1-Day Click Attribution vs 28-Day Click Attribution: How Wide to Go
In short: Both credit a conversion back to a click; the split is entirely in how far apart the click and the conversion are allowed to be. A 1-day window only counts action taken within 24 hours, while a 28-day window keeps the door open for a full month, catching purchases that started with a click weeks earlier. Because the 28-day window is a superset of the 1-day one, it can only report equal or higher volume for the same traffic, never less. Use the short window when buyers decide fast and you need answers fast; reach for the long one only when the sales cycle genuinely runs for weeks.
By the AdFlint research team · Fact-checked against current Google and Meta platform behavior · Last reviewed July 2026
1-Day Click Attribution
Counts a conversion only if it happens within 24 hours of the user clicking the ad, measured from the click itself.
The window opens at the click and closes 24 hours later; anything after that is invisible to the campaign. Advertisers pick it for impulse purchases, app installs, or when they want reported numbers to stay close to same-session behavior. On Meta it is the tightest setting available. The mistake is comparing a 1-day-click campaign against a 7-day-click one and concluding the creative performed worse, when only the counting rule changed.
Full definition28-Day Click Attribution
Counts a conversion occurring up to 28 days after a click, capturing longer consideration cycles that shorter windows leave unreported.
The widest of Meta's click settings, removed in 2021 alongside the iOS tracking changes and later reintroduced as a selectable option. Google Ads handles the same idea through a configurable click-through window that can run out to 90 days. Reach for it with high-consideration or high-ticket purchases. The mistake is comparing a 28-day figure against a 7-day figure from another platform and calling the gap a channel difference.
Full definitionSide by side.
The differences that actually change what happens in your account.
| 1-Day Click Attribution | 28-Day Click Attribution | |
|---|---|---|
| How far apart click and conversion can sit | 24 hours, no exceptions. | Up to 28 days between the click and the conversion. |
| Availability on the account | Always available - the tightest option offered. | Removed from ad set optimization in 2021 alongside iOS tracking changes; now viewable only as a comparison window in reporting. |
| How long before you can judge a campaign | Basically same-day. | Not fairly for close to a month. |
| Exposure to tracking signal loss | Low - the short gap needs little cross-session stitching. | Higher - a month of tracking is more exposed to the same signal loss iOS privacy limits cause elsewhere. |
| Typical fit | Impulse buys, app installs, flash sales. | Big-ticket or considered purchases with long research cycles. |
| What it costs you when wrong | Legitimate multi-week conversions never get counted at all. | You judge, or panic-pause, a campaign long before its window has actually closed. |
| Comparable Google Ads setting | A short custom click-through conversion window. | A click-through conversion window configured out to as much as 90 days. |
What actually separates them.
The 28-day window can only equal or exceed what the 1-day window reports for identical traffic, since every 24-hour conversion also falls inside 28 days.
Judging a 28-day-click campaign on day three is judging a window nowhere near closed, while a 1-day-click campaign's day-three numbers are already close to final.
Meta removed the 28-day click option from ad set optimization in 2021 alongside iOS tracking changes and has not restored it in that form, so today it shows up mainly as an attribution comparison in reporting rather than a setting you switch an ad set to the way 1-day click is.
The longer the window, the more it depends on stitching activity across weeks, which is exactly the kind of cross-session tracking iOS privacy changes made less reliable, so 28-day numbers carry more undercount risk than 1-day numbers.
A 1-day-click budget call can be made almost immediately after a campaign runs; a 28-day-click call requires holding judgment for a month, which changes how fast you can iterate.
Which one should you use?
Use 1-Day Click Attribution when
- You sell low-price items people decide on in minutes.
- You are running app installs or signups judged on immediate post-click action.
- You need a report that finalizes quickly rather than one that keeps revising for weeks.
- You are testing creative and need a fast read to iterate on.
- Your offer itself only exists for a day or two, so nothing beyond that window is relevant.
Use 28-Day Click Attribution when
- You sell big-ticket or considered purchases - furniture, education, financial services - people research for weeks.
- You are running lead gen with a long sales cycle where the click is just the first step.
- You have Conversions API or enhanced conversions set up, so the longer window is not just losing signal to browser limits.
- You are comfortable waiting a full month before making optimization calls.
- You need to catch legitimate delayed purchases, like post-payday buying, that a short window would miss entirely.
Common questions.
Is 28-day click still available on Meta?
Not as something you can set an ad set to optimize toward - Meta removed 28-day click from ad set attribution settings in 2021 alongside iOS tracking changes and has not brought it back in that form. You can still pull up a 28-day click comparison inside reporting to see how many conversions land outside your current window, which is useful context even though it will not change what the ad set is actually optimizing for.
Why not just always pick the widest window available?
A wider window delays every judgment call by weeks, makes recent-day numbers look artificially low until they fill in, and - given how iOS privacy limits affect long-range tracking - does not guarantee more accurate counting, just a longer wait for a number that is still an undercount.
Does Google Ads have something similar to 28-day click?
Yes. Google Ads uses a configurable click-through conversion window you set per conversion action, and it can run out to as much as 90 days, so the same short-versus-long tradeoff exists there under different terminology.
Or stop choosing between them.
AdFlint picks the setting, writes the ads, and keeps optimizing inside the Google and Meta accounts you already own.
Related comparisons
- 1-Day Click Attribution vs 7-Day Click Attribution
- 1-Day Click Attribution vs 1-Day View Attribution
- 1-Day Click Attribution vs View-Through Conversions
- Click-Through Conversions vs 1-Day Click Attribution
- 1-Day View Attribution vs 7-Day Click Attribution
- 7-Day Click Attribution vs 28-Day Click Attribution
- 7-Day Click Attribution vs View-Through Conversions
- 1-Day View Attribution vs View-Through Conversions