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Last Updated: February 15, 2022

Once you have set up conversion tracking in your Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) account and started collecting conversion data from search network ads in your Google Ads reports, you should start seeing data being populated in your search attribution reports (aka attribution modelling reports) in Google Ads.

In order to see the search attribution reports follow the steps below:

Step-1: Login to your Google Ads account and then click on the ‘Tools’ tab

Step-2: Click on the ‘Search Attribution‘ link under the ‘Measurement’ section:

You should now see all the search attribution reports listed on the left-hand side:

Note: The search attribution reports are available only for search network ads. That’s why they are named ‘search attribution reports’ instead of ‘attribution reports’.

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• Understand the customer purchase journey across devices
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The ‘Attribution Overview’ Report

This report gives an overview of the total number of conversions recorded by your Google Ads account in a particular time period along with:

# Top conversion actions.

# Conversion value – the total value of all recorded conversions.

# Days to conversion – the average number of days it took for users to convert on your website.

# Ad clicks per conversion – how many times users clicked on your ads on an average before completing a conversion on your website.

# Ad impressions per conversion – how many times users saw your ads on an average before completing a conversion on your website.

Click on the ‘Show Chart View’ link to see a trend of conversions, conversion value, ad clicks per conversion and ad impressions per conversion over time and/or to compare these metrics to each other:

If you are tracking multiple conversion actions then you can use the ‘Attribution Overview’ report for a particular conversion action by selecting it from the ‘Conversion Action’ drop-down menu:

The default setting for History Window is 30 days.

If you want to change the history window setting, you can do that via ‘History Window’ drop-down menu:

The Conversions Reports in Google Ads

Through conversions reports in Google Ads, you can determine top conversion actions and assisted conversions generated by a campaign, adgroup, keyword and match type.

Google Ads provides the following two types of Conversion Reports:

#1 The ‘Top Conversions’ report

#2 The ‘Assisted Conversions’ report.

The ‘Top Conversions’ Report

Through the ‘Top Conversions’ report, you can determine the top conversion actions in terms of conversion volume (i.e. conversions) and conversion value.

If you have set up multiple conversion actions then through this report you can determine total conversion volume and total conversion value for a particular conversion action.

The ‘Assisted Conversions’ Report

The ‘Assisted Conversions’ report tells you about assisted conversions (click assisted conversions and impression assisted conversions) generated by a campaign, adgroup, keyword and match type.

In the context of Google Ads, assisted conversions are those conversion actions which were assisted by ad clicks (excluding the last ad click) or ad impressions (excluding the last ad impression).

For example, for the conversion action ‘website purchase’ the ‘assisted conversions’ represents those website purchases that were assisted by ad clicks (excluding the last ad click) or ad impressions (excluding the last ad impression).

To learn more about the ‘Assisted Conversions’ report, read this article: Understanding Assisted Conversions Report in Google Ads

Cross-Device Activity Reports in Google Ads

As the name suggests the cross-device activity reports provide insights into the cross-device activities of the users who interacted with your ads.

Through cross-device activity reports you can determine, how the people who interacted with your ads used different devices (mobile, tablet, desktop) on their path to conversion.

Google Ads provides the following three cross-device activity reports:

#1 Devices report – Through this report, you can determine the total number of cross-device conversions generated by each ad interaction device (Mobile, Tablet, Desktop).

#2 Assisting devices report – Through this report, you can determine the following for each device:

• Last Click Conversions
• Last Click Conversion Value
• Click-Assisted Conversions
• Click-Assisted Conversion Value
• Click-Assisted Conversions / Last Click Conversions
• Impression-Assisted Conversions
• Impression-Assisted Conversion Value
• Impression-Assisted Conversions / Last Click Conversions

#3 Device paths report – This report shows the top cross-device conversion paths and allows you to determine the order in which customers used different devices before they converted on your website.

To learn more about these reports, read the article: Cross Device Attribution reports in Google Ads (Google AdWords)

Paths Reports in Google Ads

You can understand conversion paths in Google Ads via ‘Paths’ reports.

Google Ads provides the following three paths reports:

#1 Top Paths report – It shows the top conversion paths (in terms of conversion volume or conversion value) your customers took to complete conversion action(s) on your website.

