Conversion Lag Windows by Channel: Aligning Meta, Google, TikTok, Pinterest

Cross-channel campaign analysis requires every platform to declare its attributed revenue against a consistent window. Meta defaults to 7-day click + 1-day view. Google's default depends on conversion type (1-day for app installs, longer for purchases). TikTok defaults to 7-day click + 1-day view. Pinterest defaults to 30-day click + 1-day view. Comparing Meta's ROAS to Google's ROAS without aligning their windows is comparing apples to oranges.

This post walks through each platform's default attribution windows, the technical reasons they differ, and how to set them so cross-channel comparisons are apples-to-apples. We also cover what to do when alignment is impossible (one platform doesn't offer your preferred window) and the special handling required for view-through conversions.

The technical reality — platform-by-platform windows

Meta

Meta's Attribution Setting docs describe the available attribution windows on the ad-set level:

• 1-day click (most conservative, fastest signal)
• 7-day click (Meta's default and most-used)
• 1-day view + 1-day click
• 7-day click + 1-day view (the legacy "iOS 14.5 default" pre-2021)

Note Meta no longer offers a 28-day click window for new ad accounts after the iOS 14.5 changes (April 2021) — pre-existing accounts may still have it, but new accounts cap at 7-day click. View-through windows are capped at 1 day. The attribution setting is set per ad set, not per campaign — you can run two ad sets in the same campaign at different windows, but you should not, because the reporting becomes incomparable.

Google Ads

Google's Attribution Models docs describe a wider menu:

• Last Click (default for most conversion actions — credit to the last click)
• First Click
• Linear (equal split across clicks)
• Time Decay (more credit to clicks closer to conversion)
• Position-Based
• Data-Driven (Google's ML model, requires conversion volume threshold)

Click windows for Google range from 1 day to 90 days, set per conversion action under "Conversion settings > Click-through conversion window." Default is 30 days for purchase conversions; 1 day for app installs. View-through window is configurable 1-30 days, default 1 day. Google's view-through conversions docs detail the cross-device matching behavior.

TikTok

TikTok's Attribution Settings docs offer:

• 1-day click
• 7-day click
• 14-day click
• 28-day click
• 1-day view
• 7-day view

Default is 7-day click + 1-day view. View-through windows on TikTok are more permissive than Meta's (TikTok allows up to 7-day view). The setting is per ad group, not per campaign — same per-ad-set granularity rule as Meta.

Pinterest

Pinterest's Conversion Reporting docs offer:

• 30-day click (default)
• 7-day click
• 1-day click
• 30-day engagement (Pinterest-unique: a "Pin save" counts as engagement)
• 30-day view

Pinterest is the outlier in its 30-day default, reflecting the platform's longer-consideration use case. Cross-channel comparison requires explicitly setting Pinterest down to 7-day click.

What this means for cross-channel comparison

If you read each platform's dashboard at default settings, you get a ROAS comparison where:

• Pinterest gets 30 days of click + 30 days of engagement + 30 days of view credit
• Meta gets 7 days of click + 1 day of view
• Google gets 30 days of click + 1 day of view (default for purchase)
• TikTok gets 7 days of click + 1 day of view

Pinterest's apparent ROAS is therefore systematically inflated relative to Meta's. Google's is somewhere between. TikTok and Meta are comparable to each other but not to Pinterest. Any conclusion you draw about "channel X is performing better than channel Y" at default settings is partially an artifact of window inconsistency.

Why it matters for DTC attribution

The misalignment has two real-world consequences:

1. Mis-allocated budget. If Pinterest reports 4x ROAS on its 30-day click window and Meta reports 2x on its 7-day window, an unsophisticated read concludes Pinterest is the better channel — and a budget shift toward Pinterest follows. The honest comparison (both at 7-day click) might show Pinterest at 2.8x — better, but not by 2x. A 2x mis-read is enough to scale Pinterest spend past its real diminishing-returns point.

2. Double-counting in blended attribution. A 30-day click on Pinterest plus a 7-day click on Meta plus a 30-day click on Google can all attribute the same purchase: the customer clicked a Pinterest pin 25 days ago, a Meta ad 5 days ago, and a Google ad yesterday. Each platform's dashboard claims the conversion. Your blended dashboard adds them up and reports 3x the truth. The bigger the click-window mismatch, the more overlap.

The right response is not "use the shortest window on every platform" — short windows penalize consideration-stage channels and bias spend toward last-click. The right response is to align the window for cross-channel comparison while letting each platform report its longest-meaningful window for internal optimization.

Methodology — how to align windows

Step 1 — Pick a canonical comparison window. 7-day click is the sweet spot for most DTC: long enough that high-consideration channels (Pinterest, YouTube) get fair credit, short enough that the multi-platform overlap is manageable. AOV-heavy categories (furniture, jewelry) may justify 14-day click for cross-channel comparison; AOV-light categories (consumables) may justify 3-day click. Pick one and document it.

Step 2 — Set each platform's reporting window to your canonical.

• Meta: ad-set level, "Attribution setting → 7-day click."
• Google: per-conversion-action, "Conversion settings → Click-through conversion window → 7 days."
• TikTok: ad-group level, "Attribution → 7-day click."
• Pinterest: ad-group level, "Attribution window → 7-day click."

