Table of Contents

1. Turn Business Objectives into Marketing Goals..........................................................4

1.1. Determine your business goals..............................................................................4
1.1.1. The different types of objectives.....................................................................4
1.1.2. How to make money?.......................................................................................5
1.1.3. Strategic objectives..........................................................................................5
1.2. Map your customer journey....................................................................................6
1.2.1. Revisiting your business objectives.................................................................6
1.3. Identify your marketing objectives..........................................................................7
1.3.1. One objective at a time.....................................................................................7
1.3.2. Quiz...................................................................................................................8
1.4. Choose the right media to reach your objective....................................................9
1.4.1. What are channels?..........................................................................................9
1.4.2. Finding your audience......................................................................................9
1.4.3. Focus on the message, not the channel..........................................................9
1.5. Focus on the metrics that matter most................................................................11
1.5.1. Creating objective-driven KPIs to measure performance.............................11
1.5.2. Many metrics to choose from........................................................................11
1.6. KNOWLEDGE CHECK QUIZ...................................................................................12
2. Assign Value to What's Being Measured....................................................................13
2.1. Attribution and the customer journey...................................................................13
2.1.1. Understanding attribution..............................................................................13
2.1.2. Digging into conversions................................................................................13
2.1.3. Attribution models..........................................................................................13
2.1.4. Rules-based attribution..................................................................................13
2.1.1. Data-driven attribution....................................................................................15
2.2. Valuing media channels beyond attribution.........................................................16
2.2.1. Media channels and sales channels..............................................................16
2.2.2. Which media sales ROI measurement is right for you?................................17
2.2.3. Marketing Mix Model......................................................................................18
 2.2.4. Customer lifetime value.................................................................................19
2.2.5. Cross channel attribution...............................................................................19
2.2.6. Store Visit........................................................................................................20
2.2.7. Store Sales Direct...........................................................................................20
2.2.8. Brand Lift.........................................................................................................21
3. Evaluate results and take action.................................................................................22
3.1. 1. Marketing by the numbers................................................................................22
3.1.1. Are you data driven?.......................................................................................22
3.1.2. Become a data detective................................................................................22
3.1.3. What to do with all that data..........................................................................23
3.1.4. Best practices.................................................................................................24
3.2. Optimization and automation...............................................................................25
3.2.1. Two types of optimization..............................................................................25
3.2.2. Why should you care about automation?......................................................25
3.2.3. Automation success factors..........................................................................26
3.2.4. Four easy ways to start with automation......................................................26
3.3. Develop a test-and-learn culture...........................................................................26
3.3.1. Individual measurement habits......................................................................26
3.3.2. Measurement for large businesses...............................................................27
3.3.3. Measurement framework template...............................................................28
3.3.4. QUIZ................................................................................................................28
4. Get Acquainted with Conversion Tracking.................................................................30
4.1. 1. Why measure conversions?..............................................................................30
4.1.1. What is conversion measurement?...............................................................30
4.1.2. What actions can be measured?...................................................................30
4.1.3. Is your digital advertising bringing value to your business?.........................30
4.2. Conversion tracking in Google Ads......................................................................31
4.2.1. New to Google Ads conversion tracking?.....................................................31
4.2.2. Google Ads conversion tracking overview....................................................31
4.2.3. Understanding conversion columns..............................................................31
4.3. 3. Conversion tracking differences in Google Ads and Google Analytics..........33
 4.3.1. Measuring goals.............................................................................................33
4.3.2. Measuring eCommerce transactions............................................................34
4.3.3. Measuring in Analytics vs. Google Ads.........................................................34
4.4. Quiz........................................................................................................................36
5. Set Up Conversion Tracking to Meet Your Goals.......................................................38
5.1. 1. Establish goals for tracking conversions.........................................................38
5.1.1. Let's explore....................................................................................................38
5.1.2. Meet Anders....................................................................................................38
5.1.3. Meet Janelle...................................................................................................40
5.1.4. Meet Hiroko again..........................................................................................40
5.2. Set up actions for sale conversions.....................................................................41
5.2.1. Meet Hiroko....................................................................................................41
5.2.2. First step: Setting up conversion actions for Hiroko’s website....................42
5.2.3. Next stop: conversion tracking setup for their mobile app..........................42
 1. Turn Business Objectives into Marketing
Goals
 

1.1. Determine your business goals

Workshop:
https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/marketing_that_matters_workbook_en.pdf
1.1.1. The different types of objectives
Here’s a list of the types of objectives we’ll cover in this course. (Remember, some
people call these "KPIs.")

Business objective: A broad, top-level goal for your company. This goal typically focuses
on increasing revenue, profit margin, or volume (for example, units sold). Often, larger
companies will create a subgoal for each of their lines of business.

Marketing objectives: These support the business objective. Some smaller companies

may not have the scale to warrant this level of specificity.

Media objectives: This refers to the goals for each channel that are necessary for
meeting your marketing objectives (for example, the goal of your YouTube campaign).

Campaign metrics: These are the individual metrics you use to measure the success of
your media objectives.
 1.1.2. How to make money?

