For a long time, Meta advertisers have noticed something strange. Conversions were being credited to ad clicks, even when there wasn’t any clear evidence of someone clicking through to the site.

Many advertisers even ran targeted experiments and were able to prove that image clicks also count towards conversions. (Read more about Jon Loomer’s experiment here)

On the other hand, many advertisers also brushed it off as attribution quirks. And now, Meta has quietly confirmed it: likes, shares, and saves can count as clicks in attribution.

Meta’s documentation now says any click can trigger a conversion

Sometime in late September or early October 2025, Meta updated its official help documentation to define click-through attribution as follows:

“Counts results after any click occurred on your ad within 1-day or 7-days of an optimized conversion. Clicks may include interactions such as likes, shares and saves.”

Earlier, the definition was a bit inconclusive. It simply said “a person clicked your ad and took an action.” It was not specified if image clicks counted towards conversion, or just targeted link clicks.

But Meta didn’t highlight this change in a blog post or press release. It was spotted by performance marketer Barry Hott, who shared the updated phrasing on LinkedIn. The conversation quickly picked up traction.

Jon Loomer, who has written extensively about Meta attribution issues, confirmed that this exact language was new. He noted that while Meta’s behavior hasn’t changed, this is the first time the company has openly acknowledged that soft interactions like likes and saves are part of click-based attribution.

This has been happening for years, but was never confirmed

Marketers have long suspected that Meta’s attribution engine was broader than what the Ads Manager UI suggested.

In fact, Jon Loomer ran tests back in 2024 where ads without any outbound links were still generating “click-through” conversions. Developers had also found clues in Meta’s older documentation suggesting that all engagement actions were being treated as clicks, but the wording was vague and inconsistent.

The result was confusion. Advertisers were seeing conversions tied to “clicks” but couldn’t reconcile those with actual traffic or landing page views. There was no official explanation — until now.

Meta’s recent update doesn’t necessarily reflect a change in how attribution works, but it does make one thing clear: the definition of a click has always been broader than most people realized.

Why this matters for performance advertisers

This isn’t just a documentation fix. It changes how you interpret results, especially if you’re relying on click attribution windows (1-day or 7-day) to assess campaign performance.

A few key takeaways:

• A “click conversion” may not mean someone visited your site. It could simply be a post save or a reaction.
• Ads with high engagement but little traffic might still show strong click conversion numbers.
• Optimizing toward click conversions might push the algorithm to favor engagement-heavy audiences rather than those more likely to take meaningful actions off-platform.

This matters even more if you’re reporting back to clients or stakeholders. What looks like strong ROAS or low cost-per-result may not reflect true downstream value.

What you can do to interpret conversions more accurately

Start by reviewing your attribution windows. If you’re using a 7-day click attribution model, understand that it now includes a wider range of interactions — not just link clicks.

To get a clearer picture:

• Include Landing Page Views, Link Clicks, or Outbound Clicks as columns in your reports.
• Compare those metrics to your reported conversions. If conversions are high but link clicks are low, you’re likely seeing engagement-based attribution at play.
• If you’re tracking performance using UTMs or server-side tools, double-check how many of those conversions actually touched your website.

You don’t need to change your campaigns immediately, but this is a good time to pause and realign what your metrics are actually telling you.

Final thought

Meta’s confirmation doesn’t introduce a new behavior. But it finally names something that’s been part of its system for years. That’s a win for transparency — even if it raises new questions about how we measure success.

If conversions are being credited to likes, saves, and shares, the real question isn’t whether that’s good or bad. It’s whether that lines up with your goals.

Now that you know, you can choose to act accordingly.