Time Decay Attribution Model: What It Is, Pros & Cons [2025]
- 7 days before purchase: Clicks a Facebook ad
- 3 days before purchase: Clicks a Google ad
- Same day as purchase: Searches for your brand and buys
- The direct search (same day) gets the most credit.
- The Google ad (3 days prior) gets moderate credit.
- The Facebook ad (7 days prior) gets the least credit.
- Optimize ad spend by identifying which channels drive the most valuable interactions.
- Improve campaign effectiveness by allocating budget toward touchpoints proven to influence conversions.
- Refine customer journey insights by analyzing how engagement builds towards a purchase.
- For travel companies: Since travelers often make decisions close to their trip date, weighting recent interactions (such as final ad clicks) more heavily can be beneficial.
- For B2B companies: Since business purchases typically involve longer decision-making cycles, giving more weight to early interactions (such as the first webinar attended) may provide better insights.
- Pair it with position-based attribution to determine which channels nurture long-term customer engagement.
- Use time decay attribution to identify which channels drive immediate conversions.

Tracy Ng
Senior Content Executive at TrueProfit & SEO/Content Specialist
Tracy is a senior content executive at TrueProfit – specializing in helping eCommerce businesses scale profitably through content. She has over 4 years of experience in eCommerce and digital marketing editorial writing. She develops high-impact content that helps thousands of Shopify merchants make data-driven, profit-focused decisions.