Hellotext links orders to campaigns, playbooks, routes, and other eligible interactions using recorded source evidence, defined source precedence, and attribution windows.
The resulting metric is attributed revenue: revenue connected to eligible Hellotext activity under these rules.
What attributed revenue means
A sale is attributed when Hellotext receives an eligible revenue event and can connect it to supported source evidence for the same customer or order.
Attributed revenue is used in reporting and, where applicable, performance-based billing. It does not by itself mean that every attributed sale was caused by Hellotext or that the full amount is incremental growth.
Evidence and source precedence
Hellotext evaluates several kinds of evidence before assigning attribution. The order or conversion must contain enough customer, order, and source context to connect it to an eligible interaction.
When more than one source is available:
- A recognized external source takes precedence unless the timing proves that the selected eligible Hellotext evidence occurred later. Unknown timestamps and exact ties favor the external source.
- Eligible active Hellotext evidence takes precedence over passive exposure.
- Within the same evidence class, Hellotext normally selects the most recent eligible evidence. Deterministic rules resolve exact timestamp ties.
Active evidence can include:
- a Hellotext source or UTM connected to a campaign, playbook, or route;
- a click on an eligible campaign, playbook, or route link;
- qualifying engagement with a product recommendation.
Passive evidence can include:
- an eligible campaign delivery;
- an eligible proactive playbook delivery;
- a qualifying recommendation or commerce signal;
- other supported source context recorded by Hellotext.
A tracked link is one useful source of evidence, but it is not required for every attribution path. Likewise, receiving a message does not make every later purchase attributable: the delivery, customer, order, source, and time-window requirements must all qualify.
Can a sale be attributed after a message is seen, without a click?
Yes. A customer who sees an eligible campaign or proactive playbook message and purchases within the default 24-hour delivery window may qualify even without clicking a link. The message must meet the channel’s delivery and visibility requirements, and the purchase must still pass the source and attribution rules.
Seeing a message does not make every future purchase attributable, and attribution does not establish that the customer would not have purchased otherwise.
Attribution windows
Hellotext currently uses these default windows:
- Seven days from an eligible click or engagement.
- 24 hours from an eligible delivery or passive signal.
Window duration can be configured by account.
The seven-day window begins when the eligible click or engagement happens. It is not seven days added after the first 24 hours.
Some signals have their own validity period. Not every delivery, channel, template, route, or playbook is eligible for passive attribution.
What counts as engagement with a WhatsApp catalog recommendation?
Opening a recommended product through the tracked WhatsApp catalog within ten minutes of the recommendation can qualify as engagement. The product opened must match a product in that recommendation, and the activity must be linked to the same customer before purchase.
That qualifying view can support the default seven-day session window, measured from the view. A generic catalog tracking tag or an unrelated product-page visit is not enough on its own.
Do we attribute the entire order?
The amount depends on the attribution path selected for the purchase. Campaign and other order-level attribution can credit the order amount. Some Webchat paths apply narrower product and quantity limits:
- Webchat product recommendations: when this path supplies the attribution, only purchased products matching valid recommendation signals contribute to the attributed amount. Product Recommender must also pass its commercial evaluation.
- Webchat bundle additions: when this path supplies the attribution, only matching purchased quantities supported by the cart addition contribute. Units already in the cart before that addition do not earn credit from that addition.
For example, a customer buys a recommended product for $40 and an unrelated product for $60. If the Webchat recommendation path is selected and attribution is approved, the attributed amount is $40, while the order remains $100 in total merchant revenue.
These limits belong to those Webchat attribution paths; they are not a product-matching requirement for every campaign or playbook sale. A Webchat playbook tracking tag alone is insufficient to claim the entire order without matching product evidence through these paths.
For these product-level calculations, Hellotext normally uses the matching order-item amounts. If a qualifying item has a zero line total, such as a free promotional item, Hellotext uses its catalog unit price for the qualifying quantity. The attributed value can therefore differ from the amount paid for those items.
What happens when another marketing source is present
If the order or conversion carries a recognized source from another marketing channel, that source takes precedence unless Hellotext can prove that its selected eligible evidence occurred later.
Both timestamps must be known. If either timestamp is unavailable, or the timestamps are equal, the external source wins and Hellotext does not count the order as Hellotext-attributed revenue. Later Hellotext evidence must still pass the remaining attribution rules; being later is not sufficient by itself.
If stronger external-source evidence arrives after Hellotext initially attributed the order, the engine can revoke the earlier Hellotext attribution while keeping the order in the merchant’s overall revenue history.
A missing or unsupported source is not proof that Hellotext should receive attribution. The order must still have eligible Hellotext evidence.
How AI and team participation are evaluated
A teammate’s participation does not produce one universal attribution result. The applicable rule depends on the source path.
Product Recommender: who drove the commercial interaction?
Product Recommender requires recorded AI or playbook commercial activity before purchase and an evaluation that identifies AI as the commercial driver. That means evaluating actions that move the customer toward purchase, rather than counting every message in the conversation.
