Where do I switch off view-through for a Meta ad set?

In the ad set's Conversion section: click Show more options, hover Standard attribution selections, click Edit and set View-through to None. The setting steers delivery as well as reporting, so try it on a new ad set and judge it on total orders.

Why does my retargeting ad set show so many view-through purchases?

Because it shows ads to people who have visited already, and many of them were going to buy. A purchase in the day after any impression counts as a view-through. Compare retargeting with prospecting on 7-day click alone before you judge it.

Can I export Meta's click and view split to a spreadsheet?

Yes. Add the columns through Columns: Performance and Compare attribution settings, then export the table. Meta says you can export a table once you customize it in Ads Manager. Write the date range and the conversion count you picked in the file name.

How to check Meta view-through conversions, step by step

Open Compare attribution settings in Ads Manager and put 1-day view beside 7-day click, with Meta's incremental model next to them. Then look for the same buyers in GA4 and in Shopify's order journeys. If views carry a campaign, test it before you scale it.

By Joris van Huët, Founder & CEOUpdated 2026-10-018 min read

Run the numbers for your store: the free view-through attribution calculator.

Meta usually counts view-through purchases in Results, so check how much they add. In Ads Manager, open Compare attribution settings and put 1-day view beside 7-day click, with the incremental model next to them. Then look for the same buyers in GA4 and Shopify. If views carry a campaign, test it first.

You need three tabs open: Ads Manager, GA4 and your Shopify admin. Steps 1 to 4 happen in Meta, steps 5 and 6 in GA4, step 7 in Shopify, and step 8 back in Meta.

Meta files a purchase under each ad set's own attribution setting. GA4 only credits channels that people arrive from. The steps put those two accounts of the same sale side by side. Neither is wrong. They answer different questions, and the gap between them is where views live.

Step by step

See which ad sets count views. Meta shows purchases by the attribution setting on each ad set, so start with the settings. Two ad sets with different settings report Results by different rules. Menu path: Ads Manager > Columns dropdown next to View Setup > Customize columns > search Attribution setting > Apply, then click into the campaign.
Split purchases into clicks and views. Compare attribution settings shows the same ads under 1-day view, 1-day click, 7-day click and 28-day click. Meta lets you compare them whatever the ad set optimizes for. Menu path: Ads Manager > Columns: Performance > Performance > Compare attribution settings > tick 7-day click and 1-day view > Apply.
Pick how repeat purchases count. The same panel asks for a conversion count. All conversions shows every measurable conversion after an ad click or view, and First conversion shows only the first. Menu path: Compare attribution settings > Select your conversion count > All conversions or First conversion > Apply.
Add Meta's incremental estimate. Incremental attribution uses models that predict whether an ad caused a conversion, while standard attribution includes all conversions. Meta shows no incremental results for dates before April 1, 2025. Menu path: Ads Manager > Columns: Performance > Compare attribution models > Incremental > Apply.
Find Meta's clicks in GA4. GA4 credits the last channel a buyer clicked through, so a buyer who only saw the ad never shows up as Meta. Search the table for facebook and instagram to see what Meta's clicks brought in. Menu path: GA4 > Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition > search bar above the table.
Check where view-only buyers land. Someone who saw your ad and later typed your address arrives as Direct. Untagged Meta clicks can land in Organic Social or Direct too, because GA4's Paid Social rule needs a paid medium in your UTM tags. Menu path: the same report, rows Direct, Paid Social and Organic Social under Session default channel group.
Read the journey on a few orders. Shopify's conversion summary shows the origin of the customer's first visit and, when available, the visits since. Open orders from a day when Meta reported many view-through purchases. Menu path: Shopify admin > Orders > click an order number > Conversion summary > View conversion details.
Decide whether views stay in the setting. Meta offers None or 1-day for view-through. The setting steers delivery as well as reporting, so try it on a new ad set and judge it on total orders, not on Results. Menu path: ad set > Conversion > Show more options > Standard attribution selections > Edit > View-through.

A worked example

Here are two ad sets on 7-day click and 1-day view for one month, with round numbers made up for illustration.

