Perfogro Ltd Research Shows How Attribution Windows Can Skew Campaign Performance Reporting

21-month study of 1.4B ad views finds standard attribution windows distort conversion data by up to 180%, costing advertisers £4,000+ per quarter.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, August 17, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Perfogro Ltd has revealed the results of a 21-month study on attribution window settings, conducted across over 200 advertiser accounts across managed portfolios, involving more than 1.4 billion ad views and 4.1 million conversions recorded between July 2024 and March 2026. The research analyzed discrepancies between performance figures provided by platforms and verified CRM figures related to paid search, paid social, programmatic display, native ads, and performance partnership activities. The background of the research was a pattern that the Perfogro Ltd analytics team had observed in all accounts since Q3 2024. Namely, the discrepancy between figures reported in platform dashboards and figures in advertisers' revenue backends.

The Evidence: How Window Configurations Distort the Numbers

The distortions noted in the study are clearly defined, measurable, and predictable. Across the entire dataset, there was not one standard window setting that correlated to the verified conversion results from CRM by an error margin of less than 11%.
The view-through and CTV figures are among the more practically significant findings of the research, as they involve configurations that are active on most accounts by default and are rarely reviewed. When 1-day view-through attribution was disabled, and results were re-measured against CRM data, 67% of the view-attributed conversions had no statistically meaningful exposure correlation: the user had converted through a separate, unrelated touchpoint within the same window. For CTV placements, the reported ROAS inflation ranged from +31% to +180% depending on campaign configuration, with a dataset average of +67%. The wide variance in the CTV figures reflects a structural inconsistency: impression volumes are high, click rates are near-zero, and most platforms apply view-through credit by default without prompting advertisers to review the setting.

Cross-channel misalignment adds another layer. As Perfogro's study makes clear, it compounds the problem further. Of the accounts reviewed as part of standard performance audits, 87.0% had different attribution window settings applied across their active platforms. In accounts running simultaneous paid search and paid social activity, double-counted conversions accounted for an average of 18.3% of total reported conversions. After cross-channel normalization, blended ROAS figures dropped by an average of 21.6% compared to unadjusted platform-level reporting.

The Consequence: Budget Going to the Wrong Channels

"Attribution windows are not only relevant for the reporting but also influence the flow of funding. When a channel is thought to be performing well since its attribution window captures more conversions, the funding for it increases. This leads to even more impressions being made and the ability to capture even more conversions in that over-inflated attribution window." — Perfogro Ltd research team note.

In 61% of accounts studied by Perfogro Ltd, the channel receiving the highest budget allocation at the time of onboarding was the same channel with the most favorable default attribution window, not the channel with the strongest verified downstream performance. After window normalization and CRM reconciliation, 43% of accounts had at least one channel that was overallocated by more than 30% relative to its verified contribution.

The accounts showing the highest levels of misallocation were not the least sophisticated advertisers in the dataset. According to Perfogro, familiarity with platform reporting, without awareness of its structural limitations, is capable of deepening the problem rather than reducing it. Across the full dataset, estimated wasted spend attributable to attribution-driven misallocation averaged over £4,000 per account per quarter, with accounts in the mid-tier spend range showing the highest absolute misallocation. Over the full 21-month study period, the cumulative estimated misallocation across the dataset reached approximately £8 million in misdirected spend.

About Perfogro Ltd
Perfogro Ltd is a performance marketing agency that helps digital-first brands scale through data-led strategies, partner program management, precision media buying, and content production. The company specializes in creating flexible marketing systems that operate on real-time information, with a major emphasis on transparency, measurement accuracy, and campaigns geared towards achieving desired results. This agency collaborates with various companies in the digital space to create structured performance programs grounded in proper attribution, optimization, and accountable reporting. All data referenced in this research is aggregated and anonymised. No individual advertiser accounts or client identities are identifiable from the findings presented.

Ruben Gray
Perfogro Ltd
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