What is linear attribution in marketing?
Linear attribution splits the credit for a conversion evenly across every touchpoint in the customer's path. Here is the formula, a worked example, where the model misleads, and how it compares with position-based and time-decay attribution.
Linear attribution is a multi-touch attribution model that splits the credit for a conversion equally across every touchpoint in the customer's path. A sale with four tracked touches gives each one 25%. It is the simplest way to show every channel that took part in a sale without deciding which touch mattered most.
How do you calculate linear attribution?
Divide the conversion value by the number of touchpoints recorded inside the attribution window. Every touch gets the same share, whether it was the first ad click, a mid-funnel email or the brand search just before checkout.
| Touches on the path | Credit per touch |
|---|---|
| 2 | 50% |
| 4 | 25% |
| 5 | 20% |
| 10 | 10% |
Linear attribution example
An illustrative UK customer spends £600 after four touches: a Meta ad click, a YouTube ad click, a newsletter click and a Google brand search click.
| Touchpoint | Linear credit | Last-click credit |
|---|---|---|
| Meta ad | £150 | £0 |
| YouTube ad | £150 | £0 |
| Newsletter | £150 | £0 |
| Brand search | £150 | £600 |
Linear moves £450 of credit from brand search to the channels that came earlier in the journey.
Pitfalls of linear attribution
- Equal is not accurate: a low-intent display click counts as much as a demo request.
- Repeated touches win: a channel that appears five times on a path takes five shares, so frequent retargeting can look stronger than it is.
- Not in Google's tools: Google retired linear in 2023 along with first click, time decay and position-based, so Google Ads and GA4 no longer offer it.
Related terms
See time-decay attribution, which weights recent touches, position-based attribution, which weights the first and last, and data-driven attribution, which learns weights from your data.
How Grower helps
Grower's attribution engine de-duplicates conversions from every connected channel and app into one count, then credits each touchpoint with the model you pick: last click, first click, linear, time decay, position-based (40/20/40) or custom weights.
Frequently asked questions
Is linear attribution a good model?
It is a fair starting point when you have no strong reason to favor any stage of the journey, and it is easy to explain to a team or client. Its weakness is that it treats every touch as equally important. Use it to see which channels take part in sales, then compare it with a position-based or custom model before moving budget.
How is linear attribution different from position-based?
Linear splits credit evenly across every touch. Position-based gives 40% to the first touch, 40% to the last and shares the remaining 20% across the touches in between. On a four-touch path, linear gives each touch 25%, while position-based gives the first and last 40% each and the two middle touches 10% each.
Does Google Analytics still offer linear attribution?
No. Google's GA4 attribution guide says first click, linear, time decay and position-based models are no longer available as of November 2023. GA4 now offers data-driven, paid and organic last click, and Google paid channels last click. To report on a linear model, use a cross-channel tool that applies it to your own de-duplicated conversions.
See how linear compares with every other model on your own channels: book a Grower demo, or read marketing attribution models explained for one sale split each way.