Key Concepts
- 1When the agent becomes a sales channel, you must attribute revenue to it fairly — but its influence is often diffuse, assisting purchases that complete elsewhere
- 2Last-click attribution systematically undercounts agents because they frequently shape a decision that finalizes on another surface or later
- 3Assisted and multi-touch attribution better capture the agent's role, crediting its influence along the journey rather than only the final touch
- 4Incrementality is the gold standard: holdout experiments measure the purchases that happened because of the agent, versus those that would have occurred anyway
- 5Attribution drives investment: under-crediting the agent starves it of roadmap priority; over-crediting misallocates resources — accuracy matters for decisions
- 6Cross-channel and cross-device journeys complicate attribution; the agent's touchpoints must be stitched into the broader customer journey view
- 7The PM's job is to pick an attribution approach honest enough to guide investment, and to communicate its assumptions rather than treat any single number as truth
Why It Matters for PMs
Investment depends on attribution: How the agent's revenue is credited determines its roadmap priority. Under- or over-crediting both misallocate resources.
Incrementality is truth: Holdout-based incrementality separates caused purchases from organic ones — the most honest basis for valuing the agent.
Honest communication: No attribution model is perfect. PMs must surface assumptions rather than present a single number as ground truth.
Test Your Understanding
Question 1 (Multiple Choice)
Why does last-click attribution undercount agents?
Question 2 (Multiple Choice)
What is the gold-standard way to measure agent-driven revenue?
Question 3 (Multiple Choice)
Why does accurate attribution matter beyond reporting?
Question 4 (Short Answer)
How would you measure the incremental revenue an agent actually drives?
Think about your answer before revealing the explanation.
Question 5 (Short Answer)
Why can under-crediting the agent's contribution be as harmful as over-crediting it?
Think about your answer before revealing the explanation.