For illustration: one month	Prospecting ad set	Retargeting ad set
Results column	80	120
7-day click, from step 2	60	40
1-day view, from step 2	20	80
Incremental model, from step 4	50	30

Results add click and view purchases together, the way Meta's own setup example adds them. On Results, retargeting looks like the clear winner. On clicks alone, prospecting leads.

Most of the retargeting purchases are views by people who had already visited. A view in the day before a purchase they had planned is easy to collect. For illustration, the incremental row agrees: it keeps 50 for prospecting and only 30 for retargeting.

Now hold the month against GA4. In one store's export, Paid Social holds 0.0% of revenue on the Channels sheet in all three views, while Direct holds 57.7%.

If your GA4 looks like that while Meta reports 200 purchases, the view-only buyers and any untagged clicks are filed somewhere else. Step 6 tells you where to look.

That store's export holds no Meta figures, so it cannot say whether its buyers ever saw a Meta ad. The point is the shape: a view leaves no Paid Social row behind.

Step 3 sharpens the picture. If First conversion shrinks the view row far more than the click row, repeat buyers are doing the work, not new ones.

Step 7 adds the last clue for the retargeting ad set. If its buyers' Shopify journeys show Direct and email visits and no Meta click, the views were riding along. The verdict for this month: keep prospecting, and test retargeting before it gets more budget.

What to check when the report looks wrong

The 1-day view column is empty. Meta does not support 1-day view for some iOS app campaigns. For a website campaign, it means Meta credited no purchases to views in that date range.
Results do not equal clicks plus views. If engage-through is switched on too, Results hold click and view purchases only, and engagement shows in the comparison. A campaign whose ad sets use different settings also adds their results together.
The incremental column is blank. Meta has no incremental results before April 1, 2025, so pick a later date range.
GA4 files Meta revenue under Organic Social. That points to untagged links, not to views. GA4 only calls a social visit Paid Social when the medium looks paid, such as cpc or paid_social.
Meta reports more purchases than Shopify had orders. A campaign whose ad sets use different windows adds their results together, and each ad set counts by its own rule. Compare one setting at a time, using step 2 rather than the Results column.
An order has no conversion summary. Shopify says apps and private browsers can block cookie tracking, and draft orders have none. Pick other orders from the same day.

What to do this week

Export last month's click and view split. Add the comparison from step 2, then export the table, which Meta allows once you customize it. Pass: one file with 7-day click and 1-day view for every ad set. Fail: the file shows Results only, so add the comparison columns again before you export.
Label each ad set prospecting or retargeting. Then sort by the share of purchases that came from views. Pass: views are a minority in both groups. Fail: retargeting rests mostly on views, so its ROAS needs a test before it earns more budget.
Book a test for the ad set that leans most on views. Meta says you can create a Conversion Lift test in Experiments, with a control group that does not see your ads. Pass: a test is booked with a control group. Fail: the account cannot run one, so pause the ad set in a few regions and compare total orders there with the rest.

Check the homework. Your GA4 Attribution paths export already holds the evidence. Causality Engine reads that one file and shows what each channel caused next to what last-click gave it, in 1 to 2 minutes, for €99 once (excluding VAT), refundable within 30 days. Check the homework

Frequently asked questions

Where do I switch off view-through for a Meta ad set?
In the ad set's Conversion section: click Show more options, hover Standard attribution selections, click Edit and set View-through to None. The setting steers delivery as well as reporting, so try it on a new ad set and judge it on total orders.
Why does my retargeting ad set show so many view-through purchases?
Because it shows ads to people who have visited already, and many of them were going to buy. A purchase in the day after any impression counts as a view-through. Compare retargeting with prospecting on 7-day click alone before you judge it.
Can I export Meta's click and view split to a spreadsheet?
Yes. Add the columns through Columns: Performance and Compare attribution settings, then export the table. Meta says you can export a table once you customize it in Ads Manager. Write the date range and the conversion count you picked in the file name.

Go deeper: Incrementality testing, explained.

Sixty-second versions of these ideas: Causality Engine on YouTube Shorts.

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