Just like in Universal Analytics, attribution modelling in GA4 is carried out to understand customer purchase journeys and to determine the most effective marketing channels for investment at a particular point in time.
The attribution models in GA4 are rules or sets of rules that are used to determine how conversion credit should be distributed to various marketing touchpoints on a conversion path.
The conversion path can include both website and mobile app touchpoints.
There are four categories of GA4 attribution models:
Cross-channel rules-based models – This category includes Cross-channel last click, Cross-channel first click, Cross-channel linear, Cross-channel position-based and Time decay attribution models.
Ads-preferred rules-based model.
Data-driven attribution model – This attribution model is yet to arrive in GA4 properties.
Reporting attribution model – This model is used to calculate conversion credit in all of your GA4 reports.
To learn more about GA4 attribution models, check out the following two articles:
A lookback window is the time period (measured in a number of days) that determine how far back in time a touchpoint is eligible for getting conversion credit.
For example, a 30 days lookback window means a touchpoint is eligible for getting conversion credit for up to 30 days from the day it first occurred.
Similarly, 90 days lookback window means a touchpoint is eligible for getting conversion credit for up to 90 days from the day it first occurred.
By default, GA4 uses the 30 days lookback window for Acquisition conversion events (‘first_open’, ‘first_visit’) and 90 days lookback window for other conversion events.
How to change the Lookback window in GA4?
GA4 uses the lookback window at the property level. At present, it is not possible to set different lookback windows for individual reports within the GA4 property.
If you want to change the lookback windows for Acquisition conversion events and/or other conversion events then follow the steps below:
Step-1: Navigate to your GA4 property.
Step-2: Click on the ‘Admin’ link from the left-hand side navigation:
Step-3: Click on ‘Attribution Settings’ under the property column:
Step-4: Scroll down until you see the section named ‘Lookback window’.
Step-5: Change the lookback windows for Acquisition conversion events and/or other conversion events and then click on the ‘Save’ button:
Note(1): Changing the lookback window will only apply going forward and these changes will be reflected in all reports within the GA4 property.
Note(2): The lookback window applies to all GA4 attribution models and all conversion types.
The Advertising Snapshot report is an advertising workspace in your GA4 property that gives an overview of your conversion performance and your customers’ purchase journeys.
It is made up of cards and reports through which you can get answers to questions like:
Which channels drive the most conversions?
What touchpoints do customers take to convert?
How do channels perform under a different attribution model?
The GA4 Model Comparison report is used to compare different GA4 attribution models to each other. This comparison is carried out to identify new optimization opportunities.
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