Your Meta dashboard says 42 gross sales. Your tracker says 31. Your affiliate community pays you for 33. No one is mendacity, and nothing is damaged. You’re looking at three referees with three totally different guidelines about how lengthy after a move a objective nonetheless counts as an help.
That rule has a reputation: the attribution window. It quietly decides which campaigns look worthwhile, which of them get paused and the way a lot credit score every visitors supply takes for a similar sale.
Quick reply: An attribution window is the interval after somebody clicks or views an advert throughout which a conversion can nonetheless be credited to that advert. Meta and TikTok default to 7-day click on and 1-day view, Google Advertisements to 30 days after a click on and Taboola to 30 days. Set yours to match how lengthy your patrons really take to transform.
Default Attribution Home windows at a Look
Here’s what every main visitors supply counts out of the field. We checked every platform’s documentation in November 2026. Defaults change, so affirm them in your individual account earlier than you examine numbers.
| Visitors supply | Default click on window | Default view window | Choices | The place to vary it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta | 7 days | 1 day, plus 1-day engage-through | Click on: 1 or 7 days. View: 1 day or off | Advert set, Attribution setting |
| Google Advertisements | 30 days | 1 day (3 days for engaged video views) | Click on: 1 to 90 days. View: as much as 30 days | Settings of every conversion motion |
| TikTok | 7 days | 1 day | Click on: 1, 7, 14 or 28 days. View: off, 1 or 7 days | Advert group attribution settings |
| Taboola | 30 days | 24 hours | Set per conversion rule | Conversion rule |
| Push, pop and different S2S networks | Matched by click on ID | Often none | Will depend on the community and your tracker | Community docs and tracker settings |
What Is an Attribution Window?
An attribution window is a time restrict. It opens when somebody interacts together with your advert and closes after a set variety of days. If the conversion lands contained in the window, the platform credit the advert. If it lands exterior, the sale nonetheless occurred, however the advert will get no credit score for it.
Say somebody clicks your Meta advert on a Monday and buys 9 days later. With Meta’s default 7-day click on window, that buy by no means exhibits up because of your advert in Advertisements Supervisor. A tracker with an extended window nonetheless matches it to the unique click on.
Most platforms run a number of home windows facet by facet, one for every kind of interplay:
- Click on-through window. Begins when somebody clicks the advert. For direct response campaigns, that is the one which issues most.
- View-through window. Begins when somebody sees the advert with out interacting and converts later.
- Engaged-view or engage-through window. A center floor for video views and social actions akin to likes or shares. Meta renamed its model engage-through in March 2026 and now counts non-link clicks there too.
Click on Window vs View Window: Which One Ought to You Belief?
A click on is a transparent sign of intent. Somebody stopped scrolling, tapped and landed in your web page. A view is softer. The advert appeared on display and the individual transformed later, which could imply the advert labored or may imply they had been going to purchase anyway.
That’s why view-through numbers deserve a raised eyebrow. They’re helpful for consciousness and video campaigns, the place plenty of affect occurs with no click on. For affiliate gives, lead gen and most efficiency campaigns, choose outcomes on click-through conversions first and deal with view-through as a bonus you confirm, not revenue you financial institution.
A fast take a look at: examine your platform’s click-only numbers with its default setting. In Meta, the Evaluate Attribution Settings view exhibits them facet by facet. If view-through makes up a big share of reported outcomes, your reported ROAS might be extra optimistic than your checking account.
Default Attribution Home windows by Visitors Supply
Each platform units its personal guidelines, and the main points matter as quickly as you examine one supply with one other.
Meta (Fb and Instagram)
Underneath commonplace attribution, the default is 7-day click on, 1-day engage-through and 1-day view. You set it per advert set, and it does greater than form reporting: Meta additionally optimizes supply towards conversions that match the setting you selected. Click on-through could be 1 or 7 days, and view-through could be 1 day or off.
Two 2026 modifications are price understanding. Since March, click-through attribution requires a hyperlink click on, whereas likes, shares and different non-link clicks moved to engage-through. And from January 12, 2026, Meta stopped returning 7-day view and 28-day view home windows in reporting, so older comparisons that used them gained’t line up with at present’s numbers.
