How to Run an Attribution Analysis to Explain a Revenue Drop

When a metric like GMV or revenue moves, "what" changed is easy — "why" is hard. ChartGen AI's Attribution feature breaks a fluctuation down across its components and dimensions, quantifies how much each factor contributed, and surfaces the primary drivers. This tutorial shows how to go from a chart to a clear root-cause answer.

When to Use Attribution

Reach for attribution whenever a KPI changes and you need to explain it to stakeholders:

• "Why did GMV decline last week?"
• "Which channel or campaign caused the drop in conversion?"
• "What is driving the change in gross profit margin?"

ℹ️ Attribution needs structured data. If your file is a raw spreadsheet, run Smart Semantic first (inside a Project) so ChartGen AI understands your metrics and dimensions. Flat, unstructured text cannot be attributed reliably.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Step 1: Create a Project and Add Your Data

Attribution is a deep-analysis capability, so work inside a Project rather than a Quick Chat. Click + Create Project, upload your sales or finance dataset, and let ChartGen AI build the semantic model (metrics like GMV, revenue, CAC; dimensions like channel, campaign, product, region).

Step 2: Generate the Metric Chart

Ask the question that surfaces the change in natural language, for example:

Show weekly GMV for the last 8 weeks and highlight the largest week-over-week decline.

ChartGen AI renders a trend chart and identifies the period with the biggest movement.

Step 3: Open Advanced Analysis on the Chart

Click Advanced Analysis below the chart to explore what's driving the change. ChartGen AI decomposes the fluctuation across key components and dimensions — for example, splitting a GMV change by its formula structure (traffic × conversion × average order value) and by channel, campaign, and product.

Step 4: Read the Contribution Ranking

The result quantifies each factor's contribution and ranks the primary drivers. A typical output looks like:

Now you can say precisely why GMV fell: most of the decline came from one paid-search campaign and a mobile conversion dip, partly offset by higher order value.

Step 5: Turn the Finding into a Report or Prediction

Click Interpretation to generate a structured insight report, or continue to [Prediction](revenue-forecast-prediction.html) to project revenue under different budget scenarios. Export as PDF or add the chart to a dashboard to share with marketing and finance.

Conclusion

Attribution analysis turns "revenue dropped" into "here is exactly what caused it and by how much." By creating a Project, generating the metric chart, and opening Advanced Analysis, ChartGen AI decomposes the change by dimension and ranks the drivers — so you spend less time diagnosing and more time acting. Pair it with scheduling to get an attribution summary pushed to your inbox every week.