First-Click

First-click attribution gives the entire conversion credit to the very first channel a visitor touched. If someone discovered you through organic search, came back later from an email, and finally converted from a direct visit, first-click hands all the credit to organic search — the channel that found them in the first place — and none to the rest.

Why it matters

First-click answers a specific, useful question: which channels are actually bringing new people in? It's the mirror image of last-click. Where last-click flatters the channels that close, first-click flatters the channels that discover. Used deliberately, it shows you where your top-of-funnel demand really originates — the awareness work that everything else builds on.

A concrete example

You run a content blog purely to attract strangers. Under last-click it converts almost nothing, so it looks pointless. Switch GA4's comparison to a first-click view and the blog suddenly accounts for 45% of conversions' first touches. It isn't closing sales — it's starting nearly half of them. That's a very different story about whether the blog earns its keep.

The common misreading

The danger is treating first-click as the truth rather than one lens. It over-credits discovery and ignores everything that nurtured and closed the customer afterward. A channel can originate journeys it would never have converted on its own. Use first-click to understand discovery, not to decide a channel's total worth.