1.1.3. Strategic objectives

Brand strength (also called brand equity) is a phrase used in the marketing industry that
describes the value of having a well-known name (like Sony). The idea is that a well-
known brand name can generate more revenue simply from brand recognition.
 1.2. Map your customer journey
1.2.1. Revisiting your business objectives
Profit: Marketing requires an investment, and any investment is initially classified as a
cost, which reduces profit. However, well-managed marketing drives sales, with results
in revenue and profit.

Revenue: A company can increase their sales by acquiring new customers or increasing
how much existing customers spend.

Volume: Companies who wish to increase volume need to either decrease cost to drive
more sales or use various tactics to drive more demand.

In all of the above situations, we’re talking about getting customers to buy something.
That means you need to place yourself in the consumer’s path to purchase (also
referred to as the marketing funnel or customer journey), where you can influence their
buying decision.

Customer journey:

1. Make sure people see that your business, product, or service exists.

Address all the people who match the desired customer profile based on their age,
gender, interests, and behaviors.

2. Lead people to think about or show interest in your brand.

Address all the people who match the desired customer profile and have shown some
interest in the advertised product or category.

3. Get people to do something, like make a purchase.

Address all the people who have shown a strong interest in the advertised brand or
product.

4. Make people care enough to purchase more or advocate for your business.

Address current customers.

1.3. Identify your marketing objectives

1.3.1. One objective at a time

Below is a list of metrics you might use to create your marketing objectives.

Awareness Consideration Purchase Loyalty

brand awareness  brand favorability  new customers  repurchase
brand recall brand preference  transactions upsells
top of mind brand association  average order size  customer referrals
brand liking  return on
purchase intent investment 
return on ad spend 
cost of sales
cost per action
1.3.2. Quiz
 1.4. Choose the right media to reach your
objective
1.4.1. What are channels?
Offline (traditional)
 Television: Can be regional or national
 Radio: Includes podcasts as well
 Outdoor advertising: Like on the side of a bus or a billboard 
 Print media: Newspapers, magazines, etc.

Online (digital)
 Search engines: Like Google!
 Display: Ads you see on websites and in apps
 Video: Ads like you see on YouTube
 Social media: Like reddit.com
 Email: For example, a newsletter

1.4.2. Finding your audience

The last four columns are (1) Awareness, (2) Consideration, (3) Purchase, and (4)
Loyalty.

Media Audience focus 1 2 3 4

channel
TV Broad ✔ ✔ ✔
Radio Geographic ✔ ✔ ✔
Out of Geographic ✔ ✔ ✔
home
Print media Geographic, based on interests ✔ ✔ ✔
Search Based on search queries ✔ ✔ ✔
Display Based on demo, geo, interests and online ✔ ✔ ✔
behaviors
Video Based on demo, geo, interests and online ✔ ✔ ✔
behaviors
Social Based on demo, geo, interests and online ✔ ✔ ✔
media behaviors
Email Existing customers ✔
1.4.3. Focus on the message, not the channel
 Awareness
o Display and video: focus on storytelling around the brand.
o Search: use generic search terms.
 Consideration
o Display and video: focus on brand attributes or product value proposition.
o Search: use generic search terms.
 Purchase
o Display and video: include an implicit or explicit call-to-action (“buy now,”
“buy here,” or “shop here,” e.g.).
o Search: use brand search terms.
 Loyalty
o Display and video: focus on a specific offer or product (up sell).
o Search: use brand search terms.
 1.5. Focus on the metrics that matter most
1.5.1. Creating objective-driven KPIs to measure
performance

Marketing objectives Campaign metrics

Answers the Did I succeed or fail? Why did I succeed or fail?
question:
By capturing: Marketing objectives of your The mechanism of delivery of
business marketing objectives
How many? One per objective Many, if they are relevant
Example: Increase T-shirt sales by 10% Cost per view
over the next six months Completion rates
Engagement rates
Ad recall
Reach

1.5.2. Many metrics to choose from

Video metrics Search metrics Social media metrics

Engagement rates Click through rate  Engagement rates
Video views  Conversion rate  Views
Complete views  Conversions  Reach
Cost-per-view Cost-per-action Frequency
Completion rates
1.6. KNOWLEDGE CHECK QUIZ
 2. Assign Value to What's Being Measured
2.1. Attribution and the customer journey
2.1.1. Understanding attribution

What if we needed to give credit to someone or something for their marriage? They
must have encountered so many people and places while on the path from meeting to
marriage. Who or what should we attribute their romance to? Should we credit… 

 The dating app they met on?

 The coffee shop where they had their first date?
 The movie where they shared their first kiss?
 The person who proposed?
 The person who married them?

2.1.2. Digging into conversions

 Visit a website
 Submit a form
 Create an account
 Watch a video
 Open an email
 Start a product trial
 Make a referral
 Share on social media
 Download an app
 Make a phone call

2.1.3. Attribution models

2.1.4. Rules-based attribution
Rules-based models apply static logic to assign a value to each touchpoint in a
conversion path. These values are based on the relative importance of that step of the
process. For example, a rules-based model may assign some value to the first
interaction that introduces a customer to a brand, but assign a higher value to the final
interaction that leads to the purchase.

Last interaction The last touchpoint receives 100% of the credit for the
conversion.

