Glossary: Attribution Window

What is an Attribution Window?

An attribution window is the period during which an eligible marketing touchpoint can receive credit for a later outcome. A lookback window runs backward from the outcome to find eligible earlier touches. The chosen length, attribution model, and identity persistence rules determine which interactions receive credit and which are treated as direct or unattributed.

Attribution Lookback Window Explained

A user clicked your ad in January and finally made their first deposit in June. Does the ad deserve credit?

The lookback window is the rule that decides. A 30-day window says only touchpoints from the last 30 days count. The January ad falls outside it and gets nothing.

Window length changes the story your data tells: short windows favor closing channels like retargeting, long windows credit slow-burn channels like content. Choosing it deliberately, to match how long your users actually take to convert, is what keeps attribution honest.

What an Attribution Lookback Window Means For

Examples

1. A team uses a 7-day window and concludes content does not convert, then re-runs with 30 days and finds content starting most journeys.

2. A protocol sets a 30-day lookback between campaign touch and first transaction to match its observed median consideration time.

3. An analyst compares 7, 14, and 30-day windows and documents how channel rankings shift before standardizing on one.

4. A team shortens its window during an incentive campaign because conversion cycles compress when rewards create urgency.

Lookback window versus conversion window

A lookback window asks how far before an outcome a touchpoint may occur and still receive credit. A conversion window often describes how long after a click or view an outcome remains eligible. Teams sometimes use the terms interchangeably, so document the anchor event, direction, and duration whenever reporting results.

Model and identity choices

First-touch attribution credits the earliest eligible touch, while last-touch attribution credits the latest. Cross-domain and subdomain journeys also require the same user or wallet identity to persist between visits; otherwise a valid touchpoint can be lost even when it falls inside the selected window.

Related reading

Explore onchain attribution, Onchain Attribution, Attribution Model, First-touch vs Last-touch Attribution, and the onchain attribution guide.

FAQs

What lookback window should you use?

One that covers how long your users actually take from first touch to conversion, often measured as the 80th or 90th percentile of observed time-to-convert.

How does window length bias results?

Short windows over-credit last-step channels like retargeting; long windows give slow channels like content and community their due but can credit stale touchpoints.

Do lookback windows matter more in Web3?

Often yes. Onchain conversions can lag discovery by weeks, users research before risking funds, so short default windows systematically undercount discovery channels.

Should every channel use the same window?

Consistency aids comparison, but some teams use longer windows for awareness channels and shorter ones for conversion channels, documented explicitly.

How do you test if your window is right?

Plot the distribution of time between first touch and conversion, and check what share of conversions your current window captures.