#2 Time Lag report – Through this report, you can determine, how long (days or hours) on average it takes for your website visitors to complete a conversion action on your website

#3 Path Length report – Through this report, you can determine the average number of ad clicks or ad impressions it took for your website visitors to complete a conversion action on your website.

In the context of Google ads, a ‘path’ is the sequence of ad clicks and/or ad impressions that lead up to conversions.

It is the path that your customers took to complete conversion actions.

Following is an example of Google Ads conversion path:

generic impression > generic click > generic impression > brand click => Conversion

Note: The conversion path is created for each conversion action recorded by Google Ads.

There are four categories of conversion paths in Google ads:

1. Click Paths
2. Transition Click Paths
3. Impression Paths
4. Transition Impression Paths

In order to learn more about conversion paths and paths reports, read this article: Understanding Conversion Paths in Google Ads (Google Adwords)

Click Analysis Reports

Through the click analysis reports, you can determine the campaigns, ad groups, and keywords that initiated and completed conversion actions on your website.

Google Ads provides the following two types of click analysis reports:

#1 First Click Analysis report.

#2 Last Click Analysis report

The ‘First Click Analysis’ Report

Through the first click analysis report, you can determine the campaigns, ad groups, and keywords that initiated conversion actions on your website.

The campaigns which initiated conversion actions on your website is called the ‘First Clicked Campaign’.

The ad group which initiated conversion actions on your website is called the ‘First Clicked ad group’.

The keyword which initiated conversion actions on your website is called the ‘First Clicked Keyword’.

You can see the first clicked campaigns, first clicked ad groups, and first clicked keywords through the drop-down menu in the first click analysis report:

The ‘Last Click Analysis’ Report

Through the last click analysis report, you can determine the campaigns, ad groups, and keywords that completed conversion actions on your website.

The campaigns which completed conversion actions on your website is called the ‘Last Clicked Campaign’.

The ad group which completed conversion actions on your website is called the ‘Last Clicked ad group’.

The keyword which completed conversion actions on your website is called the ‘Last Clicked Keyword’.

You can see the last clicked campaigns, last clicked ad groups, and last clicked keywords through the drop-down menu in the last click analysis report:

The ‘Attribution Modelling’ Report

Use the ‘Attribution Modelling’ report to compare two different attribution models with each other for a particular conversion action.

This comparison is carried out to determine how a Google Ads Account, campaign, adgroup, keyword, match type, or device can be valued from a different perspective.

Through the ‘Attribution Modelling report, you can determine whether a Google Ads Account, campaign, adgroup, keyword, Match Type or Device is undervalued or overvalued under the last-click attribution model when this model is compared with other attribution models.

For example, let us compare the last click model with the data-driven model.

You can do that by selecting the ‘data-driven’ model from the drop-down menu:

Note: Data-driven model is not available in all Google Ads account and may not be available for a particular conversion action.

Now look at the ‘percentage change’ column on the right:

The upward green arrow next to 16.22% (in the % change column) indicates a positive change in conversions from the last click model.

The downward red arrow next to -5.44% (in the % change column) indicates a negative change in conversions from the last click model.

The downward grey arrow next to -2.08% indicates a negative change in conversions from last-click model. The colour of the downward arrow is grey because the negative change is greater than -5%. If the negative change was lesser than -5% then the colour of the downward arrow would be red.

The upward grey arrow next to 0.51% indicates a positive change in conversions from last-click model. The colour of the upward arrow is grey because the positive change is lower than 5%. If the positive change was greater than 5% then the colour of the upward arrow would be green.

The grey dot next to 0.00% indicated no change in conversions from last-click model.

By default through ‘Attribution Modelling’ report you compare ‘conversions’ and ‘cost per conversions’ for different attribution models:

In order to compare ‘conversion value’ and ‘conversion value per conversion’ for different attribution models, select ‘Conversion Value & Conv. value/cost’ from the drop-down menu:

An attribution model is a set of rules that determine how the credit for conversions should be attributed to various keywords, ad groups, and campaigns in Google Ads.

Google Ads provides the following attribution models:

1. Last Click
2. First Click
3. Linear
4. Time Decay
5. Position-based
6. Data-Driven

To learn more about attribution models in Google ads, read this article: Guide to Attribution Modelling in Google Ads (Google Adwords)

Get my best selling books on Attribution Modelling

• Learn to implement attribution modelling in your organisation
• Understand the customer purchase journey across devices
• Determine the most effective marketing channels for investment

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