First click The first touchpoint receives 100% of the credit for the
conversion.

Position-based 40% credit is assigned to both the first and last interaction,
and the remaining 20% credit is distributed evenly to the
middle interactions.

Time-decay A multi-touch model that gives more credit to the

touchpoints closest to the conversion.

Linear Credit is distributed evenly to every single touch in the buyer

journey.
 Close

Digital-driven Machine learning determines the best way to distribute

attribution credit for your conversions.

1.1.1. Data-driven attribution

Data-driven attribution (DDA) is the most advanced model in Google's attribution
products. A data-driven model algorithmically evaluates individual customer paths.
Credit is then dynamically attributed to each touchpoint according to its impact on the
conversion. An advantage of this model is that attribution logic includes converting and
non-converting paths, whereas rules-based models only take converting paths into
account.
 2.2. Valuing media channels beyond
attribution
2.2.1. Media channels and sales channels
2.2.1.1. Examples of media channels

A media channel is a specific medium that's used to reach an intended audience.

Media channels can be traditional, such as: 

 Newspapers 

 Radio stations 

 Television stations

 Outdoor advertising

Or they can be online: 

  Search engines

 Display (ads on websites)

 Video  

 Social media  

 Email (for example, newsletters)

2.2.1.2. Examples of sales channels

A sales channel is a way of bringing products or services to market so that they can be
purchased by consumers. 

Examples include: 
 Traditional sales (brick-and-mortar stores or retail) 
 Online sales (also called eCommerce or eTail)
 Both online and traditional (sometimes called multichannel)

2.2.2. Which media sales ROI measurement is right for

you?
 Offline  Online  Online & Offline
Advertising Advertising Advertising
Offline MMM Store Visits Store Visits
Sales Store Sales Direct Store Sales Direct
MMM MMM
Online MMM Cross Channel Attribution Cross Channel Attribution
Sales MMM
Online &  MMM Cross Channel Attribution Cross Channel Attribution
Offline Sales Store Visits Store Visits or
Store Sales Direct Store Sales Direct
MMM MMM

2.2.3. Marketing Mix Model

It’s a bit of a buzzword these days, but a marketing mix model (MMM) is not right for
every business. It’s particularly useful for companies that invest a significant amount of
their marketing budget in offline media channels, or companies that sell predominantly
through offline sales channels (brick-and-mortar stores).
2.2.3.1. Who’s it for?
An MMM is typically done for a brand (for example, Oreo) or a group of brands in the
same category (for example, snack foods). It incorporates all possible factors that
could drive the brand’s sales, including (but not limited to) media and marketing (for
example, TV, radio, digital, outdoor advertising, emails, coupons), brand consideration,
the economy, competitor actions, and even the weather.

2.2.3.2. How does it work?

An advertiser will typically hire a third-party vendor to run an MMM, and a few
advertisers run their own MMMs. They are expensive and take 12 to 20 weeks to run, so
most advertisers only do it just once or twice a year. As technology and data improve,
however, more advertisers are beginning to do quarterly updates or even monthly
refreshes. Frequent updates to MMMs are a good thing, as long as the advertiser can
make decisions about their media budgets with the same frequency.
2.2.3.3. Is it worth all the trouble?
MMMs are the best available method for determining the amount of sales driven by
each media channel. Most companies use the findings to support their strategic
planning and budgeting. CMOs and other budget decision-makers look at the ROI of
each media channel to determine the ones they should continue to invest in.
 2.2.3.4. What are its limitations?
MMMs require a diligent collection of two to three years worth of weekly data for each
and every driver of sales, including all marketing channels, but also across areas like
price promotions, distribution, and product changes. External factors like competitive
actions and the economy are considered as well. There’s often a limit to how many
marketing tactics can be analyzed at once.
 2.2.4. Customer lifetime value
The challenge with most ROI calculations is that they look at the value of channels in
the short-term: a typical timeframe for ROI calculation is anywhere from several weeks
to one year. Short-term view of ROI can be misleading.

2.2.4.1. How does it work?

Imagine there are two shoppers using a baby apparel website. The first is a one-time
visitor who buys a $500 gift for a baby shower. The second is a new mom who spends
$100 each month on purchases for her baby. If you just looked at revenue, the first
customer would appear to be worth more. But if you think about these people in terms
of customer lifetime value (CLV), the relationship with the new mom could be worth
more over time. A lot more.

By looking at the lifetime value of customers that a brand acquired through various
channels, it is possible to extend the horizon of the channel performance evaluation and
have a more accurate view of performance.

2.2.4.2. Consideration:
You should not make changes to your creative and branding until you know you’re
reaching the right customers—those that have the most high value for your brand. To do
this, you need to truly understand who your audience is, and the best way of interacting
with them. Today, it’s the brands that are able to drive CLV for the right customers that
will see long-term success.

2.2.5. Cross channel attribution

Cross channel attribution includes all marketing touch points that result in a
conversion action. These conversions could include, but are not limited to website
visits, views, newsletters and purchases. Cross channel attribution is an advanced
approach to customer measurement and is meant to give a full picture of the customer
path to purchase.

