Why does linear attribution feel so fair?
Linear attribution sounds like a compromise everyone can live with. Every touchpoint gets a share, no favorites, no drama. I’ve used it many times when the business was tired of fighting over “last click”.
Why does it become painful in GA4?
GA4, touchpoints are scattered across events and sessions.
- One user, many sessions
- Many channels
- One conversion at the end
Trying to do everything in one SQL query usually ends in something unreadable — and unmaintainable.
What BigQuery forces you to do?
- Collect all touchpoints per user
- Order them by time
- Count how many steps led to the conversion
Only after that does attribution become manageable.
How I approach it now
I split the task into stages:
- Build the path
- Count steps
- Divide conversion value evenly
Slower to write, much faster to trust.
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