Meta Ads Attribution Windows Explained: 7-Day Click vs 1-Day Click
Your sales did not change when the window did. Here is what each setting counts, how it changes delivery, and how to pick one for your D2C brand.
What an attribution window actually does
An attribution window is the time limit Meta uses to decide whether a purchase gets credited to an ad. With 7-day click, a purchase counts if it happens within seven days of someone clicking your ad. With 1-day click, it only counts if it happens within 24 hours of the click. The order in your store admin is the same either way. Only the credit changes.
The setting does two jobs, and most founders only know about the first. It decides what Ads Manager reports. It also tells the delivery system what a win looks like. An ad set on 1-day click is asked to find people who buy fast. An ad set on 7-day click is allowed to find people who take a few days to decide. So the window is not just a reporting filter. It changes who sees your ads.
The attribution settings Meta offers in 2026
For a website purchase campaign, the default is 7-day click, 1-day engage-through and 1-day view. You can narrow it down to click-only windows when you set up the ad set.
- Longer windows are gone. 28-day click was removed years ago, and 7-day view and 28-day view stopped reporting on 12 January 2026.
- If an old report or agency deck shows 28-day numbers, it cannot be compared with anything you see in Ads Manager today.
| Setting | What gets counted | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| 7-day click + 1-day engage-through + 1-day view (default) | Purchases within 7 days of a link click, within 1 day of a non-link engagement, or within 1 day of seeing the ad | Most purchase campaigns, especially video-heavy accounts |
| 7-day click | Only purchases within 7 days of a link click | Founders who want a stricter read without starving delivery |
| 1-day click | Only purchases within 24 hours of a link click | Impulse buys, low-ticket products, flash sales and drops |
| 1-day click + 1-day view | Purchases within a day of a click or a view | Fast-decision products where view credit is still wanted |
7-day click vs 1-day click, side by side
The second last row catches many founders out. Under 7-day click, yesterday's ROAS is not final. A person who clicked yesterday and buys on Saturday gets credited back to yesterday. Judge a 7-day click ad set on a week that has fully closed, not on this morning's dashboard.
| 7-day click | 1-day click | |
|---|---|---|
| Purchases counted | Click today, buy any time in the next 7 days | Click today, buy within 24 hours |
| Reported purchases and ROAS | Higher, because more orders fall inside the window | Lower, because slower buyers drop out of the count |
| Who delivery chases | Buyers who research, compare and come back | Buyers who decide on the spot |
| Signals for learning | More conversion events per week | Fewer events, so learning takes longer |
| Recent days in reports | Keep rising for a week as late orders arrive | Settle within a day |
| Best for | Considered and mid to high ticket products | Cheap, simple, urgent offers |
What changed in 2026, and why your numbers moved
Two changes this year moved reported results for many Indian D2C accounts without any change in real sales.
January 2026: the 7-day and 28-day view windows were removed from reporting and the API. Brands that used to report on wider view windows saw purchases fall overnight.
March 2026: Meta tightened what a click means. Click-through now only counts link clicks, the clicks that take someone to your site. Likes, comments, shares, saves and other non-link clicks moved into a renamed bucket called engage-through, together with engaged video views, which now trigger after five seconds instead of ten. Engage-through uses a 1-day window and sits inside the default setting.
So if you run 7-day click only, a buyer who saved your reel and purchased two days later used to count as a click conversion and now does not count at all. If you run the default, they may count under engage-through but only within a day. Read your reports with these dates in mind before you blame the creative or the agency.
Which window should an Indian D2C brand use?
For most purchase campaigns, keep 7-day click as the base. Indian buyers often click, read reviews, check the same product on a marketplace, ask family on WhatsApp, wait for salary day or a festive sale, and then buy. A 1-day window throws all of that away and asks Meta to ignore those buyers.
- Considered categories (jewellery, electronics, furniture, premium skincare): stay on 7-day click. The decision rarely happens in one sitting.
- Low-ticket, impulse products (snacks, accessories, single-product offers): test 1-day click against 7-day click. It can push delivery towards faster buyers.
- Short sales and drops (a 48-hour Diwali offer, a limited restock): 1-day click matches the real buying window.
- Low-volume accounts: a narrower window means fewer purchases for the system to learn from, so ad sets take longer to exit learning and may never settle.
- Heavy video and reels accounts: keep the default so engage-through and view credit are visible, then judge it against store data, not on faith.
How to switch windows without wrecking the account
- Look before you switch. In Ads Manager, use Columns, then Compare attribution settings, to see 1-day click, 7-day click and 1-day view results side by side. This changes the report only, not delivery.
- Switch on a new ad set. In most accounts the setting is locked once an ad set is live, so a change means duplicating it. The duplicate starts learning from zero, so plan for a few unsteady days. See why performance drops after edits.
- Never compare across windows. A 7-day click month against a 1-day click month will always look like a crash. Note the window on every report you share.
- Change one thing at a time. Do not change the window, budget and creative in the same week, or you will not know what moved the numbers.
Check Meta's number against your store
No window tells you what your ads truly caused. Each one is a rule for handing out credit. The honest check is your store: compare total orders and revenue in your store backend with total ad spend across the same full weeks. If Meta's ROAS fell after a switch but store revenue and spend held steady, you have a reporting change, not a performance problem.
Two India-specific gaps are worth knowing. Meta reports a purchase against the date of the ad click or view, not the order date, so daily totals will not line up with your store's order report. And Meta counts the order when it is placed, so cancelled and returned cash on delivery orders stay in the count under every window. Clean tracking matters more than the window you choose: set up Meta CAPI tracking with proper deduplication, and if counts still look off, work through why Meta purchases do not match store orders.
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Questions
Does changing the attribution window change my actual sales?+
Not directly. It changes how many orders Meta credits to your ads and who the system tries to reach, but the orders in your store stay the same unless delivery shifts over the following weeks.
Why did my ROAS drop when I switched from 7-day click to 1-day click?+
Buyers who clicked and purchased on day two to day seven no longer count, so reported purchases and ROAS fall. Check store revenue against total spend before you assume the ads got worse.
Which attribution window is best for a D2C brand in India?+
For purchase campaigns, 7-day click (inside the default setting) suits most brands because Indian buyers often take a few days to decide. Test 1-day click only for impulse products or short sales.
Can I see 1-day click results without changing my ad set?+
Yes. Use Compare attribution settings in the Ads Manager columns to view 1-day click, 7-day click and 1-day view results next to each other, with no effect on delivery.
What happened to 28-day and 7-day view attribution?+
28-day click was removed years ago, and 7-day view and 28-day view stopped reporting on 12 January 2026. Old reports using them cannot be compared with current numbers.
Does Meta remove cancelled or RTO cash on delivery orders?+
No. The purchase is counted when the order is placed, under every window. Track delivered orders in your store or logistics data to see the real picture.
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