---
slug: attributionsmodelle
title: "How do the attribution models calculate?"
category: attribution
locale: en
updated: 2026-10-14
keywords: ["attribution","model","first touch","last click","linear","position based","data-driven","removal effect"]
questions: ["Which models exist and how do they distribute the share?","Which models are available on the free plan?","Which attribution models exist?","What is last click?","How does position based work?","Which model should I pick?","Data-driven attribution","Why is the data-driven model missing?","Do viewable impressions get a share under last click?","Why is a conversion unattributed under “Last non-direct click”?","Which model does the overview use?","Which model do the chat, the API and MCP use?","Do the shares always add up to 1?","Why do the models attribute different numbers of conversions?","Attributed total smaller than all conversions"]
url: https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/attributionsmodelle
---

# How do the attribution models calculate?

**Which models exist and how do they distribute the share?**

There are seven models: six distribute a conversion by a fixed, disclosed rule, and the seventh reads the rule from your own paths. If a model finds matching touchpoints, it distributes the conversion’s full value across them; if it finds none, the conversion stays “unattributed” and is shown separately. Attributed and unattributed together add up to all conversions it calculates.

> **Note:** On the free Start plan Metrunio calculates with one model: “Last non-direct click”. All seven side by side are available from Pro; until then the attribution page shows what another model would shift in your own data.

1. First touch: the first measured touchpoint receives 100 per cent.
2. Last touch: the last touchpoint receives 100 per cent.
3. Last non-direct click: the last click, or last visit with a campaign reference, receives 100 per cent. Viewable impressions never receive a share, not even with post-view; a direct visit only when there is no click.
4. Linear: every touchpoint receives an equal share.
5. Position-based: the first and last touchpoint receive 40 per cent each; the rest share 20 per cent.
6. Click before view (with post-view fallback): clicks and visits with a campaign reference take precedence; a viewable impression only counts when there are none.
7. Data-driven: each channel’s share is read from your own paths, including those without a conversion.

Shares go to clicks, visits and (with post-view) viewable impressions. A visit is one touchpoint even if ten pages are viewed in it; another is only created by a new campaign signal. Interactions such as product views or add-to-cart and newsletter opens appear in the journey but receive no share.

The exception is “Last non-direct click”: it distributes among clicks and visits only. If only viewable impressions precede a conversion, it remains unattributed under this model. The other models attribute it to the viewable impressions. If there is no click but a direct visit, the direct visit receives the share: it is a measured touchpoint of the kind the model distributes. That is why “Direct” can receive more under this model than under a model with post-view, although the name suggests the opposite: what a viewable impression receives there goes to the direct visit here.

## Three cases, one total

| Before the conversion | Model | Result |
| --- | --- | --- |
| a click | any | attributed, the full value to the click |
| viewable impressions only | “Last non-direct click” | unattributed (“viewable impressions only”) |
| viewable impressions only | the others, with post-view | attributed, to the viewable impressions |
| no matching touchpoint | any | unattributed |

Attributed and unattributed together add up to all conversions a model has calculated. For the six fixed models, that is all conversions in the period. The data-driven model only calculates since it has a basis; older conversions are missing from it, and the model comparison then states under “Basis” how many it distributed. The number of attributed conversions can differ between models: someone who bought after viewable impressions only counts as unattributed under “Last non-direct click”.

> **Note:** Without an explicit choice, the overview, reports and the conversion list use the default model from “Settings”, and so do the chat under “Ask your data”, the read API under /v1/data and the MCP server. If that is “Data-driven” and its basis is not there yet, they use “Last non-direct click” and name the model alongside. The same question therefore yields the same number everywhere, as long as period, post-view setting and data state are the same.

Which of the six fixed models is “correct” cannot be derived from the data. It is an assumption about how advertising works. That is exactly why Metrunio shows them side by side rather than picking one and staying quiet about the choice. The data-driven model sets no rule; it measures how much a channel distinguishes in your paths: how much attributed value drops out of the model when it is removed from the paths? That is a quantity inside the model. Whether the purchases would really have been lost without the channel, only an experiment can tell.

> **Note:** Technically, the shares of one conversion add up to 1 in every model, including the “unattributed” share, which a conversion without a matching touchpoint carries in full. This is verified automatically. Attribution describes assignment, not causal effect, and that includes the data-driven model. It appears only once there are enough paths (100 paths, 20 conversions and two channels within 90 days); until then the attribution page states how far along it is. Falling back to an equal split is out of the question: “data-driven” would then sit above a number that is “linear”.

## Also asked

- Which models are available on the free plan?
- Which attribution models exist?
- What is last click?
- How does position based work?
- Which model should I pick?
- Data-driven attribution
- Why is the data-driven model missing?
- Do viewable impressions get a share under last click?
- Why is a conversion unattributed under “Last non-direct click”?
- Which model does the overview use?
- Which model do the chat, the API and MCP use?
- Do the shares always add up to 1?
- Why do the models attribute different numbers of conversions?
- Attributed total smaller than all conversions

## Related

- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/modellvergleich-lesen
- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/was-ist-ein-kontakt
- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/attributionsfenster
- https://bench.metrunio.com/en/help/gemessen-zugeordnet-geschaetzt