2.2.5.1. Who’s it for?

Cross channel attribution insights, unlike search attribution, are often used to influence
budget decisions and channel investment rather than to optimize campaigns within a
single channel. When done properly, this allows advertisers to be both more efficient
and nimble with their marketing spend.
 2.2.5.2. How does it work
Sophisticated algorithms (and machine learning) evaluate all the different paths to
determine which touchpoints are the most influential. Factors such as the number of
interactions, the order of exposure, and the creative assets used in each conversion
path may be incorporated into your results.

2.2.6. Store Visit

Store Visits is a Google product. If visits to your physical locations are important to your
business — as they are for hotels, auto dealerships, restaurants, and retail stores — you
can use conversion tracking to help you see how your ad clicks and viewable
impressions influence store visits. You can also use Store Visits to understand your
return on investment (ROI) and make more informed decisions about ad creatives,
spend, bid strategies, and the other elements of your campaigns.

2.2.6.1. Who’s it for?

Store visit conversions are only available to certain advertisers. For example, they aren't
available to advertisers with sensitive location categories, such as healthcare, religion,
adult content, and children. If you think you’re eligible for store visit conversions, contact
your account representative to find out more.

2.2.6.2. How does it work

Store visit data is based on anonymous, aggregated statistics. Google Ads creates
modeled numbers by using current and past data on the number of people who click or
view your ads and later visit your store. Store visit data can’t be tied to individual ad
clicks, viewable impressions, or people. We use industry best practices to ensure the
privacy of individual users.

2.2.7. Store Sales Direct

Store Sales Direct is a Google product that analyzes information about the share of
store visitors who make a purchase. It also analyzes their average purchase value. With
this information, it becomes possible to estimate an offline sales ROI. Coupling this with
online performance results in an omnichannel ROI, and optimizing media marketing in
response to this omnichannel ROI can fundamentally change media strategy and
performance.

2.2.7.1. Who’s it for?

Store Sales Direct is for brick-and-mortar retailers that collect shopper purchase data in
a customer relationship management system (CRM).
 2.2.7.2. How does it work
Store Sales Direct analyzes your CRM data to match Google Search ad clicks with
offline purchases. This allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your Search ads and
provides insight to your advertising strategy.

1.1.1.1. Should I use this or Store Visits?

Marketers can use both solutions at the same time. It's important to note, however, that
while they both provide valuable offline insights, they don't directly correlate.

2.2.8. Brand Lift

Brand Lift is a Google product that can measure the direct impact your YouTube ads
are having on perceptions and behaviors throughout the consumer journey. Within a
matter of days, Brand Lift gives you continuous insight into how your ads are impacting
the metrics that matter, including lifts in brand awareness, ad recall, consideration,
favorability, purchase intent, and brand interest, as measured by organic search activity.
You can easily optimize your campaigns mid-flight based on these near real-time
results, broken out by demographics, frequency, and more.

2.2.8.1. Who’s it for?

Brand Lift is for any advertiser that wants to prove the impact of media on their brand. It
can also compare the impact on the brand with the impact from different ads.

2.2.8.2. How does it work

To measure moments along the consumer journey, including brand awareness, ad
recall, consideration, favorability, and purchase intent, Brand Lift first isolates a
randomized control group that isn't shown your ad and an exposed group that is. About
a day after seeing (or not seeing) your ad, it delivers a one-question survey to both
groups. Since the only effective difference between the two groups is whether they saw
your ad, we can accurately determine the lift attributed to your campaign. 
 3. Evaluate results and take action
3.1. 1. Marketing by the numbers
3.1.1. Are you data driven?

Customer
journey Change in
segment Objective Tools Target Results Media mix metrics
Build Brand Brand lift +10% +12% Video Video views ↑
awareness awareness Social Engagement ↓
media
Influence Brand Brand lift +5% +4% Video Completion rate
consideration favorability Display ↓
Search Micro
conversion ↑
Micro
conversion ↑
Drive ROAS Attribution $1.12 $1 Video Conversion rate
purchase MMM ROAS ROAS Display ↓
Search Conversion rate
↑
Conversion rate
↓
Grow loyalty LTV LTV $1,100 $450 Email Open rate
analysis Remarketing Conversion rate
↓

3.1.2. Become a data detective

Customer
journey Change in
segment Objective Tools Target Results Media mix metrics
Build Brand Brand lift +10% +12% Video Video views
awareness awareness Social ↑
media Engagement
↓
Customer
journey Change in
segment Objective Tools Target Results Media mix metrics
Influence Brand Brand lift +5% +4% Video Completion
consideration favorability Display rate ↓
Search Micro
conversion ↑
Micro
conversion ↑
Drive purchase ROAS Attribution $1.12 $1 Video Conversion
MMM ROAS ROAS Display rate ↓
Search Conversion
rate ↑
Conversion
rate ↓
Grow loyalty LTV LTV $1,100 $450 Email Open rate
analysis Remarketing Conversion
rate ↓

3.1.3. What to do with all that data

Customer Targ Result Change in

journey Objective Tools et s Media mix metrics Action
Build Brand Brand +10% +12% Video Video Use more
awareness awarene lift Social views ↑ video
ss media Engageme Test creative
nt ↓
Influence Brand Brand +5% +4% Video Completio Shorter video
considerati favorabili lift Display n rate ↓
on ty Search Micro Expand
conversio keywords
n ↑
Micro
conversio
n↑
Drive ROAS Attributi $1.12 $1 Video Conversio Stronger CTA
Customer Targ Result Change in
journey Objective Tools et s Media mix metrics Action
purchase on ROA ROAS Display n rate ↓ Use Audiences
MMM S Search Conversio Adjust bids,
n rate ↑ A/B test
Conversio
n rate ↓
Grow LTV LTV $1,10 $450 Email Open rate
loyalty analysis 0 Remarketi Conversio A/B test
ng n rate ↓

3.1.4. Best practices

When it comes to turning marketing insights into action, here are a few best practices.

