First-click Attribution

First-click attribution gives all the credit for a conversion to the first channel the user ever entered from across their whole journey.

First-click attribution is the mirror of last-click: it celebrates discovery rather than closing and gives all the credit to the channel that first found the user. For a business whose problem is building awareness and filling the top of the funnel, this model highlights the content and social channels that are invisible under last-click. But its bias is also a mirror: the work that mid- and bottom-of-funnel channels do to close the deal goes entirely unseen, and a team may over-invest in acquisition while neglecting nurture and conversion. Like any single-touch model, its simplicity gives certainty but flattens the picture; for a multi-step journey it should be read beside a multi-touch model.