What is a view-through conversion?
A view-through conversion is a sale credited to an ad that someone saw but did not click. Here is how Google Ads and Meta count them, a worked example of how they change ROAS, and when to trust them.
A view-through conversion is a conversion credited to an ad that a person saw but did not click, provided the conversion happens within a set view-through window after the impression. It captures the influence of video, display and social ads that people watch without clicking. It also counts some sales that would have happened anyway, so treat it with care.
How are view-through conversions counted?
Google's view-through conversions article describes them as cases "when customers view, but don't interact with your ad, and then later complete a conversion." Google excludes people who also interacted with any of your other ads, and reports view-throughs in the "View-through conversions" and "All conversions" columns rather than "Conversions", except for Performance Max for store goals, App and Demand Gen campaigns.
| Platform | Default view window | In headline results? |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | 1 day | Mostly no, reported separately |
| Meta Ads | 1 day | Yes, in the default setting |
Google's default comes from its conversion windows article. Meta's default setting is 7-day click plus 1-day view, per its Marketing API reference, and its 7-day and 28-day view windows stopped returning data on January 12, 2026.
View-through conversion example
An illustrative UK ad set spends £2,000. Purchases within 7 days of a click are worth £5,200, a ROAS of 2.6. Purchases within a day of a view add £3,000, so the platform reports £8,200 and a ROAS of 4.1. The question is how much of that £3,000 would have happened without the ad.
Pitfalls
- Retargeting inflates them: people already on their way to buy see the ad and convert anyway.
- Double counting: a sale credited to a Meta view can also be claimed by a Google search click.
- Analytics can't see them: your web analytics records visits, not impressions on other platforms.
Related terms
See attribution window, incrementality and ROAS.
How Grower helps
Grower's attribution engine de-duplicates conversions from every connected channel and app into one count, so a sale claimed by one platform's view and another's click is counted once.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between click-through and view-through conversions?
A click-through conversion follows a click on the ad, within the click window. A view-through conversion follows an impression with no click, within the shorter view window. Click-throughs show direct response. View-throughs suggest influence but are weaker evidence, because the person might have converted without ever seeing the ad.
Should I include view-through conversions in ROAS?
Report them, but separately. Judge budgets on click-based or de-duplicated results, and treat view-throughs as a signal to test. If a channel's ROAS depends mostly on view-throughs, run a holdout or lift test before scaling it, so you know how many of those conversions the ads actually caused.
How long is a view-through window?
The default is 1 day on both Google Ads and Meta. Google lets you set a custom view-through window per conversion action, from 1 to 30 days. A longer window credits more conversions to views, which makes video and display look stronger without any change in what customers did, so keep windows consistent when you compare.
Count each sale once, whether it came from a click or a view: book a Grower demo, or read why GA4, Meta and Google Ads disagree.