


Some Example Cases


Example 1: default

  1. Offer cookie days = 30
  2. User clicks on a link for the offer from Affiliate A, but doesn't convert
  3. User clicks on a link for the offer from Affiliate B (this click is de-duped as a cookie for that offer is present on the user's browser)
  4. User converts
  5. Affiliate A gets credit for the conversion

Example 2: last touch

  1. Offer cookie days = 30
  2. User clicks on a link for the offer from Affiliate A, but doesn't convert
  3. User clicks on a link for the offer from Affiliate B
  4. this click is recorded as a unique click
  5. cookie days re-set - 30 days from this click
  6. User converts
  7. Affiliate B gets credit for the conversion

Example 3: last touch

  1. Offer cookie days = 30
  2. User clicks on a link for the offer from Affiliate A, but doesn't convert
  3. User clicks on a link for the offer from Affiliate B
  4. this click is recorded as a unique click
  5. cookie days re-set - 30 days from this click
  6. User clicks on a link for the offer from Affiliate A again
  7. this click is recorded as a unique click again
  8. cookie days re-set - 30 days from this click
  9. User converts
  10. Affiliate A gets credit for the conversion

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