Google Advertisements
Google calls it the conversion window and units it per conversion motion. For a brand new conversion motion, the click-through window defaults to 30 days and might run from 1 to 90 days relying on the conversion supply. View-through defaults to 1 day, and engaged-view conversions for video default to three days.
Remember the fact that the usual Conversions column credit every conversion to the day of the advert interplay, not the day of the sale. Final week’s numbers can continue to grow as late conversions are available, so give a marketing campaign time earlier than you name it. Should you’re constructing conversion actions from scratch, the {a(L[‘gads2’], ‘setup steps in our Google Advertisements tutorial’)} cowl the place these settings stay.
TikTok
TikTok defaults net campaigns to 7-day click on and 1-day view, set on the advert group stage. Click on-through could be 1, 7, 14 or 28 days, and view-through could be off, 1 or 7 days. App campaigns add a separate engaged-view window, which works very like the view-based fashions we cowl in our information to cellular attribution.
Taboola and Different Native Networks
Taboola counts conversions inside 30 days of a click on and inside 24 hours of a viewable impression by default, and each could be modified per conversion rule. When a consumer each clicked and seen, the press wins. Different native networks observe comparable logic, however their defaults differ and barely match Meta or Google, so test every one.
Push, Pop and S2S-Based mostly Networks
Many push, pop and native networks don’t run a pixel-based window in any respect. They obtain conversions by a server-to-server postback that carries the press ID from the unique go to. If the press ID matches, the conversion counts, so in follow the window will depend on how lengthy the community retains its click on knowledge and in your tracker. Examine the community’s postback documentation for any cutoff.
How Your Attribution Window Adjustments Reported ROI
Right here is one marketing campaign seen by 4 totally different home windows. The numbers are illustrative, however the sample exhibits up in actual accounts every single day.
You spend $1,000 on a suggestion that pays $40 per conversion. Over the following 30 days, 50 individuals convert: 20 inside a day of clicking, 15 between day 2 and day 7, 10 between day 8 and day 30, and 5 who solely noticed the advert and transformed the identical day.
| Window | Conversions credited | Reported income | Reported ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-day click on | 20 | $800 | 0.8 |
| 7-day click on | 35 | $1,400 | 1.4 |
| 7-day click on + 1-day view | 40 | $1,600 | 1.6 |
| 30-day click on | 45 | $1,800 | 1.8 |
Similar visitors, identical gross sales. On a 1-day window, the marketing campaign appears prefer it’s dropping cash and will get paused. On a 30-day window, it appears like a winner price scaling. Neither quantity is mistaken; they reply totally different questions. What goes mistaken is evaluating a 7-day quantity from one supply with a 30-day quantity from one other and calling it a good struggle.
That’s the entire entice.
Find out how to Select the Proper Attribution Window
There’s no universally appropriate window. There’s a appropriate window on your provide, and your individual knowledge can let you know what it’s.
- Measure your actual conversion lag. In your tracker, test how lengthy conversions take after the press. If 90% arrive inside three days, a 30-day window principally provides noise. If a giant share arrives after every week, a 7-day window hides actual outcomes.
- Match the window to the provide. Sweepstakes, app installs and low cost e-commerce merchandise convert quick. Lead gen, high-ticket merchandise and iGaming deposits usually take longer, particularly when the primary deposit comes days after registration.
- Evaluate earlier than you modify. Meta’s Evaluate Attribution Settings and TikTok’s attribution analytics present how your numbers transfer below totally different home windows earlier than you commit.
- Depart stay campaigns alone. On Meta, the attribution setting additionally guides supply, so switching it mid-flight can reset studying and muddy your comparability.
- Align home windows earlier than evaluating sources. Once you choose Meta towards Google or native, put them on the identical window. Higher nonetheless, examine them in a single tracker that applies one rule to all of them.
Why Your Advert Platform and Your Tracker Present Completely different Numbers
Even with matching home windows, platform and tracker numbers hardly ever comply with the final conversion, and that’s regular. Three issues trigger many of the hole:
- View-through and engage-through credit score. Platforms rely conversions from individuals who by no means clicked. A click-based tracker doesn’t.
