Question 1

What is data-driven attribution (DDA)?

Accepted Answer

Data-driven attribution (DDA) is a statistical model that uses your actual conversion data to calculate the marginal contribution of each marketing channel. Unlike rule-based models (last-click, first-click, linear), DDA analyzes all converting and non-converting paths to determine which touchpoints genuinely influenced the outcome. TrustData's DDA is based on Shapley values — a cooperative game theory framework that distributes credit fairly across all participants.

Question 2

How does Shapley value attribution work?

Accepted Answer

Shapley value attribution treats each marketing channel as a "player" in a cooperative game. For every possible combination of channels in your customer journeys, it calculates the marginal contribution of adding each channel to the mix. The final attribution is the average marginal contribution across all possible orderings. This is the most mathematically fair distribution of credit because it accounts for all interactions between channels — not just linear sequences.

Question 3

Why does TrustData's attribution differ from Google's or Meta's numbers?

Accepted Answer

Google and Meta each report from their own perspective, applying their own attribution windows and counting every assisted conversion as a full conversion. A single purchase can appear as 1 conversion in your CRM, 1.4 conversions in Google Ads (30-day window), and 1.2 conversions in Meta Ads (7-day click). TrustData starts from your Shopify orders or CRM as the source of truth, deduplicates across platforms, and then applies DDA — so the total credited conversions always equals your actual orders.

Question 4

What attribution windows does TrustData support?

Accepted Answer

TrustData supports custom attribution windows of 7, 14, 30, and 90 days. You can apply different windows for different analyses — for example, a 7-day window for paid social and a 30-day window for content-assisted conversions. All models (DDA, last-click, first-click, linear, time decay, position-based) apply to the same configurable window.

Question 5

Does TrustData replace my ad platform's attribution?

Accepted Answer

TrustData complements, not replaces, platform attribution. You keep your Google Ads and Meta Ads dashboards for campaign management and bidding signals. TrustData gives you an independent, cross-platform view for budget allocation decisions — answering "how should I distribute my total budget across channels?" rather than "is this campaign profitable within its own platform?"

Fair attribution across all your channels

6 attribution models

Your conversions, clearly

Attribution paths at a glance

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