3.1.4.1. Check your ads

Before reducing investment in any channel as a result of underperformance, first
examine whether the ads you displayed were sufficiently effective. Improvement in
creative can lead to improved results from the channel. 

3.1.4.2. Try different approaches

To improve your creative, always A/B test. A/B testing is when you experiment with two
different ways of doing something and compare the results. Your ads may start with the
creative team, but they also require a bit of math and data to confirm they’re performing
optimally. For best results, only compare ads that are:

 Used in identical ways 

 On the same channels 
 Directed at the same audience

3.1.4.3. Confirm you have the right audience

Make sure you’re focusing on the right audience, especially at more advanced stages of
the customer journey. Putting the right message in front of the wrong audience is never
going to work! Showing an ad to an audience that isn’t familiar with the brand and hasn’t
formed an opinion about it is unlikely to yield a strong result. 

3.1.4.4. Be smart with your money

When making any changes in investment, reallocate conservative amounts of budget
first, then assess whether this improves the overall profitability of your marketing.
Making big shifts in your investments is risky. If you misinterpreted the insights and
came to the wrong conclusion, it can lead to the wrong action and result in loss of
revenue and profitability.

3.2. Optimization and automation

3.2.1. Two types of optimization
3.2.1.1. Media mix optimization

This practice involves shifting media investment across media channels — moving
budgets from lower-performing channels to higher-performing channels in order to
improve the overall media performance. For example, if video ads drive sales at a higher
ROI than display, a portion of the display budget may be moved to the video ad budget.

3.2.1.2. Channel optimization

This is changing how ads are delivered within a specific channel for maximum impact on
business outcomes. There are three main types of channel optimization:

 Bidding: Acquire more customers by adjusting bids based on a rich set of

auction-time signals.
 Creative: Customize your assets to serve the right message to the right user at
the right moment.
 Targeting: Reach those most interested in your business with dynamic audience
targeting.

For example, you may choose to change keywords, bids, or creative in order to make
Search more efficient in driving online sales.

3.2.2. Why should you care about automation?

Over the past few decades, companies have learned a great deal about the power of
data and the advantage it offers. Today, competitive advantage comes from the ability
to turn data into action, fast, to drive more profit. 
By shifting from manual to automated processes, businesses are able to act on
customer insights in real time and achieve better business outcomes. 

There are many types and levels of automation in media, including:

 Creative assets
 Inventory (product feeds)
 Bidding
 Targeting
 Placements
 Measurement and attribution (automated bidding requires automated
measurement)
 Reporting (dashboards, intelligent reports in Analytics)

3.2.3. Automation success factors

 Quality and quantity of data (user signals, audience, remarketing data, all the way to
CRM integration with CLTV calculations)

 Instructions that are given to the system (best when informed by data-driven models
rather than rules or assumptions)

 Testing and calibration

 Shift from controlling your media to training/coaching your tools

3.2.4. Four easy ways to start with automation

What are you waiting for? Give one of these a try today!
 Automated bidding
 Data-driven attribution
 Ad rotation 
 Dashboards

3.3. Develop a test-and-learn culture

3.3.1. Individual measurement habits
To build a truly data-driven organization, regardless of company size, it’s important to
cultivate individual measurement habits. Below are a few habits that anyone, regardless
of their role in the organization, can adopt: 
  Start your day by looking at how well you’re doing on you objectives. This will
ground your priority in driving the most important outcomes that you’re judged by
and are accountable for. 
 Democratize data in your organization via dashboards. Everyone needs to be able
to easily access data that powers their decision-making, on any device, especially
mobile phones. Lack of data perpetuates a reliance on gut feelings when it
comes to making important decisions. 
 Bring data to all your meetings — this is key. Data needs to be at the center of
every decision made. 
 Ask one another, “What does the data suggest we do?” instead of “What do you
think?” This is an important first step to overcoming HIPPO, or listening to the
“highest paid person’s opinion.” Opinions are nothing more than hypotheses to
test — with data. 
 Run tests continuously. Tests and experiments are the best way to enrich
learnings and increase data points that help inform important strategic
decisions. One of the biggest obstacles for many companies when it comes to
expanding their marketing strategies is the lack of data that helps them define
what success would look like under the new strategy. 
 Encourage learning from failure. Failure has a bad reputation. It’s often thought
of as falling short of expectations, or a mistake. But failure is necessary for
testing the possibilities, and for learning what doesn’t work. A consistent lack of
failure can mean only one thing: a lack of innovation and experimentation! 

