The Attribution Problem
“More attribution data hasn’t led to more confidence—it’s created analysis paralysis.”
Last week, a $50M DTC brand confessed they’re paying for 4 different attribution tools plus platform reporting. Still couldn’t agree on which channels actually drove their holiday revenue.
The typical e-commerce brand now tracks attribution through:
- Platform reporting (Meta, Google, TikTok, Amazon)
- GA4
- Third-party MTA vendors
- “How did you hear about us” surveys
Each shows different numbers. Each has its own methodology. Reconciling them is nearly impossible.
Here’s what we’ve been quietly building at SourceMedium…
Our Approach: Aggregation Over Addition
For the past year, we’ve been developing a completely different approach to multi-touch attribution.
One that doesn’t require another pixel. One that aggregates your existing tracking instead of adding to it. One that’s already running across 10+ brands.
The results? We conducted side-by-side purchase journey data quality tests with alternative (much more expensive) solutions. What we found surprised even us:
Brands’ own first-party funnel data matched as closely as touchpoints collected by proprietary pixels.
Let that sink in. Your existing data—properly aggregated—is just as good as those expensive black-box solutions.
Our Philosophy
Aggregation Over Addition
Why add another pixel when you already have GA4, server-side CAPI, Shopify, and UTMs?
We bring them together into one unified stream. Your GA4 events, your Elevar or Blotout CAPI data, your Shopify order attribution, your Fairing or KnoCommerce survey responses—all joined at the order level.
Your Trusted Data as the Foundation
Built on the sources you already rely on—CAPI, GA4, enriched with your zero-party attribution data.
A refreshing alternative to black-box solutions, offering full transparency on what’s tracked and what isn’t. You know where the data comes from because you chose the sources.
Trust Over Coverage
70% attribution you can verify beats 100% modeled data you can’t.
Especially when making million-dollar budget decisions. We’d rather you trust 70% of your attribution and make confident decisions than have 100% coverage you can’t verify.
Transparency, Access, Full Customizability
Full BigQuery access to input and output data. Audit everything. Build custom models. Your data, your control.
Every touchpoint. Every credit assignment. Every calculation. All queryable. All auditable.
Real Results from Beta Brands
After running side-by-side comparisons across 10+ brands, here’s what jumped out:
The Landing Page Revelation
One brand discovered their “underperforming” landing pages were actually critical assist touchpoints in the customer journey.
They were about to kill these pages based on last-click data. Instead, they optimized them as mid-funnel assets and saw a 23% lift in overall conversions.
The Email Attribution Gap
Multiple brands found their welcome series and abandoned cart flows were driving 2-3x more revenue than any attribution tool was showing.
Why? Most MTA solutions struggle with email touchpoint tracking. When you properly connect Klaviyo data with GA4 sessions, the picture changes dramatically.
The Platform Double-Count
This one’s painful: brands spending $200K+/month discovered platforms were claiming credit for the same conversions.
Google says 60%. Meta says 50%. TikTok says 30%. The math doesn’t work.
When you track actual customer journeys deterministically, you see where credit truly belongs—and it’s not everywhere at once.
The Server-Side Advantage
Brands using robust CAPI tools (Elevar, Blotout, Littledata) recover 40-50% of the attribution visibility lost to iOS14.
But most aren’t activating on this data properly. They have the ingredients—they just need the right recipe.
The Speed-to-Insight Factor
One brand told us they spent 8 months building in-house attribution. Got to basic linear models.
Meanwhile, we implemented advanced path analysis in 2 weeks using their existing data infrastructure.
Sometimes buying beats building.
The Pattern Is Clear
You don’t need more tracking. You need to trust and properly use the tracking you have.
The attribution problem isn’t about needing more data. It’s about trusting the data you already have.
Get Started
Ready to see your attribution data differently?
Request a demo to see how we’re solving attribution differently—no new pixels required.
