Attribution windows define how long after an ad interaction a platform will claim credit for a conversion. A wider window means more conversions claimed. A narrower window means fewer. Here is a direct comparison of the default attribution windows across the major ad platforms — and what each one means for how you should interpret reported conversion data.
Attribution Window Comparison Table
| Platform | Click-Through Window | View-Through Window | Default Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Ads | 7 days | 1 day | Last Touch |
| Google Ads | 30 days | 1 day (if enabled) | Data-Driven / Last Click |
| GA4 | Session-based | N/A | Last Click (or DDA) |
| TikTok Ads | 7 days | 1 day | Last Touch |
| LinkedIn Ads | 30 days | 7 days | Last Touch |
| Pinterest Ads | 30 days | 1 day | Last Touch |
| Snapchat Ads | 28 days | 1 day | Last Touch |
| X (Twitter) Ads | 30 days | 1 day | Last Touch |
| Microsoft Ads | 30 days | Not default | Last Click |
What These Defaults Mean in Practice
Meta’s 7-day click is tighter than most
Meta reduced its default from 28-day click to 7-day click in January 2021. This was partly a response to iOS 14+ privacy changes and partly an effort to improve measurement accuracy. Meta’s current 7-day click window is more conservative than Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, and X.
A customer who clicks a Meta ad and purchases 8 days later will not be counted as a Meta conversion under default settings. This makes Meta’s numbers more conservative than most other platforms for click-through attribution.
LinkedIn’s 7-day view is the widest in the industry
LinkedIn’s 7-day view-through window is significantly wider than every other major platform. Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat all use 1-day view. LinkedIn giving 7 days means a user who scrolled past a LinkedIn sponsored post on Monday and purchased on the following Sunday is counted as a LinkedIn conversion — even if they clicked a Google ad on Saturday.
For most B2B advertisers, LinkedIn’s native conversion numbers should be treated with particular skepticism because of this wider view window combined with the professional browsing context (users are not actively in purchase mode on LinkedIn).
Google Ads’ 30-day click is the widest click window
A 30-day click window means Google claims any purchase within 30 days of clicking a Google ad. For a shopping or brand search campaign where the user clicked with clear purchase intent, a long window makes sense — they are likely to buy from you soon. For a Google Display campaign where the click was more accidental, 30 days is very generous.
GA4’s session-based attribution is the strictest
GA4 attributes based on the session: the visit that triggered the conversion. If a user visited your site from a Google Ads click on Monday and returned directly on Wednesday to purchase, GA4 (last-click) gives credit to direct / (none) — the channel of the converting session. This is stricter than any platform-native attribution and makes Google appear to drive less revenue in GA4 than in Google Ads Manager.
How to Normalise Attribution Windows for Fair Comparison
If you want to compare performance across platforms on an equal basis, change all platforms to the same attribution window settings:
- Click-through: 7 days (Meta’s current default is a reasonable standard)
- View-through: 1 day (common across most platforms)
To change LinkedIn from 30-day to 7-day click: go to LinkedIn Campaign Manager → conversion goal settings → adjust click attribution window.
To change Google Ads from 30-day to 7-day click: go to conversion goal settings → attribution window → select 7 days.
After normalising, your platform numbers will be more directly comparable — though attribution overlap between platforms will still exist.
The Most Reliable Cross-Platform Benchmark
Regardless of which windows each platform uses natively, GA4 with UTM parameters provides the most consistent cross-platform comparison: last-click, session-based, the same rule applied to every channel. Combined with Shopify total revenue as your ground truth, this gives you a clear picture that no platform’s native reporting can provide.
Book your free Shopify tracking audit here and we will set up consistent UTM tracking across all your platforms so GA4 gives you comparable performance data across every channel.