GA4 data-driven or last click for organic: which model do you report SEO on?

I'm on the fence about this one too. For a site doing about 40 conversions a month, I'd lead with last click for the headline number. GA4 defaults to data-driven, and organic usually looks better under it than under last click because it picks up credit for the early research visits. The problem is that at this volume the model keeps retraining, so last month's organic number isn't comparable to this month's. Last click is stable and easy to explain to a client. I'd then pull assisted conversions separately to show what organic starts. DDA is the more honest picture in theory, but I wouldn't trust it below a few hundred conversions a month. How do you handle it when the client only looks at one number?

Retraining the client matters more than which model you pick. Choose one, put it on every report, and keep it for the year, even if you'd argue with it yourself. A boring but consistent last-click line shows the trend, and the trend is usually what the client cares about. I'd still be careful with last click for organic, though. It tends to hand the final credit to branded searches and direct visits, so the headline can look smaller than the work really is. That's why the assisted line matters more than the headline number.

Agreed on the branded problem, but how bad it gets comes down to how many buyers find you through a generic query first and only come back later by searching your name. If most conversions already start with a brand search, last click is roughly fair, since organic did close the sale. With a longer cycle, like a dental clinic where people research for weeks, last click keeps crediting the brand search and makes generic organic look like it does nothing. The path length report in GA4 will show which situation you're in, so check it before you pick the headline line.

Path length should decide the model, but turn it into a fixed rule so nobody reopens the argument every quarter. If most organic conversions come after a brand search or within one session, last click works fine as the headline. If the typical path has several non-brand organic touches first, make the non-brand assisted number the headline and keep last click as a secondary line. Then lock the choice for twelve months, because a mid-year switch moves the trend line far more than it moves the actual traffic.