An affiliate conversion credit model that assigns 100% of commission to the affiliate publisher who first introduced the consumer to the brand, regardless of subsequent affiliate touchpoints before purchase. First-touch attribution is the conceptual inverse of last-click attribution — where last-click favors late-funnel publishers, first-touch favors early-funnel publishers. How first-touch works: the first affiliate publisher to drive a tracked visit to a brand's site receives credit for any subsequent conversion, even if the consumer clicks other affiliate links later; first-touch cookie or tracking ID persists through subsequent affiliate clicks rather than being overwritten. When first-touch is used: rarely used as a primary attribution model in affiliate programs; more common as a supplementary analysis tool to identify which publishers are first introducing customers to the brand; useful for measuring awareness-stage affiliate channel contribution alongside primary last-click attribution. First-touch vs. last-click tradeoffs: first-touch favors content and review publishers (who frequently introduce consumers) and under-credits conversion-stage publishers; last-click favors coupon and deal publishers (who capture pre-checkout clicks) and under-credits introduction publishers; neither model reflects the actual distribution of value across the purchase journey; multi-touch models attempt to distribute credit more accurately by weighting all touchpoints. Use in program analysis: even without implementing first-touch attribution for commission payment, tracking first-touch publisher data alongside last-click provides insight into which publishers are introducing customers vs. which are closing conversions.
Related Resources