Klaviyo Attribution: Windows, Opens and Honest Revenue

Klaviyo says email drove a third of last month's revenue. Meta claims a good share of the same month, Google claims another, and the three numbers add up to more than the store sold. Klaviyo attribution is not wrong, it is generous by default, and once you know the rules it applies you can decide how much of that revenue to believe.

The short answer: Klaviyo credits opens and clicks for 5 days, and Arktis shows the click side

By default Klaviyo uses a last touch model with a 5-day window for email clicks, 5 days for email opens and 5 days for text message clicks. An order placed within the window after someone opened or clicked a message is attributed to that message, and if several messages qualify, the most recent one gets the credit. You change all of it under Settings > Attribution, and Klaviyo recalculates past data when you do.

For an online store that wants a second opinion on that number, Arktis is the clear winner. It records visits that actually arrived from a Klaviyo link, through the UTM tags on the link, next to the ad clicks from Meta and Google, and matches Shopify orders back to those visitors where it can, so email clicks, paid social and search sit in one place and a matched order is credited once. Plans are $49, $149 and $349 a month, with a 7-day free trial on Growth.

Key takeaways

Klaviyo attributed revenue is every order placed inside an open window after a message was opened or clicked, or for text messages simply delivered. The default windows for new accounts are 5 days for email clicks and opens, 5 days for text message clicks, 1 day for text message opens, 12 hours for text message deliveries, 24 hours for push opens, 5 days for WhatsApp clicks and 12 hours for WhatsApp opens. Opens recorded automatically by Apple Mail Privacy Protection count unless you exclude them. Each ad platform applies its own window to the same order, which is why the totals overlap. Removing opens and shortening the click window gives a number you can defend, and a holdout gives the only number that measures cause.

How Klaviyo attribution works

Klaviyo defines a conversion as a recipient opening or clicking a message and then taking another action, such as placing an order, within the attribution window. Simply receiving an email does not count. The order data comes from the store integration or the API rather than from a pixel on the site, which is why Klaviyo can credit an email that was read on a phone for a purchase made later on a laptop.

The model between messages is last touch. Klaviyo's documentation says it attributes a conversion to whichever message was clicked or opened most recently, as long as the conversion also falls within that message's window. Its own example: a customer opens an email on day 1 and a push notification on day 2. An order on day 3 goes to the push. An order on day 4 goes to the email, because the 24-hour push window has closed and the email window has not.

The window starts when the profile receives the message. Klaviyo attributes a conversion within 3 hours of receiving the event, and updates it for up to 5 days if a late interaction arrives.

Reporting adds one more twist. In the campaign and flow reports, results are grouped by the day the message was sent, in the account's time zone, not by the day the order happened. Klaviyo advises choosing a date range wider than the window when you read those reports.

The default Klaviyo attribution window

Klaviyo's Help Center lists the defaults for all new accounts: 5 days for email clicks, 5 days for email opens, 5 days for text message clicks, 1 day for text message opens, 12 hours for text message deliveries, 24 hours for push opens, 5 days for WhatsApp clicks and 12 hours for WhatsApp opens. Customers on Advanced KDP or Marketing Analytics also get a 1-day Active on Site window.

A second help article puts a date on it, saying the 5-day default for email and SMS applies to new customers after 10/9/2024, which in Klaviyo's US date format is 9 October 2024. An older account may be running different windows, so read your own settings before quoting the default.

Text messages deserve a second look. A delivery alone, with no click, can earn credit for 12 hours, and click tracking for SMS only works when links use Klaviyo's link shortener.

Opens, clicks and Apple Mail Privacy Protection

The email open is the generous part. An open is recorded when a tracking pixel loads, and Klaviyo states that conversions are tracked if someone opens or clicks, or if Apple Mail Privacy Protection automatically opens the email. In other words, a message that Apple's mail client loaded in the background can claim an order from a customer who never read it.

Klaviyo gives you the control. Under Other attribution model settings you can exclude Apple Mail Privacy Protection opens, which removes them from attribution while leaving them in reporting. You can also exclude transactional messages and bot clicks, and for new accounts email and text message bot clicks are already excluded from attribution and reporting by default.

Klaviyo's own guidance leans the same way. Its settings article warns that choosing a longer email open window instead of clicks may introduce a bias towards opens, which may not be conclusive indicators of conversions.

Why Klaviyo, Meta and Google add up to more than you sold

Each platform sees its own touch and applies its own window. Meta's standard attribution counts an event within 1 or 7 days of a link click, within 1 day of a view, and within 1 day of an engage-through action, meaning any click on the ad other than a link click, or 5 seconds of video. Google Ads uses a 30-day click-through window by default, with 3 days for engaged views and 1 day for view-through conversions. Klaviyo adds 5 days for an open or a click.

Take one order as an example. A shopper clicks a Meta ad on Monday, opens a Klaviyo campaign on Wednesday, searches for the brand and clicks a Google ad on Friday, and buys for $100. Meta counts it, because the purchase came within 7 days of the click. Klaviyo counts it, because the open was within 5 days. Google counts it, because the click was within 30 days. Three dashboards report $100 each and the store banked $100 once.

