Linear Attribution

Linear attribution splits the credit for a conversion equally across every touchpoint in the path. If a visitor touched four channels before converting, each one gets a quarter of the credit. No touchpoint is treated as more important than another — discovery, nurture, and the final click all count the same. It's the most evenhanded of the rule-based models.

Why it matters

Linear attribution is a deliberate antidote to the single-touch models. Last-click over-rewards closers; first-click over-rewards discovery. Linear refuses to take a side, which makes it useful when you genuinely don't know which stage of the journey matters most and want every contributing channel to register. It treats the funnel as a team effort.

A concrete example

A conversion path runs organic search, then email, then direct. Under linear attribution in GA4, each of the three channels earns one-third of the conversion. Compare that to last-click, where direct would have taken all of it. Suddenly organic search and email show up as real contributors in the report rather than vanishing behind the final touch.

The common misreading

Equal credit is fair, but fair isn't the same as accurate. Linear assumes every touchpoint mattered equally, which is almost never true — a casual early visit rarely deserves the same weight as the click that converted. Don't read linear's numbers as a measure of real influence; read them as a neutral split, not a verdict on what actually drove the sale.