Step 3 — Leave view-through alone. Each platform's view-through model is so different that view-through can't be aligned. Cross-channel comparison should be done on click-only attribution. Reserve view-through analysis for within-platform discussion ("did our Meta video ad get view-through credit?").

Step 4 — Pull each platform's reporting at the new window and recompute ROAS. Compare. Expect 10-30% shifts in apparent ROAS for the longest-window platforms (Pinterest, Google).

Step 5 — Run blended attribution on the same window. Your blended dashboard — whether built in Triple Whale, Northbeam, or in-house — should also pull each platform at the 7-day window so the blended math doesn't double-count from inconsistent windows.

Step 6 — Document the deviation when needed. If a channel manager argues "Pinterest needs the 30-day window because Pinterest engagement is longer-cycle," that's defensible within Pinterest's internal optimization, but cross-channel comparison still uses the 7-day. Document both numbers.

Illustrative scenario — apparent ROAS shift after alignment

Imagine a DTC home-goods brand running Meta + Google + Pinterest + TikTok. Their default-windows dashboard reports:

• Meta: $80K spend, $190K attributed revenue, 2.4x ROAS (7-day click default)
• Google: $40K spend, $145K attributed revenue, 3.6x ROAS (30-day click default)
• Pinterest: $15K spend, $72K attributed revenue, 4.8x ROAS (30-day click default)
• TikTok: $25K spend, $48K attributed revenue, 1.9x ROAS (7-day click default)

Conclusion at default: Pinterest is the best channel by ROAS, Google is second, Meta is third, TikTok is fourth. Budget recommendation: scale Pinterest aggressively.

After aligning all four platforms to 7-day click:

• Meta: $190K → $185K (~3% drop from 7-day-click-only filtering, marginal)
• Google: $145K → $108K (a substantial drop — the 30-day window credited 30 days of pre-click consideration that the 7-day window doesn't see)
• Pinterest: $72K → $38K (a large drop — Pinterest's 30-day window inflated apparent revenue by ~90%)
• TikTok: $48K → $48K (no change — already 7-day click)

Recomputed ROAS:

• Meta: $185K / $80K = 2.31x
• Google: $108K / $40K = 2.70x
• Pinterest: $38K / $15K = 2.53x
• TikTok: $48K / $25K = 1.92x

The honest comparison: Google is best, Pinterest second, Meta third, TikTok fourth. Pinterest is not 2x Meta's performance — it's about even with Google and slightly better than Meta. The "scale Pinterest aggressively" recommendation is wrong, and a $15K → $30K Pinterest scale at the diminishing-returns point would likely fall to 1.5x. The numbers above are illustrative; the direction of the shift after window-alignment is consistent across the accounts we benchmark.

What we do at Admaxxer

Admaxxer pulls every platform's attributed revenue at a configurable, account-default window and reports a single normalized ROAS in the dashboard. Our attribution models doc walks through the underlying math; the marketing acquisition view shows blended channel performance with the windows aligned by default. For brands that want the within-platform longer-window number for internal optimization, we surface both ("normalized 7-day" and "platform default") side-by-side so the comparison and the optimization story can coexist. The metric glossary defines every window-related term we use.

FAQ

What's the right click window for my brand?

It depends on your typical purchase-cycle length. Consumables / fashion: 3-7 days. Beauty / supplements: 7 days. Home goods / electronics: 7-14 days. Furniture / jewelry / B2B: 14-30 days. The right window is roughly the 90th-percentile of your customers' time-from-first-click to first-purchase. Pull this from your Shopify + ad-platform data.

Should I use Data-Driven Attribution on Google?

Data-Driven Attribution (DDA) is Google's ML model that distributes credit across touchpoints. It's a model, not a window — DDA still operates within a configured click window (default 30 days). DDA is useful for within-Google optimization but makes cross-channel comparison harder because Meta, TikTok, Pinterest all use last-click within their windows. For apples-to-apples comparison, use Last Click within a 7-day window on Google.

What about TikTok's longer attribution windows (14-day, 28-day click)?

TikTok offers them, but they aren't the default and shouldn't be used for cross-channel comparison. They're useful if you genuinely believe TikTok is a consideration channel for your audience — but even then, the cross-channel dashboard should use 7-day click.

Does view-through really matter?

View-through gets argued about a lot. Our experience: view-through credit on Meta (1-day) and Google (1-day) is a small absolute share of attributed conversions (typically under 10% of the total) and generally not worth the cross-channel headache. We default to click-only for cross-channel comparison and let each platform's view-through credit live within its own dashboard.

How does the iOS 14.5 ATT change interact with attribution windows?

ATT primarily affects view-through measurement and lookalike modeling on iOS, not click-window attribution per se. A user who clicks a Meta ad and converts within 7 days is still attributed to that click, even if ATT prevented Meta from seeing the user's broader Apple ad-graph profile. Click windows are largely unaffected; view-through windows are what got harder.

What if my platforms don't all offer the same window?

Pick the closest available. Meta caps at 7-day click on new accounts; if you need 14-day for cross-channel comparison, Meta is your limiting factor and you set everything to 7-day. If you need 1-day (unusual but possible for fast-cycle DTC), every platform offers it.

Do these windows apply to my Klaviyo email attribution too?

No. Email attribution is its own model — Klaviyo's 5-day default click window is independent of ad-platform attribution windows. See our Klaviyo Flow vs Campaign Revenue post for the email-specific methodology.