Meta changed what counts as a click in 2026. Why your ROAS moved

What changed this year

Two changes in the first half of 2026 shifted how Meta credits a sale to an ad. If your reported ROAS moved and nothing else did, this is the first place to look.

For campaigns that optimise for website conversions, the default is now 7-day click, 1-day engage-through and 1-day view-through.

What it does to your numbers

Take an example of 100 purchases that Meta credited to ads last year (illustrative numbers). Say 70 came after a link click, 20 after someone liked or saved the ad, and 10 after a view. Under the new rules the 20 move out of click-through. Some land in engage-through, some fall outside any window.

Your total may hold, but the click-through column drops. If your reports or rules use “7-day click” only, it will look like performance fell when only the label moved.

Which number to trust

• Use Shopify (or your bank) for what actually happened: orders, delivered revenue, RTO.
• Use Meta’s numbers to compare ads and campaigns against each other, not to judge the whole business.
• Look at the incremental attribution column in Ads Manager. It is Meta’s estimate of sales that wouldn’t have happened without the ad, and it’s usually lower than standard attribution.
• Track one business number weekly: total revenue divided by total ad spend across every channel. If it holds while Meta’s ROAS dips, your ads are fine.
• Use Compare Attribution Settings before changing a live ad set. Changing the reporting view doesn’t change how the ad set was optimised.

For COD-heavy brands

Meta counts a COD order when it’s placed, so every return-to-origin still looks like a sale in Ads Manager. If a quarter of your COD orders come back, Meta’s revenue is too high by that amount on those orders. Track RTO by campaign in your own reports, so a campaign that brings risky COD orders doesn’t look like your best one.

Sources we checked

• Jon Loomer, April 2026: click-through counts link clicks; engage-through replaces engaged-view.
• Dataslayer and Leafsignal, 2026: removal of 7-day and 28-day view windows and the new default setting.
• Meta Business Help Center: attribution settings and Compare Attribution Settings.
• The worked example is ours and illustrative. It is not a client’s data.