Matchbacks and the Evolving Science of Attribution

Online ads get credited if the customer clicks all the way through and makes a purchase. Online ad providers typically cookie a catalog merchant's web traffic and claim some percentage credit of the sales from that household. Only testing can zero in on the correct attribution percentage — i.e., whether online ads should get 5 percent, 10 percent, 30 percent or more of the credit from households that have had multiple touches with both catalogs and your website.