Campaign attribution

  • Updated
If you had access to campaigns prior to April 2023, Optimizely updated the tab name from Campaigns to Activation. All functionality remains the same.

Campaign attribution evaluates a customer's touchpoints to determine which channels and messages impacted their decision to convert or take the desired next step. You can make more informed decisions for future campaigns.

Check out the attribution reporting guide to customize the attribution model, conversion event, or window for more than one campaign at a time.

Default settings

The default model attributes conversions and revenue to the campaign that a customer most recently opened or clicked over the past three days.

 In the example below, the default model does not attribute revenue to this email campaign.

Customize settings

You can change the conversion event and the attribution window. For example, you may consider customer re-engagement on a page as a victory in a win-back campaign. 

Use these steps to change the settings and review the impact of the change:

  1. Go to Activation > Engage.
  2. Select the campaign to update and review.
  3. Select the campaign touchpoint to review the performance metrics. Learn more in the campaign metrics article.
  4. Select the desired conversion event and attribution window. The performance metrics updates automatically.
Because not all events can have revenue associated with them (like Pageviews), the revenue metric drops to zero if one of these gets selected.

Platform differences

You may see differences in campaign performance when comparing or switching between different tools, due to the default attribution model used by each platform. For example, the default approach of each tool listed below differs from Optimizely Data Platform (ODP). The default model attributes conversions and revenue to the campaign that a customer most recently opened or clicked over the past three days.

  • Bronto – The standard attribution window is 28 days. Bronto allows the attribution window and conversion event to be customized. The conversion can be either open, click, or both.
  • Klaviyo – The standard attribution window is five days, using last opens or clicks.
  • Listrak – The standard attribution window is 30 days, using last clicks.

When comparing or switching between tools, you should note the model and settings previously applied to your campaigns.