Conversion lag
The time between the click and the outcome. In lead generation it is the gap between the form fill and the deal closing, often months.
Why it matters
It is the reason lead-gen value bidding is hard and ecommerce value bidding is not. Longer than the adjustment window and you cannot report the true value in time, so you have to estimate it on day one instead.
What goes wrong
Lag also decides how long any measurement takes to become readable. An account with a 90-day median cycle cannot evaluate a bidding change at 30 days, and evaluating it anyway is how good changes get reverted.
How to check it on your own account
Median days from lead created to deal closed won, on the last year. That number sets both your day-0 strategy and how long you wait before judging anything.
Next to this
- Conversion windowHow long after a click a platform will still credit a conversion to it.
- Day-0 valueThe value sent at the moment the lead is created, estimated from what similar leads have historically been worth rather than from what this one eventually does.
- Early gateA pipeline stage that reliably fires soon enough after the lead arrives to still sharpen its value inside the platform's adjustment window.
The rest of this step
Measure this on your own data
The diagnostic reads a CRM export in your browser and reports your volume, your match rate and the spread between your leads against the thresholds in this glossary. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.