Expiry and allocation
Who this page is for
| Audience | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|
| Implementation engineers | These decisions get baked into the SDR |
| Business analysts | Understand what your measurements actually mean |
(a) Expiration — how long does it remember?
| Setting | Persists until | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Hit | End of that hit (acts like a prop) | Rare; use a prop instead |
| Page View | Next page view | Very short-lived context |
| Visit | End of session | Internal search term, on-site campaign, form name |
| Day / Week / Month / Quarter / Year | Calendar period | Mid-length consideration cycles |
| Custom (1–90+ days) | N days after last set | Marketing campaign attribution |
| Never | Forever (until value overwritten) | Member segment, first acquisition source |
| On a specific event | Until event *N* fires | Powerful — see below |
"Expire on event" is underused and very powerful. Set an eVar to expire on event20 (form submitted). Now the eVar holds "what led to the form" from the moment it is set until the form is actually submitted, then resets cleanly for the next attempt. No bleed-through between attempts.
(b) Allocation — when several values compete, who gets the credit?
Say a visitor searches "insurance", then searches "fees", then submits a form. Both terms sit in the same eVar. Who gets credit for the form submission?
| Allocation | Credit goes to | Result here |
|---|---|---|
| Most Recent (Last) | The last value set before conversion | "fees" gets 1 |
| Original (First) | The first value set in the persistence window | "insurance" gets 1 |
| Linear | Split evenly across all values | "insurance" 0.5, "fees" 0.5 |
Default is Most Recent, and it is right most of the time. Use Original when you care about what *initiated* a journey.
Modern best practice: set eVar allocation to Most Recent and do your attribution modelling in Workspace with Attribution IQ. Baking allocation into the variable is a decision you cannot change retroactively; Attribution IQ is a decision you can change every time you open a project.
Decision rules
- Within a single session? Use Visit expiry.
- Until a specific action completes? Use "expire on event".
- Marketing campaign with a known window? Use custom N-day expiry.
- A permanent trait (member segment, first channel)? Use Never.
- For allocation, almost always use Most Recent, then override in Workspace with Attribution IQ if you need something different.