<b>The half-life problem in B2B attribution windows</b>

<b>The half-life problem in B2B attribution windows</b>

Most partner programs inherit click-attribution windows from B2C affiliate playbooks — 30, 60, or 90 days. The transplant rarely survives contact with enterprise sales cycles.

<b>Finding 1: cycle length dwarfs the window.</b> Per analyses of SaaS deal data, median sales cycles for contracts above $25k routinely exceed 90 days, and six-figure deals frequently run 6–9 months. A 90-day cookie expires before the deal closes — the partner who sourced it gets nothing.

<b>Finding 2: attribution decay is non-linear.</b> Influence does not fade evenly. A partner's webinar or comparison page may seed a deal in month one, after which internal champions carry it. Last-touch windows systematically credit the wrong actors near close.

<b>Finding 3: the fix is structural, not numerical.</b> Extending a window to 180 days helps, but moving to opportunity-based attribution — crediting the partner if a tracked lead becomes a CRM opportunity within the window, regardless of when revenue lands — aligns incentives with how long-cycle deals actually progress.

A caveat on causation: longer windows also inflate fraudulent and coincidental credit. The trade-off is between under-crediting genuine influence and over-crediting noise; there is no window length that escapes it.

<b>Implications:</b> audit your window against your actual median cycle, not an industry default. If the window closes before your deals close, you are not measuring partner contribution — you are measuring who happened to be near the finish line.