Attribution Model
The attribution model is the rule that decides which ad interaction gets credit for a sale when more than one is eligible. Amazon's Sponsored Ads default is last-touch, click-through; Sponsored Display and DSP add view-through.
The attribution model is the credit-assignment rule for orders that follow more than one ad interaction. Amazon Sponsored Ads uses last-touch, click-through by default: the most recent click within the attribution window wins all the credit.
Models in the Amazon ecosystem
| Model | Where it applies | What gets credit |
|---|---|---|
| Last-touch, click-through | Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands | Most recent click only |
| Last-touch, click + view | Sponsored Display, DSP | Most recent click; if no click, most recent qualifying impression |
| First-touch | Available in AMC custom queries | Earliest click in journey |
| Multi-touch / fractional | AMC custom queries only | Distributed across touches |
Why model choice creates ghost overlap
The same order can be claimed by Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display because each format reports against its own last-touch rule within its own window. Summing the ad-sales columns across formats will overstate true revenue by 8–25% in mature accounts.
The only clean reconciliation is in Amazon Marketing Cloud, where you can write a custom de-duplicated attribution model across all formats.
Click-through vs. view-through
A view-through attribution credits an order to an ad impression the shopper never clicked. Useful for upper-funnel display, dangerous for last-click ROAS comparisons.
- Treat view-through revenue as a separate column, never added to click-through revenue.
- Discount view-through credit by 50–70% for budgeting decisions; it is the lowest-incrementality kind of attribution.
Common mistakes
- Summing ad sales across ad formats. Always overstates revenue.
- Treating view-through ROAS as comparable to click-through ROAS. They are not.
- Switching models for one campaign to make it look better. Lock the model at account level for reporting.
- Believing last-touch is the truth. It is a convention. Use AMC and incremental ACOS when the decision is large.