Where attribution breaks
In most Brazilian operations, the chain breaks at one specific point: when the conversation moves to WhatsApp. The source exists in the ad platform, survives up to the form and disappears in the handoff to the conversation.
From then on, closed sales have no recorded source, and budget decisions end up being made on cost per lead — the metric that's available, not the one that matters.
Attribution models
No model is right in absolute terms; each one answers a different question:
- First touch — gives credit to discovery; useful for evaluating demand generation
- Last touch — gives credit to the close; simple, but ignores the whole path
- Linear — splits credit equally across touchpoints
- Position-based — weighs the first and last touches more heavily
What matters more than the model
Debating models before you have the data is a waste of time. Without the source preserved from the ad to the sale, any model produces made-up numbers.
The right order is: preserve the source throughout the entire journey, measure, and only then choose how to distribute the credit.