Lookback Windows
A lookback window answers a simple question: how far back before a payment should we look for the ads that led to it?
If someone clicks your ad and subscribes two weeks later, a two-week-plus window connects them. A window that's too short would miss that click and mark the sale as untraced.
The options
You can choose from five windows in Settings → Attribution:
| Window | Good fit |
|---|---|
| 7 days | Fast, impulse-style signups |
| 14 days | Short sales cycles |
| 30 days (default) | A balanced choice for most SaaS |
| 60 days | Considered, higher-priced products |
| 90 days | Long, multi-stakeholder B2B buying cycles |
Choosing the right length
Think about how long it usually takes someone to go from first hearing about you to paying:
- Too short and you'll miss early touches, so more sales look like they came from nowhere.
- Too long and you risk crediting stale clicks that didn't really drive the purchase.
The 30-day default works well for most subscription businesses. If your deals typically take longer to close, widen it.
Changing the window
Just like changing your attribution model, changing the lookback window recalculates your past attribution to match the new setting. Give it a little time to finish on larger accounts.
Your model and your lookback window work together. Set them once to reflect how your business actually sells, and every report across Signal Sparrow uses the same rules.