Very Long Attribution Windows
A conversion action on this account has an attribution window over 90 days for clicks or over 30 days for views. Windows this long attribute conversions to ad interactions that happened months earlier, which usually credits more conversions to Google Ads than the campaigns actually drove. Unless the business genuinely has a 90-day sales cycle, the window is probably inflating reported performance.
Why It Matters
Attribution windows define how long after an interaction Google Ads can credit a conversion to that interaction. The default click window for most actions is 30 days, but the system supports up to 90 days. The default view window is shorter, typically 1 day, and supports up to 30 days. Long windows have one legitimate use case: long sales cycles. A B2B SaaS account with a 60-day evaluation period needs a 90-day window to capture conversions from the prospecting ad that started the journey. Outside that case, long windows over-attribute. A user who clicked a brand-search ad 87 days ago and bought today probably did not buy because of that ad. The window credits Google Ads anyway, the campaign ROAS climbs on paper, and the team makes budget decisions on a number that double-counts the work. The finding is warning-level rather than critical because the window may be intentional. The deliverable is a deliberate decision, not an automatic fix. Most direct-response e-commerce accounts should run 7- to 30-day click windows and 1- to 7-day view windows.
How To Fix It
- Open the AdLint details and list each action with click window over 90 days or view window over 30 days.
- Open the Time Lag report in Google Ads (Reports > Predefined > Time > Time lag) and review the actual click-to-conversion delay distribution.
- Set the click window to the 90th percentile of historical delay. Most direct-response accounts land at 7 to 30 days. B2B accounts may land at 60 to
- Set the view window to no more than half the click window, typically 1 to 7 days.
- Annotate the change date. Historical reported volume will shift as conversions enter or exit the new windows. Allow one full sales cycle before judging.
Example
Action: "Purchase"
Click window: 120 days
View window: 30 days
Fix: set click window to 30 days, view window to 7 days, unless the business has a verified long sales cycle.This Google Ads account has conversion actions with attribution windows longer than 90 days on clicks or 30 days on views. Per Google's attribution-window documentation, windows beyond the defaults credit ad interactions for conversions that happened weeks or months after the click, which over-attributes campaign performance for businesses without a genuinely long sales cycle. The result is inflated reported ROAS that double-counts contribution from clicks long past their realistic influence horizon. Fix: review the actual click-to-conversion delay in the Time Lag report, set the click window to the 90th percentile of historical delay, keep the view window at no more than half the click window, and annotate the change date for downstream reporting. Source: support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3123169.
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References
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