Attribution & Conversion Counting

7-Day Click Attribution vs 28-Day Click Attribution: How Long to Wait

In short: Both windows credit a conversion back to a click; the split is how many extra weeks of runway that click gets before the door closes. Seven days is Meta's standard default and covers most normal decision cycles, while 28 days reaches into month-long research and high-consideration purchases. Because 28-day is a superset of 7-day, it can only report equal or higher volume on the same traffic, never less, but it also takes roughly four times longer to settle and leans on more cross-session tracking that privacy changes have made less reliable. Stay on the 7-day default unless your buyers genuinely take weeks to decide.

By the AdFlint research team · Fact-checked against current Google and Meta platform behavior · Last reviewed July 2026

7-Day Click Attribution

Counts a conversion that happens within seven days of a click on the ad, credited back to the day of the click.

Meta's default click window, and the reason reported results for recent days keep rising: conversions are attributed to the date of the click, not the date of the purchase, so yesterday's numbers are still filling in a week later. Use it when the buying decision takes days rather than minutes. The common error is judging a campaign's first few days before the window has closed.

Full definition

28-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 definition

Side by side.

The differences that actually change what happens in your account.

	7-Day Click Attribution	28-Day Click Attribution
How long the window runs	Seven days from the click.	Up to 28 days from the click.
Default status on Meta	The standard default, available on every account.	Removed from ad set optimization in 2021 alongside iOS tracking changes; now viewable only as a comparison window in reporting.
How soon numbers settle	Largely final about a week after spend.	Not fairly final for close to a month.
Exposure to tracking signal loss	Moderate - a week of cross-session tracking is fairly reliable.	Higher - three extra weeks of stitching is more exposed to the same loss iOS privacy limits cause.
Typical fit	Normal consideration purchases, most ecommerce and lead gen.	High-ticket or long-research purchases: furniture, education, B2B.
What it costs you when wrong	Misses genuinely delayed conversions that take longer than a week.	Delays every optimization call by weeks for a number that may still be an undercount.
Comparable Google Ads setting	A mid-length click-through conversion window.	A click-through conversion window configured toward its longer end, up to 90 days.

What actually separates them.

Every conversion counted in the 7-day window also counts in the 28-day window for the same traffic, so 28-day click will always report equal to or more conversions than 7-day click, never fewer.

7-day click is Meta's standard default and something every ad set can actually run on, while 28-day click was removed from ad set optimization in 2021 and now lives mainly in reporting as a comparison window rather than a setting an ad set can be switched to.

A 7-day-click campaign's numbers are largely settled a week after spend runs; a 28-day-click campaign asks you to wait roughly four times longer before treating the number as final.

The extra three weeks of tracking that 28-day click relies on are more exposed to the same signal loss that iOS privacy restrictions cause for cross-session tracking generally, so its reported numbers carry more undercount risk than 7-day's.

Switching from 7-day to 28-day changes what the bidding algorithm optimizes toward, not just what gets reported, since a wider window includes different, typically slower-converting people in what counts as a win.

Which one should you use?

Use 7-Day Click Attribution when

You sell a considered purchase where people click, leave, and come back within about a week.
You want Meta's standard click setting rather than a widened custom one.
You are comfortable holding judgment for a week before reacting to early numbers.
Your buyers decide over days, not the same session, but rarely take longer than a week.
You need conversions that happen after someone abandons and returns to buy within days.

Use 28-Day Click Attribution when

You sell big-ticket or considered purchases people research for weeks before buying.
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 wider window is not just losing signal.
You are comfortable waiting close to a month before making optimization calls.
You need to catch legitimate delayed purchases, like post-payday buying, that a week-long window would miss.

Common questions.

Why would I use 28-day instead of the 7-day default?

If your buyers routinely take longer than a week to decide - big-ticket items, B2B, long research cycles - the 7-day window cuts off before many real conversions happen, undercounting the campaign's true effect. The 28-day setting gives those slower deciders room to convert and still get credited.

Does a longer window always show better performance?

It will show equal or more conversions for the same spend, since it is a superset of the shorter window, but 'better' depends on whether those extra conversions are worth the extra weeks of waiting and the added undercount risk from longer tracking dependency.

Is 28-day click available in every ad account?

Not as a live setting an ad set can run on - Meta removed it from ad set optimization in 2021 alongside iOS tracking changes and has not restored it there. It still exists as a comparison window inside reporting, so you can see what conversions would look like under it, but plan your actual bid strategy around a window the ad set can genuinely be configured to use.

Or stop choosing between them.

AdFlint picks the setting, writes the ads, and keeps optimizing inside the Google and Meta accounts you already own.

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