How to use Time Decay in Attribution Models

Time Decay in Attribution Models

Using the time decay option in Full Circle attribution models enables you to give more credit to the campaign responses that occur closer to opportunity creation, with less emphasis on those occurring further back in the customer journey.

Following are some reasons and benefits for using a time decay in attribution models:

• Time decay places greater value on campaign responses that occur closer to deal creation. The reasoning here is that if earlier responses were more influential, the deal creation and conversion would've happened earlier.
• As part of a multi-attribution model, time decay will give the most credit to the last touch before opp creation, but still allocate attribution credit to other touches. Touches that occur closer to deal creation will receive more weight.
• If your company has a relatively long sales cycle and determines that more recent campaign responses should be more influential than older responses, time decay can represent this in your data.

How It Works

Time Decay is available in any standard attribution model (Account Based or Opportunity Based). You can add time decay to an existing model or setup a new model with time decay.

Enabling Time Decay

1. To enable, navigate to the model configuration and click the Enable Time Decay checkbox.

2. You may optionally specify a Non-decay period (in days). If a value is entered here, the decay will start from the specified number of days before Opportunity Create.

How Time Decay Works

When time decay is enabled, the weight of attribution points decreases based on the relative proximity of the the response date in the decay period.

Decay Period = Opp Create Date - Days to Filter -> Opp Create Date - Non-Decay period

For example, let's use a Days to Filter of 365 days and a Non-decay period of 30 days

On an opportunity with a create date of 9/1/2023, the decay period would be from 9/1/2022 -> 8/2/2023 (335 days)

Let's see an example of how the responses and attribution would be altered by time decay for the above Opp create date and time decay period.

• Response 1: 8/1/2022, 0 model points (Before decay period) => 0 points (no decay)
• Response 2: 10/1/2022, 4 model points (multiply by 9%) => 0.36 decayed points
• Response 3: 2/1/2023, 2 model points (multiply by 45.7%) => 0.91 decayed points
• Response 4: 3/1/2023, 4 model points (multiply by 54%) => 2.16 decayed points
• Response 5: 4/1/2023, 10 model points (multiply by 63.2%) => 6.32 decayed points
• Response 6: 8/1/2023, 2 model points (multiply by 99.7%) => 1.99 decayed points
• Response 7: 8/25/2023, 4 model points (multiply by 100%) => 4 points (no decay, in non-decay period)

The total number of allotted points decreases from 26 (before decay) to 15.74 (after decay).

Let's look at Response #6. In non-decayed attribution, this response would get 7.6 % (2/26) attribution. With time decay, this same response will now get 12.6% (1.99/15.74), better representing its influence relative to the creation of the deal.

Key Considerations

Below are some important things to take note of when using the time decay option in your attribution models.

• When using time decay, it will decay all responses (except First Touch) based on the allocated points each response gets in all other point weightings. This means that if a response gets points for being a contact role and being the Tipping Point (Primary touch) for a total of 10 points, time decay will decay the appropriate percentage off of the 10 points.
• Time Decay will not be applied to the First Touch response. If you are using time decay and have point weighting for the First Touch Response, that response will not be decayed. This is because if time decay were applied, that first touch response would essentially be given almost zero credit if any. In general, it is not recommended to use the time decay option for a First Touch based model.
• Time Decay will never be applied to any responses post Opportunity Create Date. If using an Attribution timeframe of "During Opportunity Only", time decay will not be an option. If “Use Opportunity Close Date for Date Filter“ instead of Create date is applied, Time decay will still not be applied to any responses post Opportunity Create.