How OWOX BI Attribution matches user actions throughout different touchpoints

To attribute all actions a user takes on their path through the conversion funnel, OWOX BI Attribution makes sequences out of actions performed both while a user was and wasn’t logged in and across different devices. This is possible thanks to matching the userId and clientId parameters.

OWOX BI Attribution matches authenticated and non-authenticated user actions considering all data sources you calculate your attribution model upon, including CRM transactions and custom events data and shape a user path out of them.

How we shape the user path

In Google Analytics, a user path is formed out of the actions performed under the same clientId. This means that even Google’s Data-Driven attribution model can’t match site visits from different devices since sessions from each device generate different clientId.

OWOX BI matches actions by userId first — if a user is logged in. This allows to connect actions of an individual user across different devices and browsers as long as this user is authenticated under the same userId.

If a user performed some actions while not being authenticated but was logged in before or after on the same device, then the non-authenticated actions will still be matched with the authenticated ones and OWOX BI will add them to the user path. In the same way, actions can be matched across devices as well.

Here’s an example of how sessions can be connected by userId and clientId:

The authenticated sessions are matched by the mutual userId, the non-authenticated ones — by clientId.

In the case when we have more than one userId for one clientId, the user path will be shaped by matching clientId but all actions will be associated with the latest userId used:

All sessions are matched into a single path by clientId, but all actions are attributed to the latest userId registered on this device, which is 'userId 2'.

In each data source, Client ID values are stored under different field names: