What you can answer without multi-touch attribution
Losing path-level data does not lose you the budget question. Five things you can still answer, two you genuinely cannot, and a way to tell them apart.
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By Joris van Huët, Founder & CEOUpdated 3 min read
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Almost every question that changes a budget is an aggregate question, and aggregate questions survive the loss of path-level tracking. The questions that do not survive are mostly ones that produce interesting slides rather than decisions.
Here is the split.
Still answerable
| Question | Why aggregate data suffices |
|---|---|
| Should this channel get more or less budget? | It compares outcomes across spend levels |
| Which channel should I test properly next? | It only needs a ranking with uncertainty |
| Is my reported ROAS inflated, and by how much? | It compares platform claims to real orders |
| Did last quarter's reallocation work? | It compares two periods |
| What share of my orders can I explain at all? | Coverage is an aggregate by definition |
Not answerable
Two things genuinely go: the order in which a specific person encountered your channels, and any personalisation that depends on individual history. Both need the individual record.
The honest question is what the first one would have changed. In most DTC brands, path order informs a narrative about the funnel and does not move budget, because the budget decision is per channel and the path analysis is per person. Worth checking against your own last four quarters: how many budget changes were made because of a path insight?
The distinguishing test
Ask whether your question has a person in it. "Which channel caused revenue" has no person in it and is answerable from aggregates. "What did this customer see first" has a person in it and is not.
Most questions phrased as the second are actually the first wearing different clothes. "Does display assist conversions" sounds path-shaped, but the decision behind it is whether to fund display, which is a budget question and is better answered by turning display off in some regions and watching what happens. The geo testing guide covers that design.
What replaces the path chart
The report structure is set out in a defensible attribution report you can export.
Where to start
Run one read on a window you already have opinions about, and see whether the answers you needed are in it.
If a question you actually needed is missing, that is useful information about which tool you need, and it costs a lot less to find out this way than through a migration.
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
Which marketing questions need path-level tracking?
Only those with a specific person in them: the order in which an individual encountered your channels, and personalisation that depends on individual history. Budget allocation questions are per channel and therefore aggregate by nature.How do I tell whether my question needs individual data?
Ask whether the question has a person in it. Questions about what a channel caused are aggregate. Questions about what a particular customer did are individual. Most path-shaped questions turn out to be budget questions in different clothes.
Go deeper: Incrementality testing, explained.
Sixty-second versions of these ideas: Causality Engine on YouTube Shorts.
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Terms in this article
- AttributionAttribution identifies user actions that contribute to a desired outcome and assigns value to each. It reveals which marketing touchpoints drive conversions.
- Attribution ReportAttribution Report shows which touchpoints or channels receive credit for a conversion. It identifies which campaigns drive desired actions.
- ConversionConversion is a specific, desired action a user takes in response to a marketing message, such as a purchase or a sign-up.
- Multi-Touch AttributionMulti-Touch Attribution assigns credit to multiple marketing touchpoints across the customer journey. It provides a complete view of channel impact on conversions.
- RevenueRevenue is the total income generated by the sale of goods or services related to a company's primary operations.