Click-Through vs. View-Through Attribution

Click-through attribution counts a conversion only when the customer clicked a link or ad before converting, within a defined window, commonly 7 days. View-through attribution instead credits a conversion to an ad the person saw but never clicked, usually within a much shorter window like 1 day, on the assumption the impression still influenced the decision.

The distinction matters because click-only attribution undercounts the influence of ads and organic posts that someone scrolls past without clicking but still remembers later, while a generous view-through window can hand credit to ads for conversions that would have happened anyway. In practice, most platforms already report a blend of both by default rather than either model alone, and reporting windows have gotten shorter across the board as platforms retire longer view-through options.

Check which window a dashboard is using before comparing numbers across platforms, since they are almost never configured the same way. Lean more on click-through for considered, higher-price purchases people rarely buy without clicking through first, and treat view-through-heavy numbers as a directional influence signal rather than a hard sales count.