Attribution window
A sale made up to 30 days after an ad click is tied to that click, even when the visitor comes back directly. 30 days is the default. You can choose 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days.
What it changes
Shoppers often click an ad, leave, and come back days later by typing your address, from a bookmark or from an email. That last visit carries no ad click ID, so on its own the sale would reach the ad platform without the click that brought the shopper.
Whence remembers the paid clicks of each visitor. A visit counts as paid when its address carries an ad click ID (such as gclid, fbclid, ttclid or msclkid) or a paid utm_medium (such as cpc, ppc, paid or display). When a purchase arrives with no click ID of its own, Whence adds one before sending it:
- the visitor’s first paid click, if it falls within the window before the purchase;
- otherwise their last paid click, if it falls within the window;
- otherwise nothing: the purchase goes out without a click ID.
If the checkout itself carried a click ID, that one is kept and the window plays no part.
The window only decides which click ID travels with a purchase sent to your ad platforms. Each platform still applies its own attribution settings to the sales it receives.
Change it
Step 1: Open Conversions
Open Conversions (in the Advanced menu, Marketing > Conversions) and scroll to the First-party tracking card. On a store that is neither on Shopify nor on WordPress, the card is called Attribution window.
Step 2: Pick a window
Under Attribution window, choose the number of days in the list. Whence confirms with “Attribution window saved.” The sentence above the list updates, for example “A sale made up to 14 days after an ad click is tied to that click, even when the visitor comes back directly.”
Changing it needs the Settings right. Without it, the list is grayed out and reads “Changing it needs the Settings right.” If saving fails, the list goes back to the previous value and shows “The attribution window was not saved.” Each change is written to the account’s audit log. See The eight rights.
How long clicks are kept
A visitor must be recognized when they come back for the window to work. Safari forgets a visitor after 7 days unless your store’s server sets the identifier: see First-party tracking and ad blockers. Ad click IDs are erased after 90 days, the longest window. A recognized visitor’s record is deleted 13 months after their first visit.
The new window applies to purchases sent from then on. Purchases already sent to a platform are not sent again.