What an attribution model answers
A lead usually meets you more than once: a TikTok ad, a Google search a week later, a retargeting ad on Instagram, then the form. Attribution is the rule for deciding which of those touches gets credit for the lead, and for the revenue that follows.
There is no correct model, only a question each one answers well:
- First touch: what starts relationships? Use it to judge prospecting campaigns.
- Last touch: what closes? Use it to judge retargeting and search.
- Full journey: what does the path look like, and how long is it? Use it to set attribution windows and budgets across channels.
DealOracle records all three for every lead so you do not have to choose in advance.
What DealOracle records per lead
When the pixel is on your landing pages, DealOracle keeps a session history for each visitor and stitches it to the lead when the form is submitted, by session ID first and by hashed email or phone when a session is missing.
Each lead then carries:
- First touch: source, medium, campaign, ad and click ID of the first visit DealOracle saw.
- Last touch: the same fields for the visit that produced the form.
- Touches: the ordered list of visits in between, with timestamps and pages.
The Journey tab in the Lead Manager shows the path; Oracle reports let you switch the whole dashboard between first-touch and last-touch views. Leads imported without any pixel history show the CRM's own source fields and no journey, which is expected.
How this differs from what the platforms report
Each ad platform attributes conversions to itself using its own window and its own view of the person. Meta counts a conversion inside seven days of a click or one day of a view; Google uses the conversion action's window; TikTok its own. When a lead touched three platforms, all three may claim it. Add up the platform numbers and you will count the lead three times.
DealOracle's journey is the one place all touches sit side by side, so the same lead is counted once and you can see the overlap. Use the platform numbers to judge what the platform's algorithm is learning from; use DealOracle to judge where the budget should go.
Choosing a model for a decision
| Decision | Model to read |
|---|---|
| Cut or scale a prospecting campaign | First touch |
| Judge retargeting and branded search | Last touch |
| Set a platform's attribution window | Journey length (time from first touch to form) |
| Report cost per qualified lead to a client | Whichever the client agreed to, stated on the report |
| Decide which events to send server-side | Not an attribution question: see Lead to close |
If a client asks why DealOracle and Ads Manager disagree, the answer is almost always overlap and window, not a missing event.