About attribution models

Note: The first click, linear, time decay and position-based attribution models are no longer supported by Google. Key event actions that used the deprecated attribution models have been upgraded to use data-driven attribution. You can also switch to the last click model, which is still supported. Learn more about the deprecated models.

Customers can view multiple product listings from the same merchants before a key event. Attribution models determine how much credit each product listing interaction gets for the purchase. These models provide insights into a product listing's performance and help to optimise key event journeys.

This article describes the various attribution models and how to use them in Merchant Center.


Benefits

Most merchants are used to measuring the success of their product listing performance on a 'data-driven attribution' basis. This means that they give all the credit for a purchase to the last-clicked product listings and corresponding keyword.

Attribution models give you more control over how much credit each product listing interaction gets for your purchases. This allows you to:

  • Understand organic traffic: Attribution models can help merchants see how often free listings lead to website visits, product views and eventually purchases.
  • Optimise product visibility: By understanding which free listings perform best, merchants can optimise product titles, descriptions and images to improve their visibility in search results.
  • Allocate resources: Attribution data can guide decisions about where to focus resources. If organic traffic generates significant numbers of purchases, merchants might invest more in SEO and product data optimisation.
Note: Free listings are reported in your Merchant Center Analytics under 'Organic' traffic.

About the different attribution models

Merchant Center currently offers several attribution models:

Last click Last click: Gives all credit for the purchase to the last-clicked product listing and corresponding keyword.

Data-driven Data-driven: Distributes credit for the purchase based on your past data for this key event. This is different from the other models, in that it uses your account's data to calculate the actual contribution of each interaction across the key event path. The data-driven model is the default attribution model for most key events. Learn more about data-driven attribution.


How to create or edit an attribution model for your purchases

  1. In your Merchant Center account, click the Settings and tools icon Tools and settings menu icon [Gear].
  2. Click Key event setup.
  3. Toggle on Auto-tagging.
  4. Click Add key event source and proceed with the next steps for creating a key event. To edit a key event, select a key event source that has already been added.

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