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Last-Click Attribution
Last-click attribution assigns 100% of conversion credit to the final touchpoint a user interacted with before converting, ignoring every earlier exposure in the path. It is the default model in most ad platforms and analytics tools because it requires no modeling, and it treats the customer journey as one decisive click rather than a sequence of contributing touches.
Worked example
A brand logs 4,000 conversions in a month. Last-click assigns 2,600 to branded paid search, 800 to email, 400 to paid social and 200 to display, based on whichever channel held the final click. Path data shows display appeared as an earlier touch in 55% of the paths that closed on branded search, meaning it likely contributed to roughly 1,430 of those 2,600 branded-search conversions, yet display's own attributed total is only 200. Cutting display spend on the last-click number alone would remove demand that branded search is currently closing.
How it is used
Planners pull last-click reports straight from GA4, Google Ads or the ad server to judge channel and keyword performance for budget decisions, since the data is available in real time with no modeling required. The recurring mistake is reallocating budget away from upper-funnel channels like display, video and prospecting social because their attributed conversion count looks small, when those channels are generating the demand that branded search and retargeting later close out. A last-click report should always be checked against assisted-conversion or path data before a budget cut.
The common mistake
Don't cut a channel's budget from its last-click count alone; check its assisted-conversion contribution first.