Myth: view-through conversions prove your native ad influenced the buyer.

Myth: view-through conversions prove your native ad influenced the buyer.
Wrong. A brand credited native with 4,200 view-through conversions a month and called it the top channel. Then they ran a ghost-ad test: serve a blank, trackable placebo to half the audience the targeting selected, real ad to the other.

The placebo group — who saw nothing — produced 3,900 "view-through conversions" by the same logic. These were people the algorithm targeted because they were already going to buy.

True incremental view-through lift: 7%, not 100%. The channel was claiming credit for purchases it had no hand in.

View-through without a holdout isn't measurement, it's flattery. Allegedly the ad caused the sale. Prove it with a placebo, or stop billing it as a win.