Attribution window

What it is#

An attribution window is the period after a click or impression during which a conversion will still be credited back to that interaction. A "7-day click, 1-day view" window credits a sale to an ad if the buyer clicked it within seven days, or merely saw it within one day, of converting.

The window is a measurement choice, not a fact about the world. The same campaign, the same week, produces materially different conversion counts and ROAS depending on which window is applied.

Why it matters for agencies#

Attribution windows are the most common source of the "your numbers don't match mine" conversation in client reporting. The ad platform defaults to one window; the client's analytics tool defaults to another; the CRM uses a third. None are wrong — they're answering slightly different questions — but a brief that doesn't name its window invites the client to assume the most flattering interpretation and then feel misled later.

The fix is procedural: pick a window per client, write it into the engagement's reporting standard, state it on every brief, and only change it deliberately with the change noted.

In SendBriefs specifically#

Because metric blocks render from live data tokens configured once in the template, the attribution window is set per client and stays consistent cycle to cycle — and can be displayed inline next to the metric so the client always sees which window produced the number.