What is view-through attribution?

View-through attribution (VTA) is a measurement model used in digital advertising to track the impact of display advertising on user behavior. VTA refers to the attribution of conversions that occur after a user has viewed but not clicked on an ad.

With VTA, a conversion is credited to a display ad if a user sees the ad and later completes a desired action on the advertiser’s app in an app store within 24 hours of seeing it. This is in contrast to click-through attribution (CTA), which only credits conversions to users who clicked on an ad before converting. If a view happens within the CTA window, the VTA will be effectively nullified, as the CTA takes precedence in the attribution waterfall (pictured above) while also having a longer attribution window (1 week as opposed to a VTA’s 24 hours).

VTA is particularly useful for measuring the impact of display ads that have high visibility but low click-through rates, like CTV ads. VTA allows advertisers to more accurately measure the ROI of their display ad campaigns and adjust their ad targeting and creative strategies accordingly.