- Modeled conversions. When privateness settings or advert blockers lower the sign, platforms estimate some conversions. A tracker stories what it really recorded.
- Completely different home windows and dates. A tracker with a protracted window retains matching late conversions to the unique click on lengthy after the platform’s window has closed.
There’s yet another catch. Sending conversions again to a platform by a Conversion API doesn’t override its window. In most setups, in case your tracker stories a sale on day 10 and the advert set makes use of a 7-day click on window, the platform receives the occasion however gained’t credit score the advert below that setting. Our comparability of Fb advert monitoring software program covers how totally different instruments deal with this hole.
When the hole appears larger than these three causes clarify, work by the commonest monitoring points earlier than you blame the visitors.
How Attribution Home windows Work in Voluum
Voluum matches every conversion to the press that prompted it by the press ID, whether or not the conversion arrives by S2S postback, conversion pixel or guide add. It retains attributing conversions to the unique go to for as much as 180 days. A participant who registers on Monday and makes a primary deposit weeks later nonetheless lands on the best marketing campaign, lander and GEO, so long as the press ID is preserved.
As a result of each visitors supply runs by the identical guidelines, you get one constant window for evaluating Meta, Google, TikTok, native and push facet by facet. With Automizer, the conversions Voluum data may also return to the advert platforms, so their algorithms optimize on extra full knowledge inside their very own attribution settings.
Voluum additionally allows you to select which day a late conversion lands on. By default, it stories conversions by go to timestamp, so a conversion that arrives two days after the go to is counted on the day of the go to, very like Google’s commonplace Conversions column. Switching conversion registration time reporting to postback timestamp counts it on the day Voluum receives it as a substitute. The choice sits in Basic Settings and applies per consumer.
Go to time is the higher lens for judging which visitors really labored. Postback time strains up extra intently with what your affiliate community or operator stories for a given day, which makes reconciling payouts simpler. Whichever you decide, anticipate your every day numbers to shift while you change.
The sensible takeaway: use the platform’s window to grasp how its algorithm sees your marketing campaign, and use your tracker’s window to determine the place the cash really got here from.
Observe Each Conversion, Not Simply the Quick Ones
Gradual conversions are nonetheless conversions. Voluum ties every one again to its unique click on for as much as 180 days and places each visitors supply on the identical scale, so that you scale what’s worthwhile relatively than what converts quickest. See how Automizer connects Voluum together with your visitors sources.
Incessantly Requested Questions
What’s the default attribution window on Meta?
Meta’s default below commonplace attribution is 7-day click on, 1-day engage-through and 1-day view. A conversion counts if it occurs inside seven days of a hyperlink click on, at some point of an engagement akin to a share or a 5-second video view, or at some point of seeing the advert. You may change the press window to 1 day and switch view-through off for every advert set.
What’s the distinction between an attribution window and a conversion window?
They describe the identical concept below totally different names. Google Advertisements calls it a conversion window and units it per conversion motion, whereas Meta calls it an attribution setting and TikTok an attribution window. In every case, it’s the variety of days after an advert interplay throughout which a conversion could be credited to that advert.
Is an extended attribution window all the time higher?
No. An extended window catches gradual patrons, nevertheless it additionally credit conversions the advert might not have prompted, which inflates reported ROAS. A shorter window is stricter however could make good campaigns with longer gross sales cycles look unprofitable. The precise size is the one which matches how lengthy your patrons often take to transform.
Does the attribution window have an effect on how my advertisements are delivered?
On some platforms, sure. Meta makes use of the attribution setting each to report outcomes and to optimize supply towards individuals prone to convert inside that window. On Google Advertisements, the conversion window shapes which conversions Good Bidding learns from. That’s why it’s greatest to decide on a window earlier than launch relatively than switching it on a stay marketing campaign.
Why does my tracker present conversions that my advert platform doesn’t?
Often as a result of the tracker’s window is longer, or as a result of it matches conversions by click on ID from postbacks the platform by no means sees. Voluum, for instance, attributes conversions to the unique click on for as much as 180 days, whereas Meta stops crediting clicks after 7 days. The reverse occurs too: platforms rely view-through and modeled conversions {that a} click-based tracker doesn’t file.
