The conversion window is the length of time between an ad click or view and when Facebook counts a conversion from the user. In bidding and ad delivery context, the conversion window defines which conversions are taken into account when optimizing your ad delivery.
Based on the settings, conversions that happen within 1 or 7 days of the ad click or 1 day view are used to optimize the ad delivery. Only the KPI with this attribution window is optimized — so don't be surprised if you optimize towards click-through only and do not get optimal click+view-through results!
ℹ️ Note: Changing the conversion window parameter is only available with the Offsite conversions optimization goal.
Attribution window vs. conversion window
The attribution windows in reporting vs. in bidding are related concepts, but they do not bound each other. In reporting, it is called the attribution window. Regardless of what setting you selected for bidding, you can see your ads' results with any combination of:
- 0, 1, 7 or 28 days of click-through attribution
- 0 or 1 days of view-through attribution
- SKAdNetwork attribution: exclude, include clicks, include views, include both
In bidding, a similar concept is called the conversion window. The choices are more limited than in reporting, but the principle is similar: Facebook will optimize the cost of conversions measured with the specified conversion window. If you choose the bid conversion window of 1-day click-through, Facebook will deliver to those people who are most likely to convert within 24 hours after clicking the ad. The conversion window also affects how low or high your Bid Cap should be: you can bid more for 1-day click-through conversions than 7-day click-through conversions, since the attributed CPA will always be higher when measured with a shorter window.
How do I know which conversion window I should use?
To make the decision, consider in this priority order:
- Use a conversion window that provides enough data for Facebook's optimization.
- Use a conversion window that captures mostly incremental conversions and not the random conversions.
Start by changing your attribution window and see how that affects the number of conversions reported in your campaigns. Choose a timeframe that covers a long enough span of time: for example, for a 7-day attribution window, the numbers can still increase up to 7 days after the impression happened.
If you check, for example, 7-day click-through conversions of a running campaign, look at historical data only — in practice, exclude the past 7 days from the examined timeframe. This is because there will be more conversions coming in for the ad impressions shown yesterday, for example. The data is only "mature" when 7 days have passed since the ad delivery. This phenomenon also explains why the CPA graph often looks like it is skyrocketing in the past few days with long conversion windows.
Check especially the windows available in bidding: 1-day click, 7-day click, 1-day click + 1-day view, and 7-day click + 1-day view. You will probably see that the number of conversions is higher with longer windows, and when including view-through. Also, notice how your CPA behaves: it likely decreases with bigger windows. This means your Bid Cap should very much take the conversion window into account!
How much data is enough for bidding?
Facebook's conversion optimized bidding requires some data to work properly. The official recommendation varies, but a good rule of thumb is to have at least 25 conversions per week per Ad Set. If your Ad Sets don't generally get these many conversions, use a longer conversion window and include view-through if possible. This will help Facebook find more people who are likely to convert.
If you have enough conversions, move to the next section.
When can I use which bidding conversion windows?
This depends on your campaign objective, optimization goal, and promoted object (website or app).
- In a Conversions or Catalog Sales (dynamic ads) campaign
- with the Offsite Conversions optimization goal, promoting a website, you can use:
- 1-day click-through
- 7-day click-through
- 1-day click-through or 1-day view-through
- 7-day click-through or 1-day view-through
- with the App Events optimization goal, promoting a mobile app, you can use:
- 1-day click-through
- 1-day click-through or 1-day view-through
- with the Offsite Conversions optimization goal, promoting a website, you can use:
- In an App Installs campaign
- with the App Installs optimization goal, you can use:
- 1-day click-through
- 1-day click-through or 1-day view-through
- with the App Events optimization goal, you can use:
- 1-day click-through
- 7-day click-through
- with the App Installs optimization goal, you can use:
- In a Link Clicks campaign, with the Offsite Conversions optimization goal, you can use:
- 1-day click-through
- 7-day click-through