How view-through conversions work
When a person is served an ad and does not click, but later converts within a defined view-through window, the platform can attribute that conversion to the impression. This is how display, video, and social campaigns account for influence that never produced a click. The logic is reasonable in principle, since not every helpful ad gets clicked. The problem is that an impression is a low bar, and a served ad that was scrolled past has a tenuous claim to a sale that happened days later.
Why view-through data inflates returns
The shorter the standard for credit, the more conversions a channel can claim. Long view-through windows and generous impression counting let upper-funnel campaigns report returns that look competitive with click-based ones, even when their true contribution is modest. Stacked across display and video, this can make a channel appear to pay for itself while its incremental value is small. View-through metrics are best read as directional influence signals, never as equivalent to a click-based conversion.
Reading view-through data honestly
The safe practice is to keep view-through conversions separate from click-based ones rather than summing them into a single flattering total. A short, defensible view-through window reduces over-crediting, and comparing exposed and unexposed groups is the only way to know whether the impressions caused anything. Used this way, view-through data becomes a useful read on brand and upper-funnel effect. Summed blindly into ROAS, it becomes a story the channel tells about itself.
How iClick uses view-through conversions
iClick keeps view-through conversions in their own column, never blended into click-based returns, and treats them as a directional signal of upper-funnel influence rather than proof of a sale. View-through windows are kept short and defensible, and where the stakes justify it, an incrementality test settles whether the impressions moved anything. The rule is simple, an impression informs, a click and a lift test prove.
