An attribution model in Meta Ads is the ruleset that decides how credit for conversions gets assigned to your ad interactions. When someone sees or clicks your ad and later converts, the attribution window determines whether that conversion counts toward your campaign performance. Meta's default attribution setting is 7-day click and 1-day view, which means if someone clicks your ad and converts within 7 days, or sees your ad and converts within 1 day, Meta attributes that conversion to your campaign. You can adjust this window in Ads Manager. Common options include 1-day click, 7-day click, or 1-day view, and you can combine them. Shorter windows like 1-day click show you only immediate conversions, which is useful for direct-response campaigns or when you want conservative reporting. Longer windows like 7-day click capture more of your actual influence but can overlap with other marketing channels, making it harder to isolate Meta's true impact. Meta moved away from 28-day attribution windows in 2021 due to iOS 14 privacy changes. Now most advertisers use 7-day click as the standard because it balances capturing real influence without over-crediting. The view-through component (1-day view) is controversial—some advertisers disable it because someone scrolling past your ad shouldn't get the same credit as someone who clicked, especially for awareness campaigns with massive reach. At Ottawa SEO, we typically start clients on 7-day click only, then layer in 1-day view if we see evidence that video or carousel ads are genuinely influencing purchase decisions beyond clicks. We compare Meta's attributed conversions against Google Analytics 4 and server-side tracking to spot discrepancies. If Meta claims 100 conversions but GA4 shows 60 from Facebook/Instagram as source, that's a signal your attribution window might be too generous or you're double-counting with other platforms. The key is knowing Meta's numbers are directional, not absolute truth, and adjusting your windows based on your actual sales cycle length.