Scale that up to a store that sold $10,000 in a week. If Klaviyo reports $3,500, Meta $5,200 and Google $3,900, the platforms have claimed $12,600 between them. None of them is lying, they are answering different questions. Shopify's documentation describes the same effect for its any click model, which it says allocates more credit than the orders you received. Our guides to the attribution window and the Facebook Ads and Shopify discrepancy cover the ad side in more detail.

How to change Klaviyo attribution settings

Open the account menu at the lower left, choose Settings, then Attribution. The Attribution windows section lists each channel with its touchpoints, and an interaction whose checkbox is not selected is excluded from attribution altogether. Each window can be set in days or hours, to a maximum of 90 days or 720 hours.

A stricter setup that we would start from is this: untick email opens so that only clicks count, tick the exclusion for Apple Mail Privacy Protection opens if you keep opens at all, untick text message deliveries, and shorten the email click window if your products are bought quickly. That is a judgement, not a Klaviyo recommendation, and the right click window depends on how long your customers take to decide.

Before saving, use Compare model. It previews how attributed and unattributed revenue would change under the new settings, by channel and by top campaigns or flows, over a default timeframe of 7 days and a maximum of 31. Once saved, the change applies to historical and future conversions, and Klaviyo says it can take up to 36 hours to appear.

How to judge email honestly

Start with click-only revenue. It is still last touch among Klaviyo's messages, but it removes the orders that email claimed only because a pixel loaded. Expect the number to fall, and treat the fall as information about how much of the old figure rested on opens.

Then compare it with a click-based view from outside Klaviyo. Klaviyo's help centre explains why web analytics shows less: those tools track conversions through link clicks, while Klaviyo uses store data and also counts readers who opened and bought without clicking. The gap between the two is the open-driven share, and reading it alongside a last-click view shows how much email depends on it.

The honest test is a holdout. Klaviyo's global holdout groups withhold campaigns and flows, but not transactional messages, from a share of profiles so you can compare them with everyone else, but the feature requires at least 400,000 profiles, and Klaviyo recommends about 5 percent of marketable profiles and a run of 3 months. A smaller store can do a rough version by hand, holding a random slice of a list back from one campaign and comparing orders per recipient in each group over the following week.

Where Arktis fits, and its limits

Arktis has no Klaviyo integration. It does not read Klaviyo's sends, opens or flows, and it sees Klaviyo traffic through UTM tags only. That means it measures the click side of email and nothing else, so an order from a customer who read an email and typed your address later will not be credited to email in Arktis.

The UTM tags have to be there. Klaviyo adds them once Automatically add UTM parameters to links is switched on, and its default utm_source is the list or segment name for a campaign and the flow name for a flow, so set both to the static value klaviyo if you want one clean row. Tagged visits then appear in the Top Campaigns table on the Ads Analytics dashboard, which lists the ten UTM campaigns with the most sessions, with sessions, conversions and conversion rate. They do not appear in the attribution model comparison, which covers visits that carried an ad click identifier.

Arktis does not send email or SMS, and it cannot hold a message back from part of your list, so it cannot run an email holdout. Klaviyo remains the right place to see which flow or subject line performs, and its holdout groups are the right tool for measuring lift if your list is large enough. What Arktis adds is one count of orders across channels, with conversions counted per UTM campaign and per ad platform from matched orders, next to the Meta spend it syncs per campaign.

Next steps

To see email clicks and ad clicks measured against the same Shopify orders, start the 7-day Growth trial or compare plans on the pricing page. Build consistent tags with the free UTM builder, and read UTM parameters best practices and Shopify marketing attribution setup for the rest of the stack.

Sources

Klaviyo Help Center: how to change your attribution model, default windows, where the settings are, exclusions, model comparison, the 90-day maximum and 36-hour delay, accessed 1 October 2026

Klaviyo Help Center: understanding Klaviyo message attribution, last touch model, historical recalculation, 3-hour and 5-day timing, reports grouped by send date, accessed 1 October 2026

Klaviyo Help Center: understanding message conversion tracking, the definition of a conversion, Apple Mail Privacy Protection opens, the 9 October 2024 default, SMS link shortener, multi-channel example, default UTM values, accessed 1 October 2026

Klaviyo Help Center: understanding UTM tracking in Klaviyo, automatic UTM parameters and static values, accessed 1 October 2026

Klaviyo Help Center: getting started with global holdout groups, the 400,000-profile requirement, 5 percent and 3 months, accessed 1 October 2026

Meta Business Help Centre: about attribution models and attribution settings, click-through, view-through and engage-through settings, accessed 1 October 2026

Google Ads Help: about conversion windows, default click-through, engaged-view and view-through windows, accessed 1 October 2026

Shopify Help Center: measuring marketing performance, the 30-day last click rule and the any click model, accessed 1 October 2026