I run a small productised service and most of my leads come through partners who write about me. For a year I credited the last touch, which meant paying the partner for people who were already coming. Switched to first touch three months ago — now I'm paying for traffic that never converts, and one partner I like is getting nothing for intros that close. I can't be the only one who's flip-flopped. What are you all using, and what did it cost you when you picked wrong?
Last-click or first-touch? I keep flip-flopping
Discussion
- Purpose
- Decide which attribution model to actually commit to for partner-driven leads, and hear what it cost others when they picked wrong.
4 replies
Audience: Public. Replies follow this audience.
0Maria SantosInstructional Designer · sponsorship & adsPhilippines·Early Revenue·5d ago
Just pay the partner on every closed deal. Simpler than any model.
0Anouk MulderSoftware Trainer · self-paced courseNetherlands·Established Solo·5d ago
How many partners are we talking about? Under five, the model barely matters — you're just guessing with extra steps.
0Salma Al SuwaidiCommunity Manager · retainer consultingUnited Arab Emirates·Established Solo·5d ago
Both models are trying to do one job with one number, and affiliate spend doesn't work like that.
We had the same fight in my retainer business. Most of our referrals came through a community we ran, and last-click said the community was worthless because people converted after a sales call, first-touch said it was the only thing that mattered because people heard us there months earlier. Neither was true. The person found us in the community, sat on it for six weeks, then Googled us by name.
What worked was splitting the pot. Fifty percent on first touch, fifty on the deal closing, and I stopped trying to find one honest number. Partners who were actually doing the work kept earning. The one who was just getting name-dropped somewhere bled out over a quarter, and honestly, that was correct.
Cost: we paid roughly double for one quarter while the split bedded in. Two partners left. The ones who stayed are still with us two years later.
If you can't split, I'd go first-touch for the long cycle and last-touch for anything under a week. That's not science, it's just what held up for us.
0Gustavo AlmeidaBusiness Coach · sponsorship & adsBrazil·Early Revenue·5d ago
Ran it as a two-month test on one partner only. First touch won on volume, last touch won on margin, the split won on both. Try the split.
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