3.3.2. Measurement for large businesses

While the list below may seem like a lot of work, it’s worth the results. According to a
study done by Forrester in 2018, marketers that have established mature analytics
practices saw a 50% higher increase in revenue vs. those that were just starting their
analytics practices.

Clearly define your measurement owner. This ensures consistent measurement across

all stages of the customer journey, channels, and teams. The role requires focus and
coordination. In large, complex companies with multiple brands that also operate in
several countries, there may be an entire organization dedicated to measurement.
These organizations may have different names, but they share a common goal: to
provide a holistic measurement of marketing effectiveness throughout the entire
customer journey. 
Keep business impact in mind.The goal of marketing is to help brands grow, not amass
ad impressions and engagements. Measuring the impact of marketing on business
outcomes helps define it as a source of growth, not a cost center, and improves the
quality of discussions with the CFO about the size of the marketing budget. 

Be relentlessly curious and passionate about the customer journey. Recognize that the
world is not static and that the media landscape evolves all the time. 

Focus on objective-driven KPIs. This ensures that campaigns manage to deliver the

greatest business outcomes. It’s easy to get distracted by all the available data on an
average digital campaign.

Master multiple tools. Since there are multiple steps in an average customer journey,
with each step corresponding to a unique expected outcome, they're measured by
leveraging different tools. 

Develop strong data interpretation skills. Not all measurement owners are statisticians
or engineers. Luckily, there are many partners available in the area of marketing
analytics, with a best-in-class technical staff, which ensures the highest quality
measurement. Good measurement owners are expert storytellers who can distill
learnings from several tools into one compelling narrative that can be shared within the
organization and influence decision-making. 

Have a learning mindset. In addition to driving strong results, marketers want to learn
something new. Measurement is the key to this. 

Make measurement lead to action.The role of the measurement owner is to be a

strategic advisor to the top decision-makers who command marketing budgets. 

Make measurement a habit.Measurement should be practiced by everyone, all the

time. 

Only when these best practices are closely followed will your company truly be
customer-centric and data driven.

3.3.3. Measurement framework template    

https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/map_your_measurement_goals_en.pdf
3.3.4. QUIZ
 4. Get Acquainted with Conversion
Tracking
4.1. 1. Why measure conversions?
4.1.1. What is conversion measurement?
A conversion is an action you want your customers to take when they encounter your
marketing message — for example, your online ad.

The most obvious conversion is the purchase of a product, but your business may also
need to identify more conversions for people who are at different stages of the
customer journey.

4.1.2. What actions can be measured?

 Pageview: Whether someone visits a specific page such as the reviews page
 Sign-up: Whether someone signs up for a subscription or email newsletter
 Lead: Whether someone submits a form with their contact information or to ask
a question
 Purchase: Whether someone purchases a product or service

4.1.3. Is your digital advertising bringing value to your

business?
Which age group is
more likely to You'll know with conversion measurement installed! You can
purchase your customize campaigns with specific messaging to reach the
product or service right demographics that bring the most value.
after clicking an ad?

Which ad is leading With conversion measurement installed, you’ll be able to

to the most identify the best-performing ads and use the right
newsletter signups? messaging to create new and better creatives.

On which day of the With conversion measurement installed, you can identify
week am I which days or even times of the week lead to the most
generating the most business. 
sales? You can then shift your budget to target those specific days.
 4.2. Conversion tracking in Google Ads
4.2.1. New to Google Ads conversion tracking?
Step 1. Set up a conversion action in Google Ads to measure what you consider to be
valuable customer actions.

Step 2. Google Ads will give you a snippet of code, which is called a conversion tracking
tag.

Step 3. Add that conversion tracking tag to your website or app. 

Step 4. When a customer performs a conversion action(s), the tag will send data back to
Google Ads.

4.2.2. Google Ads conversion tracking overview

Set up ads campaign.
Select the kind of conversion.
Set up tag setup.

4.2.3. Understanding conversion columns

In Google Ads, the conversion columns report on how your campaigns are doing against
your set goals. You can use the reported data to begin to modify your bid strategies to
ensure your ads are driving maximum results. 
Let's look at the different conversion-related columns you can add below. To add these
conversion columns, go to the Campaigns tab, then Columns, then Modify Columns.
Select each column you want to add and click Apply.

Conversions
The Conversions column shows you the number of conversions you've received, across
the conversion actions that you've chosen to include in this column. You can use this
column to see how often your ads lead customers to actions that you’ve defined as
valuable for your business.

Cost/Conv.
Cost per Conversion (Cost/Conv.) gives you an average of how much your conversions
have cost.

Cost/conv. = total cost ÷ conversions 

Conv. Rate
Conversion rate (Conv. Rate) tells you how often, on average, an ad click or other ad
interaction leads to a conversion. 

Conv. rate = number of conversions ÷ total interactions

Conv. Value/Cost
Conversion value per cost (Conv. Value/Cost) shows your return on investment (ROI). It
measures the value of your conversions from your customers vs. how much you are
paying for them to click on your ads.

conv. value/cost = total value of your conversions ÷ total cost of clicks on your ads

Conv. Value/Click
Conversion value per click (Conv. Value/Click) is what you gain each time someone
clicks on your ad. It’s how many conversions you receive according to clicks.

