In recent years Google has worked to add fresh new tools for tracking conversion metrics into Adwords. Whether you’re tracking conversions on a standard website, within mobile apps, via phone call, or across multiple devices, Adwords has much more to offer today than it did even one year ago. In this article, we’ll discuss the various metrics offered by Adwords today, and discuss how you can use them to better craft your marketing strategies and tactics.
-Hard Numbers-
These are the concrete numbers Google has always offered–people who definitely clicked an add and ended up converting in a directly trackable manner. If you only like planning based on the surest of data, this is where you want to focus most of your attention.
- Converted Clicks. Exactly what it appears to be, this is the number of clicks that resulted in any number of conversions. One conversion and two hundred conversions from a single click both show up as a ‘+1′ here, so if you’re aiming for repeat customers this might be a less useful metric.
- Total Conversions. The counterpart to converted clicks, this is the total number of conversions. You can choose to view unique conversions (all conversions by a single person count as 1) or all (every conversion counts), depending on which is the more useful metric for your business.
- Call Conversions. A newer feature, once set up this will show you how many people used the advertised number for longer than whatever duration you consider appropriate. All calls that meet a duration threshold you set will count as ‘conversions’ for this metric, as Google has no way of knowing whether an actual conversion occurred. Still, it’s better than no metric at all.
-Estimates-
These are numbers Google has calculated based on the wealth of data available to the company–you don’t need to set up anything special, this is all on Google’s end. You can probably trust them to be accurate, but don’t turn off your common sense. If something seems inaccurate, maybe it is.
- Cross-Device Conversions. This will help you get a grasp of those customers who click your ad, then make their conversion later on a different device. This is a very valuable metric, increasingly so if you’re dealing with a younger and/or tech-savvier audience. Note that you don’t have to advertise on multiple devices; Google figures this out on its own.
- Total Conversions. A combined total conversion number, with your normal total conversions, call conversions, and estimated cross-device conversions combined into a single figure. Probably the most useful figure when considering your Adwords ROI.
-Other Metrics to Consider-
There are a few other metrics you can wring from Adwords. Though they’re not quite as reliable or widely applicable as the other numbers, they can play a big role in perfecting your tactics and strategies. Just don’t overvalue any of these; any conversion counted here could be unrelated and only counted by coincidence.
- Impression-Assisted Conversions. Basically, conversions that occurred after a particular keyword triggered an impression, but was not directly the cause of the conversion. This data is only available for search campaigns.
- Click-Assisted Conversions. Like impression-assisted conversions, but with assist clicks instead of impressions. This gives you insight into keywords that help funnel a visitor towards eventual conversion, but don’t necessarily close the deal alone.
- View-Through Conversions. If someone views an ad on the Display Network, never clicks on it, and eventually converts some other way, that is counted here. If your purpose for an ad is raising brand awareness rather than making immediate conversions, this is a good metric to focus your attention on.
