Attribution

Why did my Meta conversions drop after Meta changed click-through attribution?

By The Tofu team ·

Because Meta now counts fewer conversions as click-through. On March 3, 2026, Meta said click-through attribution for website and in-store conversions would count only link clicks. Conversions after a like, share, save or other non-link click moved to engage-through attribution (the renamed engaged-view attribution), which has a 1-day window. If your ad set uses click-through only, those conversions drop out of your results. Meta said the rollout would start later that month, reaching accounts at different times. Billing didn't change, so check your CRM before you assume performance fell.

As of October 2026.

What changed

BeforeNow
What counts as a click for click-throughAll clicks: link clicks, likes, shares, saves and othersLink clicks only, for website and in-store conversions
Conversions after a like, share or saveCounted as click-throughCounted as engage-through, within 1 day, if you select it
Name of the settingEngaged-view attributionEngage-through attribution ("1-day engagement" in reports)
Engaged video view10 seconds of play5 seconds, or 97% of a video shorter than 5 seconds
How you're billedNo change

Meta's reason: many third-party tools, such as Google Analytics, mainly count website link clicks, so Meta's old "click" numbers didn't line up with them. Meta says the new definition should "significantly reduce measurement misalignment."

Meta's help center now lists three standard settings for website and in-store conversions:

SettingCounts conversions within
Click-through1 or 7 days after a link click on your ad
Engage-through1 day after a non-link click, or a 5-second video play
View-through1 day after an impression

A link click is a click, swipe or other gesture on a link in the ad that leads to the destination you set, on or off Meta.

Who it affects

  • Campaigns optimizing for website or in-store conversions. For B2B, that means Leads or Sales campaigns that send people to a form or page on your site and count the result with the Meta pixel or Conversions API.
  • Ad sets using click-through only. These see the biggest visible drop. A conversion after a like or share is no longer counted at all unless you add engage-through. Even with engage-through, a conversion more than 1 day after a like or share no longer counts, because engage-through has a 1-day window.
  • Ad sets with click-through, engage-through and view-through. Meta's help example adds click-through and view-through conversions in the Results column in this case: 5 click-through, 15 view-through and 3 engagement conversions show as 20 results. With click-through and engage-through only, results add click-through and engagement conversions.
  • Anyone comparing periods. Weeks before your account's switch aren't comparable with weeks after it.
  • Accounts still waiting. Meta's help page says some accounts may still use the older versions while the change rolls out.

Who can likely ignore it: Meta's announcement and help pages describe the change for website and in-store conversions only. They don't say anything changes for Instant Form leads, which happen on Meta.

Meta's own pages aren't fully consistent. The attribution help page says engage-through includes any click on your ad except link clicks. The engage-through setup page still says 1-day engagement won't show in reporting for campaigns that don't use video assets. If you run only image ads, check what your reports show before relying on engage-through.

What to do now

  1. Check whether your account has switched. Meta's setup steps may look different if you don't have the updated version yet. If your attribution options show Engage-through, you likely do.
  2. See how many conversions moved. In Ads Manager reporting, select Compare attribution settings and pick 1-day Engagement next to the click-through and view-through options.
  3. Decide on the setting for new ad sets. At the ad set level, in the Conversion section, click Show more options, hover Standard attribution selections and click Edit. Pick 1-day or 7-day for Click-through, 1-day for Engage-through, and None or 1-day for View-through. This isn't only a reporting choice: Meta says standard attribution also steers delivery toward the windows and behaviors you select.
  4. Reset targets and dashboards. Fewer counted conversions on the same spend means a higher reported cost per result. Rebuild cost-per-lead targets from data after your switch date.
  5. Check against your own data. Compare Meta's numbers with Google Analytics, and for B2B, with leads and pipeline in your CRM. That tells you whether anything really changed.
  6. Update API reports. Since January 12, 2026, the Ads Insights API no longer returns the 7-day view and 28-day view windows. 1-day click, 7-day click, 28-day click, 1-day engaged view and 1-day view are still available.
  7. Test incrementality when you can. Meta calls incrementality experiments such as Conversion Lift the gold standard for measuring what your ads caused.

Dates to watch

DateWhat happens
October 16, 2025Meta announces the Ads Insights API attribution window changes
January 12, 2026The Ads Insights API stops returning 7-day view and 28-day view windows
March 3, 2026Meta announces link-click-only click-through, the engage-through rename and the 5-second engaged view
Later in March 2026Rollout due to start for campaigns optimizing for website or in-store conversions, at different times per account
No date givenEnd of the rollout. As of October 2026, Meta's help page says some accounts may still use the older versions

Sources

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