All conv. value/click = total value of all conversions ÷ total number of clicks

Value/Conv.
Value per conversion (Value/Conv.) tells you approximately how much, on average, each
of your conversions is worth. 
Value/conv. = total value of your conversions ÷ total number of your conversions

Conv. Value
Conversion value (Conv. Value) is the total value of all of your conversions; so the value
of everything in your All Conversions column.

4.3. 3. Conversion tracking differences in

Google Ads and Google Analytics
4.3.1. Measuring goals
With Goals, you can capture customer actions that are valuable for your business. Setup
is easy as we offer templates that outline the most common goals/events to track, such
as when someone places an order or contacts your business. Goals can be set up
directly in Analytics.

You can also create custom goals using:

 Destination: a specific page that has been visited.

 Duration: how long someone was on your website, such as more than five
minutes
 Pages: how many pages a specific person visited on your site, such as three or
more
 Event: a specific action that someone took while on your site, such as playing a
video.
You have three basic options for creating goals:

1. Using a goal template

2. Creating custom goals
3. Creating Smart Goals

Follow the link to set up goals tracking.

4.3.2. Measuring eCommerce transactions

Sometimes you might want to ask deeper questions about your sales, which can’t be
answered with Goals. This is where the eCommerce transactions tracking solution
comes in. 

The insights you'll gain using the default eCommerce reports include answers to
questions such as:

 Which of your products sell well and which are the most impacted by your
marketing efforts? 
 How many products are you selling in each transaction and for how much?
 How many times is a customer coming to your site before they finally make a
purchase?
 What is the full value of the transaction once you include the tax and shipping
cost?

To see eCommerce data in Analytics, you need to:

1. Enable eCommerce in your reports

2. Add code to your site/app to collect eCommerce data

Follow the link to set up eCommerce Tracking.

4.3.3. Measuring in Analytics vs. Google Ads

If you have conversions set up in both Analytics and Google Ads, will the numbers be
the same on both platforms? 
The answer is no. Analytics provides a cross-channel view of the customer journey.
There are some differences in how each platform calculates the data.
Let's go through an example to help summarize the most common differences. (For a
full list of differences, visit our Help Center.)

You're a shoe retailer, and one of your customers, Bob, wants to buy a new pair of
shoes. He researches the shoes and makes a purchase (or conversion) on your site.
See below the differences between how Analytics and Google Ads track Bob's journey
and how it's reported in each platform. 

4.3.3.1. Attribution differences

By default, if a customer's journey to purchase involved a Google ad, Google Ads will
always give conversion credit to the last Google ad the customer saw or clicked (unless
you change to other attribution models).

Analytics gives conversion credit to whatever engagement was the last one in the
customer's journey. 

For example, Bob clicked on your Google ad for shoes but decided to shop around and
do some research. A few days later, while researching, Bob sees your business on a
review website and decides to click through to your site and make a purchase. In this
case, Analytics would give credit to the review site as "referral" traffic, yet Google Ads
will attribute the conversion back to your ad campaign for the ad that Bob had clicked
on a few days ago.

4.3.3.2. Date of transaction

Google Ads gives conversion credit to the time of the last impression made by the
customer before they clicked on the ad.

For example, let's say Bob clicked on a Google ad for your shoes on October 11 and
purchased those shoes on October 18. Google Ads would show the conversion on
October 11. Analytics will give the credit to the date the purchase occurred, which, in
this example, is October 18.

4.3.3.3. Reporting freshness

Google Ads conversion tracking reports on conversions a bit sooner than Analytics
goals that are imported into Google Ads. So, you'll see Bob's transaction reported
differently in both cases.
  Google Ads reports on conversions every three hours. However, if you're using a
non-last click attribution model, conversions can be delayed by up to 15 hours.
 Analytics goals imported into Google Ads are reported every nine hours.

4.3.3.4. Conversion count differences

Be aware that you'll see Bob's transaction data show up differently in Analytics vs.
Google Ads depending on how you choose to count. 

When looking at Analytics:

You can count conversions either by configuring Goals or eCommerce transactions. 

Goals allows you to count interactions within the context of a user session, rather than
counting each individual interaction. 
For example, you can track Bob's interaction with your site, seeing his page view on your
shoe product page or how much time he spent viewing shoes on your site. These are
goals counted only once per session.

Analytics counts transactions multiple times in a session (as long as each transaction

has a unique transaction identifier).This is useful for users who complete multiple
transactions in a given session, for example, if Bob had bought more than one pair of
shoes or other items from your site.

When looking at Google Ads:

Google Ads conversion tracking does not have a concept of "sessions" and counts
multiple conversions in a given date range. 
For example, if Bob reaches the same conversion page twice in a given session on your
site, then:
1. Google Ads counts each conversion if the counting preference for that
conversion action is set to "Every," or
2. Each conversion will only count one conversion per click if set to "One" 
By contrast, only one goal would be counted in Analytics from Bob's conversion. 
4.4. Quiz
 5. Set Up Conversion Tracking to Meet
Your Goals
5.1. 1. Establish goals for tracking
conversions
5.1.1. Let's explore
To help us navigate the world of conversion tracking, let's take a look at some examples
of fictitious companies that have very different goals for their ad campaigns. We'll
observe how they set up conversion tracking to help achieve their goals. 

