Field note
Attribution windows that are too long hide a weak launch channel
A default thirty-day click window on a three-day launch burst will keep claiming later store search as if the burst were still working.
Windows are not a technical footnote. They decide who is allowed to take credit after a person has already forgotten the ad. A short launch burst needs a short memory. A thirty-day memory on a three-day burst is how a weak channel hides.
View-through windows compound the problem. A person who scrolled past a video on Sunday and searched the store by name on Thursday can still be counted as a view-through install. The store visit was the work. The view was scenery.
iOS adds a further constraint. Privacy changes mean you often see campaign-level truth later, and in coarser form, than you would like. Stretching windows does not recover that detail. It only makes the coarse number look more confident.
We sit with the burst calendar and pick windows that expire when the burst expires, plus a modest tail if store review times are slow. Then we watch what the organic and referral lines do once paid is no longer allowed to speak.
If a channel collapses when the window shrinks, the channel was borrowing. That is useful news in week two. It is expensive news in month two.