Position-Based Attribution
By the AdFlint research team · Last reviewed July 2026
Assigns forty percent each to the first and last touchpoints and splits the remaining twenty percent across everything in between.
Also called U-shaped, this model rewards the two moments most advertisers care about, discovery and close, while acknowledging the middle without letting it dominate. It fits multi-step B2B paths where an early content touch and a final branded search both clearly matter. Google Ads and GA4 retired it in 2023. The weakness is that the weights are arbitrary conventions, not estimates derived from how your customers actually behave.
Position-Based Attribution compared with
The settings this gets confused with, and how to tell them apart.
- Position-Based Attribution vs Last-Click Attribution
- Position-Based Attribution vs First-Click Attribution
- Position-Based Attribution vs Linear Attribution
- Position-Based Attribution vs Time-Decay Attribution
- Position-Based Attribution vs Data-Driven Attribution
- Position-Based Attribution vs Last Non-Direct Click
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