See where every channel earns its budget with our new attribution

What you see above the waterline is only a fraction of an iceberg. The bulk of it sits below the surface, invisible from where you're standing, but no less real and no less responsible for how the whole thing moves. Judge an iceberg by what's visible above the waterline, and you'll badly misjudge its size.

That's a problem when the way you're judging a channel's value only accounts for what's visible on the surface. A channel's direct, on-the-surface numbers are only part of the story, and the part sitting below the waterline is often where the real impact lives.

Key takeaways

• Attribution shows both the direct impact of a channel (Base) and the effect it creates elsewhere (Halo).
• A channel with a weak surface-level ROAS can still be a major driver of results through halo effects.
• Your modeled total sits next to what the platform reports, so you can compare them directly.
• Results are sortable, filterable, and exportable, so you can bring them straight into planning.
• Attribution is live now, as part of The Forecaster release.

Your lowest-ROAS channel might be doing more than you think

It's easy to judge a channel by its own reported numbers and assume a weak return means a weak channel. Often, that channel is quietly creating demand that shows up somewhere else entirely, in a branded search, a piece of direct traffic, or a purchase on a retail storefront that never gets credited back to where the interest actually started.

Judged only on what's visible above the surface, that channel looks like a candidate for budget cuts. Judged on its full impact, it might be one of the most valuable things in your plan.

Base and Halo, in plain terms

Attribution breaks a channel's impact into two parts. Base is the direct result: the revenue or conversions a channel drives on its own, visible above the surface. Halo is everything below it: the lift that same channel creates in other places, like branded search, organic search, direct traffic, or a retail marketplace.

Together, Base and Halo give you a fuller picture of what a channel is actually worth, instead of judging it by the visible piece alone (conversions driven directly from the ad to purchases on your DTC website).

Now visible by channel, not just by campaign

Halo effects have always been something Prescient could show at the campaign level. This update extends that same visibility to the channel level, so you can see Base and Halo broken out by channel, not only by individual campaign.

What this changes for your next budget conversation

Seeing Base and Halo side by side changes the questions you can ask in a planning meeting. Instead of debating a channel's value based on its surface number alone, you can point to the fuller picture: the direct result, the halo effect, and how the modeled total compares to what the platform itself is reporting.

You can sort by any of those measures, filter down to the channels you're actually deciding on, and export the view straight into whatever you're bringing to that conversation. The full picture travels with you instead of staying trapped in a dashboard.

Wrapping it up…

Attribution reflects something Prescient has believed from the start: a channel's value isn't always visible from where you're standing, and the channels doing the most work are often the ones getting the least credit. Seeing the full picture, Base and Halo together, changes which channels you protect and which ones you're willing to cut.

The new Attribution is now available for clients at no extra charge. If you're not yet a client but you’re ready to see what's below the surface in your own accounts, book a demo and we'll show you.