How attribution works

Models, lookback windows and why numbers differ from Ads Manager.

Every landing with a click id or UTM is stored as a touch for that visitor. When an order comes in, ROASaurus credits the touches inside your lookback window (1 to 90 days, or unlimited):

Last click: all credit to the most recent touch.
First click: all credit to the first touch in the window.
Linear: credit split evenly across all touches.
Last non-direct click: like last click, but organic search, social and referral visits count too.
Linear paid: credit split evenly across paid ad clicks only.
Position-based: 40% to the first touch, 40% to the last and 20% over the touches between, by default.
Time decay: more credit to recent touches, with a 7-day half-life by default.
Markov chain and Shapley value: data-driven, trained on your store's own journeys, including clicks that led to no order. With fewer than 30 orders with clicks, they split credit linearly and say so.
Total Impact: the post-purchase survey answer gets 50% and the clicks share the other 50%.
Any click: every clicked channel gets the whole order, so its rows add up to more than the total.
Clicks & views: the clicks split evenly, plus the view-through purchases the ad platforms report, modelled onto orders and labelled as an estimate.

Ads Manager counts view-through conversions and uses its own windows, so platform numbers are usually higher. ROASaurus counts orders it can tie to a click, and only Clicks & views adds modelled views, which makes it a good way to compare channels against each other.

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