Attribution Types

Built-in attribution

Own Able attribution is a first-touch attribution used to determine original source of the customer using first-party data stored by Able Customer Data Platform. It is used to send attribution data to platforms that don't have built-in attribution or when it needs to be supplemented. For example, to CRM and marketing automation platforms such as ActiveCampaign and Salesforce, as well as to display sources of customers in the Dashboard. Custom multi-touch attribution using first-party data can be implemented with BI tools using the BigQuery Connector. Able's marketing analytics and attribution MCP server also provides variety of attribution modelling options.

Source of the first known customer activity is used to determine attribution of the customer and generates following parameters:

• Landing Page (landing_page)
• Referrer URL (referrer_url)
• UTM Source (utm_source)
• UTM Medium (utm_medium)
• UTM Campaign (utm_campaign)
• UTM Term (utm_term)
• UTM Content (utm_content)

Built-in integrations usually send them as custom fields. In that's the case, custom fields typically need to be pre-created. Once the fields are created, attribution parameters are mapped automatically, by comparing parameter name in the external system with the name listed above. Detailed instructions are available in the setup instructions for each integration.

External attribution

Able fixes attribution problems in external services such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Ads and other ad platforms by matching the conversion to the customer's previous activity using first-party data, and then sending the conversion together with an external identifier recorded during that activity (Google Analytics Client Id, Google Ads click ID, Facebook click and browser id, etc.) rather than whatever identifier happens to be present at the moment of conversion. This approach eliminates false 'direct' and unattributed conversions from the reports.

Which identifier is sent depends on the destination:

• Ad platform integrations (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Microsoft Ads, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Ads and others) receive the last known click ID or browser identifier recorded for the customer before the conversion. Ad platforms generally have short conversion windows, so reporting the most recent identifier allows more conversions to be matched and counted, and gives the platform's optimisation algorithms a stronger signal about who the paying customers are.
• Google Analytics receives the earliest known identifier, i.e. the Client Id from the customer's first recorded visit. Google Analytics is a reporting tool with flexible attribution settings and longer lookback windows, so giving it the first touch lets the conversion be attributed to the source that originally brought the customer, while the attribution model itself remains configurable in Google Analytics.

Because built-in Able attribution is first-touch, the original source of each customer is still available in the Dashboard, CRM integrations and the BigQuery Connector, so first-touch sources can be reported separately from what is sent to the ad platforms.

For example, for a Google Analytics tracked visit and purchase it might look like this:

1. A customer visits the website and signs up or starts the purchase, leaving contact details. Google Analytics assign Client Id A to the visitor.
2. Customer completes the purchase later, possibly, without cookies, so that Google Analytics will assign a new Client Id B with direct/none attribution.
3. Able uses first-party customer data to determine that it is the same customer that visited the website the first time, sending the Client Id A along with the purchase conversion to Google Analytics Measurement Protocol, resulting in the conversion being attributed to the correct source in the reports.

With an ad platform the flow is similar, except that Able looks for the most recent click ID or browser identifier recorded for that customer. For instance, if a customer first arrived from an organic search, later clicked a Google Ads ad, and then completed the purchase a few days afterwards from a different device, Able sends the Google Ads click ID from the ad click together with the conversion, so the conversion is counted inside the platform's conversion window and attributed to the campaign that drove it.

This allows to make sure that external reporting tools always know the relevant earlier activity of the customer and can attribute the conversion to it, while leaving the custom attribution settings available for configuration.

This is only possible when back-end first-party customer data are combined with front-end tracking to reconstruct complete customer journeys.

For details on applicable settings, see integration setup guides or details on the external services websites:

• Google Analytics 4
• Google Ads
• Facebook Ads