What is time decay attribution?

• A. Assigns half the credit to channels older than 7 days.
• B. Attributes conversion credit based on a 7-day half-life scale, giving more credit to channels closer to the conversion.
• C. Distributes credit only to the last touchpoint within 7 days.
• D. Keeps credit constant across all touchpoints.

Answer: (B)

Time decay attribution assigns credit to marketing touchpoints based on how recently they occurred. It uses a decay function so that the closer a touchpoint is to the conversion, the more credit it receives, and the influence fades over time. With a 7-day half-life, each seven days after a touchpoint pass, its weight is halved, so recent interactions near the conversion carry more weight than older ones. This approach reflects the idea that influence diminishes with time but doesn’t abruptly cutoff or give equal credit to all touches.

This isn’t just giving half the credit to channels older than seven days (that would be a hard cutoff), nor is it only crediting the last touchpoint within seven days (that’s last-touch attribution). It also isn’t distributing equal credit across all touchpoints (that would be linear or equal attribution). Time decay blends credit across the path with a recency-based decrease in influence.