AI recommendations, product links, checkout links, and qualifying customer engagement can count. On the teammate’s side, commercial actions include recommendations, coupons, product links, checkout links, and manually recorded goals.
- If the latest recorded commercial action belongs to a teammate, the evaluator does not grant AI attribution.
- If the latest AI and human commercial actions have identical timestamps, the driver remains undetermined and the evaluator does not grant attribution.
- A qualifying sustained human takeover can also prevent attribution, even without an individual coupon or product link. This rule checks the final uninterrupted human-led conversation segment: at least ten minutes, with no gaps longer than five minutes between entries or before purchase. AI activity can interrupt that segment.
- A support-only reply, such as answering a delivery question, does not by itself count as a human commercial action.
AI may have assisted a purchase without receiving attribution for it.
Campaigns, checkout ownership, and other playbooks
- Campaign attribution is evaluated from source evidence and can still apply when a teammate completes checkout. It does not use the Product Recommender commercial-driver test.
- Human-owned checkout blocks ordinary non-campaign attribution when a teammate or commerce operator explicitly owns the order. A proven continuation of an earlier attributed purchase is a separate, capped replacement-order case described below.
- Other playbooks can receive attribution from their supported source context. A recorded teammate checkout link can require the commercial evaluation even when the commerce platform did not identify a human order owner.
- Routes follow their supported source-context and checkout-ownership rules. Not every sale passes through the same AI-versus-human evaluation.
Delayed confirmations and repeated order records
Why can attribution appear after the window has ended?
Windows are evaluated against the recorded customer activity and conversion times, rather than when processing finishes. A delay in receiving or processing an event does not create a new attribution window.
When an order has saved source and evaluation context from before confirmation, a delayed confirmation can reuse that context. Later conversation activity does not automatically become the source of that earlier purchase.
Does receiving the order again count it again?
Repeated records for the same recognized order do not create another ordinary attribution claim. Itemized revenue also does not create a second purchase-level claim. This depends on Hellotext recognizing the same order; a replacement with a different identifier follows the continuity rules below.
Cancellations, refunds, and replacement orders
When Hellotext receives a supported cancellation or revocation for an attributed order, it can remove the active attributed amount from reporting and applicable billing calculations.
If a cancelled order is replaced and Hellotext can prove that the new order continues the original purchase, the carried attribution is limited to the lower of:
- the amount previously attributed; or
- the value of the replacement order.
Refund and partial-refund behavior depends on the commerce data Hellotext receives and supports. After an order-value adjustment, verify the amount shown in the Revenue report and contact Support if it does not match the source order.
How to inspect an attribution decision
For attributed rows, the Revenue report export can show information such as:
- the credited campaign, route, or playbook;
- attribution type and reason;
- source and channel;
- AI and human commercial evidence, when applicable;
- commercial driver, when evaluated;
- a plain-language explanation;
- a link to the relevant conversation or event context.
Detailed engine receipts also record the candidates and source evidence considered. When a non-attributed order or an older record does not expose enough detail in the merchant report, contact Support with the order reference and customer information.
Attributed revenue and incremental growth
Attributed revenue answers:
Which revenue was linked to eligible Hellotext evidence under the attribution methodology?
Incremental measurement answers a different question:
How much additional revenue occurred because of the activity compared with what would otherwise have happened?
Hellotext does not treat those two measurements as interchangeable.
Examples
Campaign message seen without a click
A customer sees an eligible campaign message and purchases within the default 24-hour delivery window. No recognized external source is present.
The order may be attributed to the campaign even if the message did not contain a short link.
Purchase after a click
A customer clicks an eligible Hellotext link and purchases six days later.
The order may qualify because it is within seven days of the click. The seven-day window starts at the click, not after the delivery window ends.
External source at purchase
A customer interacted with Hellotext earlier, but the order carries a recognized source from another marketing channel observed after that Hellotext evidence.
The order is not attributed to Hellotext because the external source takes precedence.
Hellotext evidence after an external source
An external source is recorded at 10:00. The customer clicks an eligible Hellotext campaign link at 11:00 and purchases at 12:00. Both source timestamps are known.
The later Hellotext evidence can take precedence, provided the purchase passes the remaining attribution rules. If the source timing cannot be established, the external source retains precedence.
Product recommendation with support participation
Product Recommender suggests a product and the customer engages with that recommendation. A teammate later answers a support-only question.
The support reply does not automatically remove attribution. The Product Recommender decision uses the supported commercial evidence and its sequence.
Human-owned non-campaign checkout
A playbook interaction occurs, but a teammate or commerce operator explicitly owns the final checkout and no campaign source has precedence.
The order may remain visible in total merchant revenue without becoming Hellotext-attributed revenue.
Custom monetary event
A custom positive monetary event is received with supported customer and source context.
It can be evaluated for attribution. Being custom does not automatically exclude it, but the custom event alone is not sufficient evidence.
No supported evidence
The purchase is outside the applicable window, cannot be connected to the customer or order, or has no supported attribution source.
The revenue remains merchant revenue but is not attributed to Hellotext.