First touch revenue attribution

[Anonymous]

My team and I are confused about first touch revenue attribution.

When FT revenue is attributed to a program, does that just mean that the program was the first time we achieved a "success" with that prospect? Or, does it have something to do with acquiring the name through that program?

For example, say that we have been emailing a prospect for the last year (so its not a new name) and we've never registered a success, but then that prospect finally downloads a white paper via a content marketing program. If that white paper eventually leads to a sale, does the whitepaper campaign get FT credit for the revenue (or at least a portion of the revenue)?

[Anonymous]

Ashley Kasonik​ FYI. I moved your post to Products and Support​, where you will probably get an answer sooner.

[Jenn_DiMaria2]

Oddly enough, I was just reading some Marketo documentation about this today: Understanding Attribution - Marketo Docs - Product Docs

Found it insanely helpful. Based on your example, if that lead eventually becomes an opportunity, that pipeline (and hopefully closed/won deal!) - based on FT attribution - wouldn't be attributed to the content campaign. It would be attributed to whatever the acquisition program was (ie: how you acquired his/her email address in the first place).

As Marketo explains it:

First-Touch (FT) attribution answers a simple business question, "Which programs are good at acquiring profitable new names?"

[Brian_Law_MKTO]

Another great way to understand the differences is to remember that FT is Acquisition Attribution and success in the program is not required. MT is Success attribution.