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Definition
A view-through conversion is an order that a platform credits to an ad the customer saw but did not click, within the view window. It measures exposure, so it cannot prove that the ad caused the sale.
Example with made-up numbers. Made-up scenario: a shopper sees a video ad on Monday without clicking. On Wednesday the shopper searches for the brand, clicks a search ad and buys. The video platform may credit the order as a view-through conversion and the search platform credits it as a click. Added together, the two reports count one order twice.
How to use it
Whether a platform counts views, and for how long, is a setting to check and write down. Counting views makes platform totals bigger, and the same order can be claimed by a view on one platform and a click on another. Look at the total across channels before trusting a large share of view-based credit.
Judge view-based credit with a holdout test or an incrementality check where that is possible. The question is whether the order would have happened without the ad, not only whether the customer had seen it.
