Attribution is basically how an action, often a conversion (like a purchase or lead), is credited to different channels. Different attribution settings apply to different industries, customer journeys, and the roles of various channels.
One reason Meta's numbers are often higher is due to what triggers attribution. There are two main types:
- Click-through attribution: When someone clicks on your ad.
- View-through attribution: When someone sees your ad but doesn’t click.
Meta’s default attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view. This means Meta will count a conversion if someone clicked your ad within 7 days or viewed it within 1 day, even if they didn’t convert immediately. Meta implements this to demonstrate the full value of its platform, capturing its influence over the entire customer journey.
You can already see how this differs from GA4, and even more so from CRM systems, which typically use last-click attribution that only credits the final channel a user clicked before converting.
This is a common challenge for paid social, but it comes down to the role of social channels. While social can drive strong lower-funnel conversions, it also plays a key role in building awareness, generating interest, and moving users through the funnel from cold audiences to consideration, and eventually to conversion. So solely looking at conversions driven directly from social channels doesn’t give a realistic picture of the impact the channel has had in increasing ad recall, product consideration, and search intent.
Meta's New Attribution Updates
Coming back to attribution, Meta is now updating how it defines these “triggers.” Click-through attribution will be narrowed from all clicks (including likes, shares, and other interactions) to link clicks only (clicks that take a user to a website). Non-link interactions will now fall under engaged-through attribution, which replaces the old "engaged-view" attribution.
There are no changes to view-through attribution.
What does this mean for us?
In the short term, as this change rolls out (from March), performance may fluctuate. Under Meta’s default attribution, you may see lower reported conversions, a lower Conversion Rate (CVR), and a higher Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). It’s important to communicate that this is a platform-wide change and will impact all advertisers, including competitors.
In the longer term, this gives a clearer and more accurate view of performance, as this brings Meta reporting closer to GA4, reducing discrepancies. You’ll also be able to better understand how engagement campaigns drive interactions, and how those interactions contribute to conversions over time.
Ultimately, you’ll be able to measure how social is really moving the needle for your business and move beyond last-click performance, recognizing its full role across the customer journey.
Measuring the True Impact of Social
While looking at multiple data sources and attribution models helps avoid relying on a single view, at Jaywing we believe the most effective way to measure social’s impact is through a robust, data-driven attribution approach that considers multiple touchpoints across the journey. This shows you the true picture of paid social's impact and serves as the foundation of our paid social approach.
Want to know what this would look like for your business? And if you are using the right “source of truth” for your industry? Have a chat with our marketing team for more insights and to find the attribution model that works for you