View-through conversion
Also called VTC, view-through attribution, impression-based conversion
A view-through conversion is a purchase an ad platform credits to an ad the shopper saw but never clicked, as long as they buy within a set time, often one day. Shopify never counts these, which is a big reason Meta and other platforms report more sales than your store recorded.
Sailesh B · Last updated
How it works
Someone scrolls past your ad on Instagram in the morning. They don't tap it. That evening they search your brand on Google and buy. Meta counts that sale as a view-through conversion, because the purchase happened within a day of the person seeing the ad.
Shopify sees a Google search visit, then an order. It has no idea the Instagram ad existed. So the same order now appears in Meta's results and in Shopify's Google numbers.
How each platform counts them
| Platform | Default view window | Where it shows up |
|---|---|---|
| Meta Ads | 1 day after the view | Included in Results with the default setting; split out with Compare attribution settings |
| Google Ads | Set per conversion action | A separate View-through conversions column, not in Conversions, for most campaigns |
| TikTok Ads | 1 day after the view (can be 7 days or off) | Included under the default attribution setting |
Meta uses 7-day click plus 1-day view by default for website purchases. To see how many of your results came from views, open Columns, choose Customize columns, tick Compare attribution settings, and select the 1-day view window alongside the click windows. Don't add the columns together: the same purchase can appear in more than one.
Google Ads keeps view-through conversions out of the main Conversions column for most campaign types. They appear in their own column and in All conversions (Google Ads Help). Some campaign types, including Demand Gen, can count them towards bidding. YouTube also has engaged-view conversions, for people who watched at least part of a video ad and bought later.
TikTok counts 7-day click and 1-day view by default (TikTok Help).
Why it matters
View-through credit isn't wrong. Seeing an ad can make someone more likely to buy. The problem is it can't tell those people apart from the ones who were going to buy anyway. A loyal customer who scrolls past your ad and then orders as usual becomes a view-through conversion.
So a campaign heavy on view-throughs can look far better in Ads Manager than it really is. Two things help:
- Read click and view results separately. A click-through conversion means the ad sent someone to your store. A view-through means the ad was in front of them at some point.
- Test whether the ad is actually adding sales. A holdout or lift test, where some people don't see the ads, is the only reliable way to measure what views are worth.
How this shows up in Shopify
Shopify only counts visits to your store. A view-through conversion has no visit from the ad, so Shopify credits the order to whatever the shopper did click, or to direct. When Meta reports 50 purchases and Shopify credits Meta with 30, view-throughs are often a big part of the difference. Meta Ads not matching Shopify walks through the rest of the gap.
How Prism handles it
Prism credits orders only to visits it saw on your store, so ad views without a click get no credit. That usually puts Prism's Meta numbers closer to Meta's click-only results than to its default ones.