The best marketing isn t always the most measurable

The best marketing isn't always the most measurable

Thursday 20th Mar 2025
Clive Reddihough

The dangers of last-click attribution in marketing

There's a danger that marketers and businesses can get stuck in the the ‘last click’ trap, where the marketing touchpoint a customer last clicked on or engaged with before purchasing, is given 100% of the credit.

This isn't helped by the fact that measuring marketing activities further up the funnel e.g. brand awareness is challenging …

...BUT all touchpoints, not just the final one, can influence a purchase decision.

We think:

1. Last-click attribution encourages lazy marketing

Many marketers rely on last-click attribution because it’s simple and convenient. But in reality, it leads to short-term, transactional marketing that ignores the full buyer journey.

A better approach is multi-touch attribution combined with qualitative insights - understanding not just where a conversion happened, but why and how a customer engaged across various touchpoints.

2. The dark funnel is as powerful - if not more powerful - than last-click

Last-click attribution ignores the 'dark funnel' - interactions that don’t show up in tracking tools which happen offline or outside of attribution software e.g. word-of-mouth, private communities, social engagement, and podcasts.

Marketing teams should invest in areas such as brand awareness, thought leadership, and community-building, even if these channels don’t show up in last-click reports. The best marketing often happens in places that aren’t measurable.

3. Last-click bias hides the real impact of brand marketing

Businesses that rely on last-click attribution undervalue long-term brand-building efforts like content marketing, PR, and organic social media.

Shifting towards blended attribution models that factor in brand recall, assisted conversions, and qualitative customer insights helps counteract that. The goal isn’t just to drive clicks - it’s to stay top of mind before customers are even ready to buy. Being 'easy to mind and easy to find' is critical because the brand that gets remembered is very often the brand that gets bought.

4. Over-focusing on last click kills creativity

When marketers are obsessed with last-click data, they default to performance marketing tactics (e.g. Google Ads, retargeting) instead of the kind of creative campaigns that build emotional connections.

Creativity and brand storytelling influence purchase decisions before the last click happens. Stop measuring marketing success by the last step - measure it by the entire journey.

5. Last-click attribution grossly oversimplifies B2B decision-making

In B2B marketing, last-click attribution grossly oversimplifies the decision-making process, which usually involves multiple stakeholders, months of research, and multiple content interactions.

Companies need account-based attribution, where the entire buying committee’s journey is analysed - understanding which content, discussions, and touchpoints influenced the deal.

Last-click marketing attribution - summary

The best marketing isn’t always the most measurable. Enduring marketing success requires thinking beyond the last click.

Marketers and businesses should take a more holistic, customer-centric approach to marketing analytics.