What is an Attribution Window?
An attribution window (also called a lookback window or conversion window) is the time period after a user interacts with an ad during which a subsequent conversion can be attributed to that ad.
How It Works
When someone clicks your ad on Monday and purchases on Thursday, should the ad get credit? The attribution window answers this question. If your window is 7 days, yes — the click happened within the window. If your window is 1 day, no — the purchase happened outside the window.
Different platforms use different default attribution windows. Meta defaults to 7-day click / 1-day view (meaning a conversion counts if it happens within 7 days of a click or 1 day of viewing the ad). Google Ads defaults to 30-day click. LinkedIn uses 30-day click / 7-day view. TikTok uses 7-day click / 1-day view. These differences mean the same conversion can be counted by multiple platforms.
Attribution windows interact with attribution models (first-click, last-click, data-driven) to determine not just whether an ad gets credit, but how much credit it gets when multiple touchpoints are involved. The combination of window length and attribution model can dramatically change how your campaign performance appears in reports.
Why It Matters for Advertisers
Attribution windows are the single biggest reason why numbers do not match across platforms. If a user clicks a Meta ad, then clicks a Google ad, then purchases, both platforms may claim the conversion. Meta says "I showed them the product first" and Google says "I was the last click before purchase."
Understanding attribution windows is essential for accurate budget allocation. Without this understanding, you might overcount conversions by 20-40% when summing across platforms, leading to inflated ROAS and overly optimistic CPA numbers. This is one of the most common mistakes in multi-platform advertising.
How Ad Superpowers Helps
Ad Superpowers includes a cross-platform attribution reconciler skill that helps you understand how different attribution windows affect your numbers. Ask "Reconcile my conversion data across Meta and Google Ads this month" and get a clear picture of where the overlap is and what your deduplicated numbers likely look like.
We also let you query each platform with its native attribution settings, so you can compare 7-day click Meta data against 30-day click Google data side by side and understand the gap.
Related Terms
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is a marketing metric that measures the revenue earned for every unit of currency spent on advertising. A ROAS of 4x means you earn four dollars for every dollar spent.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
Cost per Acquisition (CPA) is the average amount you spend on advertising to generate one conversion, whether that is a purchase, a lead, a signup, or any other defined action.
Conversion API (CAPI)
A Conversion API (CAPI) is a server-side tracking method that sends conversion events directly from your server to an ad platform's servers, bypassing browser-based tracking limitations like cookie blocking and ad blockers.
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