Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) is Safari's set of anti-tracking measures. One of its best-known rules caps cookies written by JavaScript (document.cookie) at seven days, with shorter limits in some situations. If a visitor clicks your ad, leaves, and returns after the cap, a JavaScript-only tracker sees a new visitor and the original ad loses the credit.
Cookies set by your own server in an HTTP response aren't subject to the same JavaScript cap. That's why many tracking setups serve their tracking endpoint from a subdomain of your site (via a CNAME), so the visitor cookie is first-party and server-set. Identifying people by email or phone also reconnects them regardless of cookies.