What Is Meta's Default Attribution Window for Ads in 2026?

Meta's default attribution setting, applied when an ad set uses the Website conversion location with a maximize-conversions performance goal, is 7-day click-through, 1-day engage-through, and 1-day view-through — a narrower default than in prior years, after Meta removed the longer 7-day and 28-day view-through windows from Ads Manager on January 12, 2026.

What each attribution type actually credits

Click-through attribution credits a conversion when someone clicks a direct outbound link in an ad and completes the conversion action within the selected click window, one day or seven days. Engage-through attribution credits a conversion when someone interacts with the ad without clicking a link — a reaction, a comment, a share, or watching a video ad for at least five seconds — and then converts within one day. View-through attribution credits a conversion when someone is served an ad impression, takes no click or engagement action on it at all, and still converts within one day of seeing it.

The March 2026 change that split click-through and engagement

Before March 2026, Meta's click-through attribution blended actual link clicks together with other engagement signals. Since that update, click-through attribution counts only actual clicks on a link — to a website, an app, a lead form, or a shop — while the new engage-through category was introduced specifically to capture the non-link interactions and video views that used to be folded into the click-through number. That reclassification alone can shift how a campaign's attributed conversions are split across categories, even with total conversion volume unchanged.

What disappeared in January 2026

Meta eliminated the 7-day view and 28-day view attribution windows entirely. Advertisers who had been relying on those longer view-through windows to credit ads for influence that showed up well after the impression — common for higher-consideration purchases — lost that visibility once the options were removed, since 1-day view is now the only view-through window Meta offers.

Why this matters for campaign evaluation

A campaign that looked strong under a 7-day or 28-day view-through window, because it was picking up conversions from people who saw the ad and converted later without clicking, will show fewer attributed conversions under the current 1-day-only view setting — not because performance changed, but because the measurement window shrank. Comparing this year's attributed conversion counts against last year's numbers without accounting for that structural change risks reading a measurement shift as a performance decline.

What to check in Ads Manager

The attribution setting is configured per ad set, so it's worth confirming which window is actually active rather than assuming the default: 1-day click is available as a narrower alternative to 7-day click, useful for products with a short, low-consideration purchase decision where a week-long click window risks crediting the ad for conversions it had little real influence over.

Bottom Line

Confirm which attribution window each ad set is actually running under rather than assuming last year's defaults still apply, and when comparing performance across a period that spans January or March 2026, treat any shift in attributed conversions as a possible measurement change first before concluding campaign performance moved.