What is View-Through Attribution?
View-Through Attribution (VTA), also known as impression tracking, is a method of attributing conversions to users who were exposed to an ad — even if they did not click on it. Instead of requiring a click to initiate the attribution chain, VTA tracks whether a user viewed an ad impression and later converted within a defined window.
How it differs from standard click-based attribution:
Attribution Type | How it Works |
Click-Based Attribution | A user clicks an ad → visits the landing page → converts. The conversion is attributed to the click. |
View-Through Attribution | A user sees an ad but does not click → later visits the site and converts. The conversion is attributed to the impression. |
VTA is particularly valuable for brand awareness campaigns and display advertising, where users may be influenced by an ad without clicking on it immediately.
If you want to work on view-through with your advertiser using MMP, you need to ask them to share the view-through URL, which you will place in Trackier, and campaign creation will be as usual.
Impression tracking focuses on counting the number of times an ad is displayed, providing a measure of ad exposure. View-through attribution goes a step further by attempting to attribute conversions to ads based on the user's exposure to them, acknowledging the potential impact of viewing an ad on subsequent user actions.
If you want to work on view-through with your advertiser using MMP, you need to ask them to share the view-through URL, which you will place in Trackier, and campaign creation will be as usual.
Overview
View-Through Attribution (VTA) allows you to attribute conversions to ad impressions — even when a user never clicked on the ad. This article explains what VTA is, how it differs from standard click-based attribution, how to enable and configure it in Trackier, and where to find VTA data in your reports.
How to enable view-through attribution?
Enable Impression Tracking in Campaign Settings
Open the campaign in your Trackier panel
Go to Campaign Settings → Impression Tracking
Toggle on Allow Impressions
Toggle on View-Through Attribution
From the same Impression Tracking settings page, you can also configure:
Whitelist Publishers for VTA Restrict VTA attribution to specific publishers only, rather than applying it to all publishers on the campaign
Server-Side Impressions Enable this if you want to track impressions server-side rather than via pixel. You can include or exclude specific publishers from server-side impression tracking
Generate and Share the Impression Pixel
Once settings are saved:
Go back to the Campaign Info page
Generate the Impression Pixel from the tracking link section
Share the impression pixel with your publisher and ask them to place it on the relevant page where the ad will be displayed
When a user views the page with the pixel, Trackier records the impression. If that user later converts within the VTA window, the conversion will be attributed to the impression.
Verifying Your Setup
For MMP campaigns: Ensure that the GAID, IDFA, and any other required device identifiers are being passed from your publisher in the Trackier Impression URL, and that the same values are being forwarded to the MMP's view-through attribution URL. This is essential for the MMP to match the impression to the conversion.
Find all the macros that are supported in the Impression URL from here.
For direct advertiser campaigns: No additional verification steps are needed beyond confirming the impression pixel has been placed correctly on the publisher's page and that VTA is enabled in campaign settings.
Where to Find VTA Reporting
VTA conversions are visible in the Conversion Report. To filter for view-through conversions specifically:
Go to the Conversion Report
Search for "Is View Through Attribution" in the filter options
Apply the filter to see only conversions attributed via VTA
Why Use View-Through Attribution?
Capture conversions that are influenced by ad exposure but not directly driven by a click
Get a more complete picture of how your campaigns contribute to overall conversions
Measure the impact of display and impression-based campaigns more accurately
Give publishers running impression-based traffic a fair attribution model for their contributions
Search for "Is View Through Attribution" and click on Search. We will be introducing a dedicated report soon.
Broaden your knowledge: |
Conclusion
View-Through Attribution gives you visibility into conversions that click-based tracking alone would miss.
By capturing the influence of ad impressions on user behaviour, VTA provides a more complete and accurate picture of campaign performance especially for publishers running display and impression-based traffic.
Setting it up correctly in Trackier ensures both you and your publishers get the attribution credit they deserve.
We're thrilled to have put together a top-notch team of qualified experts who are available to handle any of your concerns and respond to any inquiries you may have. You can contact us at any time by sending an email to support@trackier.com or using the in-platform chat feature.
