Attribution IQ: why 'direct' appears as a Last touch channel?

[zoe_kim]

Dear all,

I built a custom attribution panel using the marketing channel and first/last touch channel. 

And I learned that if I unchecked the box 'override last touch channel' for 'direct', the channel before 'direct' occurred got all the credits.

So, if visitor 'A' visits the site in order of Paid search > Natural search > direct(conversion), Natural search got credits for the last touch channel. 

But even though I unchecked the box 'override~~' for direct, I can see 'direct' channel data on the last touch channel table. 

Is there anything I misunderstood? 

Please share any ideas.

Thanks

[Andrey_Osadchuk · Accepted solution]

Those who came directly and did not come via other channels before will be reported as Direct.

Best wishes,
Andrey Osadchuk | Inspect Launch Implementation, Automate Classifications & Data Sources, Essential Bookmarks

[zoe_kim]

Thank you! I wonder if a visitor visited the site through Natural search > paid search > direct > direct(conversion), does paid search get all the credit? or first direct get credit?

[HemanginiS]

Hi @zoe_kim ,

As per your example 'Natural Search' should get the credit (assuming 'override last touch channel' is checked for it).
Also, I suggest that you use 'Marketing channel instances' metric with Marketing channel/ Last touch Channel dimensions to check allocation because this metric measures the number of times a marketing channel was defined in an image request and does not include persisted values.
Furthermore, Marketing Channels are not retroactive so any recent change in MC processing rules won't affect your historical data.

Ref: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/components/marketing-channels/c-faq.html?lang=en