View-Through Conversion

Concept

A view-through conversion credits an ad when a user saw the ad, did not click it, but later visited the website and completed a purchase within a short window.

Layman Explanation & Analogy

Imagine driving past a billboard for a coffee shop. You didn't pull over immediately, but the next morning you stop by and buy a latte. View-through attribution credits the billboard for your purchase even though you never "clicked" anything.

Worked real-world example

A user scrolls past a YouTube video ad on their smart TV without clicking. The next day, they search for your brand on their laptop and buy a $100 subscription. YouTube/Google counts this as a $100 view-through conversion.

What people get wrong & common traps

View-through conversions can easily inflate ad performance reports. Many customers who were already planning to buy naturally see an ad in their feed right before purchasing. Most finance teams either report view-through conversions separately or exclude them from ROAS calculations.

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