Yesterday, Google announced flexible conversion counting in AdWords. If you’re an AdWords user, you should have already noticed that the conversion (one-per-click) and conversions (many-per-click) columns have been replaced with Google’s newest converted clicks and conversions columns.
Google is always trying to provide advertisers with better, more accurate data to help them understand the, oftentimes, complex path to purchase. Let’s refresh our memory on the advances Google has made to its products and features so far.
First, let’s look at estimated cross-device conversions. In October 2013, Google announced an exciting new way for advertisers to measure how many conversions started on one device and ended on another (or in a different web browser on the same device). This advancement gave marketers a more holistic snapshot of their customers who were constantly on the go and using multiple devices along the path to purchase. Cross-device conversions allowed advertisers to measure website conversions, calls, store visits, and offline conversions that were the result of a consumer clicking on one of their search ads in AdWords.
Second, let’s look at cross-account conversion tracking and search funnels. In August 2013, Google announced these new tools to enhance their estimated cross-device conversion tool. Google knew that the path to purchase involved multiple devices, but they were also realizing that it involved multiple touch points along the way. Google’s cross-account conversion tracking and search funnel tools enabled marketers to track multiple AdWords accounts with a single tag and analyze which combinations of keywords across their accounts drove the most conversions. Because these tools operated under one universal tag, conversions across multiple campaigns only got counted once.
Now, you might be asking yourself, what makes Flexible Conversions better? Flexible conversion counting enables advertisers to assign a relative value to each click on one of their ads that results in a conversion. For any conversion action, an advertiser can choose to count all conversions that happen after a click, or only unique conversions that happen after a click.
An example of how an advertiser might use this new tool is to measure appointments booked and unique case studies downloaded. He might want to track all of the appointments that were booked by a consumer who clicked on one of his AdWords ads but only the first download of a case study, since a single consumer can download a case study multiple times. Google’s newest Flexible Conversion counting tool allows him to do just this.
Google’s aim with constantly building upon their conversion tools in AdWords is to provide you, the advertiser, with more accurate knowledge of your consumers. This enables you to cater the user experience of your digital marketing to their unique paths to purchase and improve your return on ad spend (ROAS).