Glossary
Attribution window: 1, 7 or 28 days and what changes
An attribution window sets how long after the click a conversion still counts. What changes between 1, 7 and 28 days, and which one fits your sales cycle.
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An attribution window is the period during which a conversion still counts for the ad the person saw or clicked. Outside that period, the sale happens and does not appear in the platform's report. It is the setting that changes the most numbers while changing nothing about the business.
How it works
Meta Ads runs two counts at once:
- Click. The person clicked the ad and converted within 1 or 7 days.
- View. The person only saw the ad, never clicked, and converted within 1 day.
The current default is 7-day click and 1-day view. Google Ads uses different logic and different periods, which alone guarantees the two reports will never reconcile.
What changes between 1, 7 and 28 days
| Window | What it favors | The risk |
|---|---|---|
| 1-day click | Fast decisions, short cycles | Underestimates anyone who thinks before buying |
| 7-day click | Balanced reading, market default | Still misses long cycles |
| 28-day click | Long cycles, high ticket | Credits today sales originated weeks ago |
The choice is not technical, it is commercial: it should fit the time your customer takes to decide. A service closed same-day does not need 28 days. A four-week B2B contract is invisible at 1 day.
The mistake that costs money
Changing the window in the middle of a comparison. The number moves, someone reads it as improvement or decline, and budget shifts because of a setting.
The short rule: fix the window, state it in the report, and do not touch it without telling anyone. If you must change it, rebuild the previous period on the new window before comparing.
Why it never matches the CRM
Because they are different rulers. The platform credits by window; the CRM credits by the source recorded at signup; GA4 credits by yet another model. All three are right inside their own rules and none of them is the other.
What works is having one ruler for budget decisions — sales by source, from the sales team — and using platform numbers to track each channel against itself. The related reading is in UTM parameters for ads and last-click attribution.
To build tracking with the window declared, the template is on the paid media reporting page.
Frequently asked questions
What is an attribution window?
The period after an interaction with your ad during which a conversion is still credited to it. Outside the window the same sale happens and simply does not appear in the platform's report.
Which window should I use in Meta Ads?
Seven days after the click is the default that fits most accounts. Short sales cycles can read at one day; long cycles gain information at twenty-eight, as long as everyone knows the number includes older sales.
Does changing the window change the real result?
No. It changes what the report shows. The sales are the same; what moves is how many of them the platform claims.