MTA (Multi-Touch Attribution)

Also known as: Multi-Touch Attribution, Multichannel Attribution, Digital Attribution

Methodology assigning conversion credit to multiple touchpoints in the consumer's digital journey before a purchase.

Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) is a marketing measurement methodology that assigns conversion credit (purchase, registration, lead) to multiple digital touchpoints in the consumer journey that preceded that conversion, rather than assigning all credit to the first or last touchpoint (simplified attribution models).

Main attribution models: Last Click (all to the last touchpoint), First Click (all to the first), Linear (equal credit to all), Time Decay (more credit to the most recent), and Data-Driven (algorithm-based, learns from data).

MTA faces growing challenges from: (1) third-party cookie restrictions making cross-site tracking harder, (2) device fragmentation, and (3) inability to measure offline media impact. For these reasons, it is increasingly complemented by MMM for a more complete attribution picture.