Cross device attribution reports in Google AdWords

Introduction to Google Adwords Cross Device Attribution Reports

By using cross device attribution reports in Google AdWords you can determine how your customers (who interacted with your AdWords ad somewhere in their shopping journey) used different devices to convert on your website and what role these devices played in their conversion paths.

For example, there is a possibility that some devices could be helping and assisting conversions rather than directly completing conversions on your website. This is generally the case with high priced items such as jewellery.

Often people do not feel comfortable carrying out high value transactions on mobile devices. They use their mobile devices for product research but then often return to a website later, via desktop, to complete their purchase.

So if you are advertising on mobile devices and people are clicking on the ads but not making a purchase then it does not always mean that your mobile ads are not working.

It could be that people are using their mobile devices just for researching about your product and then later returning to your website directly, via desktop computer, to complete their purchase.

Without the insight from cross device reports, you may never understand the role your mobile ads played in the conversion path.

You may label your mobile ads ineffective and may even stop bidding on them.

If you are getting cross device conversions in Google AdWords then you can benefit from cross device activity reports.

To access cross device activity reports in Google AdWords, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Sign in to your Google AdWords account.

Step 2: Click on the three dot icon in the upper right hand corner:

Step-3: Click on ‘Search Attribution‘ link:

Step-4: Click on the ‘Cross device activity‘ link on the left hand side navigation menu:

You will then see the various cross device activity reports:

Google AdWords provides the following three cross device activity reports:

Devices report
Assisting devices report
Device paths report

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Devices report

Through the devices report you can determine the total number of cross device conversions generated by each ad interaction device (Mobile, Tablet, Desktop).

You can see these cross device conversions based on ad clicks and ad impressions:

‘Ad interaction device’ is the device through which users interacted with one or more of your Adwords ads.

The ‘conversion device’ is the one through which users completed conversions on your website.

Assisting devices report

Through this report you can determine the number of cross device conversions that were assisted by ad clicks or ad impressions from different devices:

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:

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