Definition
Last-click attribution gives 100% of the credit for a conversion to the final trackable click before it. If a player clicked three different marketing links on the way to depositing, the third one is recorded as the source and the first two get nothing.
It is the oldest and still the most common attribution model in affiliate marketing because it is simple, unambiguous, and easy to implement with a single tracking cookie or click ID.
Its appeal is operational: there is exactly one winner per conversion, so payments and reports are clean and disputes are rare. Its weakness is that it systematically overvalues channels and partners that appear late in the journey - brand search, retargeting, coupon and deal sites - and undervalues everything that created awareness and consideration earlier.
Used as the only view, it steers budget toward harvesting existing demand and away from generating new demand.
In context
In iGaming affiliate programmes, last-click (more precisely, last affiliate click within the cookie window) is the near-universal payment basis. It defines competitive behaviour: affiliates optimise to be the last touch, which is why brand-term bidding, "bonus code" and voucher pages, browser-extension coupon tools, and toolbar traffic are contentious - they can insert a last click just before a conversion the user was already going to make.
Programme terms that ban brand bidding, restrict coupon methods, or require "last paid click" logic exist to manage exactly this.
For an operator, the risk is mistaking last-click share for value creation and defunding the content and media that fill the top of the funnel, then seeing overall new-player volume decline while last-click channels report strong numbers. For a content affiliate, last-click is often an unfavourable model - the site does the work of introducing and recommending an operator, then a coupon site or the operator's own brand ad takes the final click and the commission.
The practical responses are to negotiate a longer or first-touch-inclusive attribution deal, to secure a flat CPA that does not depend on the last touch, or to capture the click closer to conversion with strong calls to action. Sophisticated operators keep last-click for settlement but use multi-touch analysis and incrementality testing to actually allocate budget.
Worked example
A content affiliate ranks the review that first sells a player on an operator, but a coupon site gets the last click via a "bonus code" page and the commission. The affiliate negotiates a hybrid deal: a reduced flat CPA paid on first affiliate touch plus a small revenue share, so its demand-generating role is compensated regardless of who wins the final click.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
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