View-through attribution credits installs to ads the user saw (an impression) but did not click, within a short window (typically 1-24 hours, sometimes up to 7 days for premium video). It's the impression-level counterpart to click-through attribution. The premise: an ad can build awareness or intent even without a click, and that awareness can drive a later install through organic channels (App Store search, brand search).
Why view-through is weaker signal
- No active engagement — the user saw the ad but didn't tap or interact. They may not even consciously remember seeing it.
- High false-positive rate — many "view-through" installs would have happened anyway from organic channels. The ad just happened to be present in the user's recent history.
- Short window for a reason — view-through windows are typically 1-24 hours (vs 7-30 days for click-through) specifically because longer windows accumulate more spurious matches.
When view-through attribution is useful
- Brand campaigns — video-driven brand awareness ads don't get many clicks but can drive measurable downstream lift. View-through is one signal for measuring that lift.
- Tiebreaker when no click attribution applies — if the user didn't click any tracked ad before install, view-through gives some signal of which ad networks contributed to the conversion.
- CTV / video-heavy campaigns — full video ads watched to completion (especially rewarded video and 30-second TV-style ads) have stronger view-through signal than fly-by impressions.
Limitations and pitfalls
- Over-claiming risk — networks can over-claim view-through credit, especially open programmatic where impression delivery is hard to verify.
- Cross-channel cannibalization — view-through attribution often double-counts (same impression credited by multiple networks).
- Mostly disabled in click-priority MMP configurations — most mature mobile UA programs configure MMPs to use click-through as primary and view-through only as fallback when no click exists.
- Most useful for brand-aware measurement — for performance UA optimization, view-through usually adds more noise than signal.
For most mobile UA programs, click-through attribution is the operational source of truth. View-through is a secondary signal used selectively for brand campaign measurement and as a tiebreaker.