Health & well-being advertiser: Healthy Life HQ10 (short-term)

Business owner: Hiroko
Products: Fitness apparel & accessories
Goal: Increase sales

Apps & gaming advertiser: Minmo Gaming Inc.

Business owner: Anders
Gaming apps: Minmo Castle, Minmo Mountain 
Goal: Increase downloads/installs

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertiser: OneStop

Marketing Manager: Janelle
Products: Beauty & cosmetics
Goal: Increase online sales, generate lead

Health & well-being advertiser: Healthy Life HQ10 (long-term)

Business owner: Hiroko
Products: Fitness apparel & accessories
Goal: Increase engagement, generate leads, increase sales

5.1.2. Meet Anders

Business owner, Minmo Gaming Inc.

Products: Apps and gaming

App/website: Minmo Castle, Minmo Mountain

[App] Attribution partner: Firebase

Goal: Increase downloads/installs

Minmo Gaming Inc. creates and sells niche gaming apps. Their flagship products,
Minmo Castle and Minmo Mountain, are doing well within their core audience. Since the
gaming industry as a whole is diversifying and expanding, Anders would like to target a
wider audience with various ads and determine which ads could drive an increase in app
installs and first-opens.

5.1.3. Meet Janelle

Marketing Manager, OneStop

Products: Beauty and Cosmetics 

Goal: Increase online sales and generate leads through website

The recent eCommerce trends hitting the CPG industry have nudged OneStop to
expand. They want to gain online sales but also continue to drive their brick-and-mortar
business. Janelle, the Marketing Manager of OneStop, has found that they're able to
connect with the growing market of online-focused customers through their website.
She wants to use their advertising to fuel more website traffic to create new leads and
boost online sales.

5.1.4. Meet Hiroko again

Health & well-being advertiser: Healthy Life HQ10

Business owner: Hiroko

[App] Attribution partner: Google Play

Business size: Phase two, expanding to new audiences

Goal: Increase engagement, generate new leads, increase sales

Let’s fast forward in time and see how Hiroko's business is doing six months later.
Healthy Life HQ10 grew quickly since its inception and gained some loyal customers.
Still, because they don’t have a lot of different product lines, Hiroko finds that sales are
now plateauing. She thinks they need to increase their reach to new customers, and she
has a plan for how to do it.
Hiroko is a fitness fanatic. On the weekends, she offers workout sessions at a fitness
studio. She sets up some video ads for these workout sessions and uses them to track
engagement and create leads for potential conversions for Healthy Life HQ10’s fitness
gear. With a better understanding of how people are engaging with her video ads, she
aims to drive a higher volume of conversions for their fitness gear.

5.2. Set up actions for sale conversions

5.2.1. Meet Hiroko

Business owner, Healthy Life HQ10

Products: Fitness apparel and accessories

[App] Attribution partner: Google Play

Business size: Startup phase

Goal: Increase sales

Hiroko is the proud owner of Healthy Life HQ10, an up-and-coming fitness apparel store.
She's been using ad campaigns to increase sales of her fitness gear. She's already set
up a website. Now, she wants to leverage their mobile app to drive more in-app
purchases because the potential audience for her trendy products is largely millennials
and younger buyers. She doesn’t care where her customers eventually convert: website,
mobile, or in-store. She's only interested in increasing sales.
 5.2.2. First step: Setting up conversion actions for
Hiroko’s website
Since Hiroko already has her website set up, the first step is to set up conversion
actions on her site. Let’s take a look at how she'd do this.

5.2.3. Next stop: conversion tracking setup for their

mobile app
Next, Hiroko is keen on reaching her core audience through their mobile devices. She
wants to be able to measure how effectively her ads drive in-app purchases. Note that
to ensure the best possible measurement and performance results, Hiroko should track
the same in-app events as website events. 

Step one: Pick an attribution partner to integrate with for in-app conversion tracking.

It could be Google Play or Firebase. Hiroko chooses Google Play because their primary
app is Android-based and uses in-app billing. For apps that use in-app billing, Google
Play automatically monitors conversions, and she doesn’t need to add a tracking code
to her app.

Step two: Link your attribute to your Google Ads account

Once you've integrated with an attribution partner, you need to link that account to your
Google Ads account. See the section below for how Hiroko links her Google Play and
Google Ads accounts.

Step three: Set up tracking for your Android or iOS apps.

Once you link your accounts, you can proceed with setting up conversion actions.
Continue on to see how Hiroko sets up tracking for Android in-app purchases after
linking her Google Play and Google Ads accounts.
5.2.4. Set up tracking for Android in-app purchases
 5.3. Set up actions for app installs
5.3.1.1. Firebase as an attribution provider
The first step is to choose an attribution partner. Since Anders has a Firebase account
and has the Firebase software development kit (SDK) installed with their apps, Minmo
Gaming uses Firebase as their attribution partner.

5.3.1.2. But wait, what's Firebase?

Firebase is Google’s app SDK and analytics tool. It's a mobile platform that you can use
to quickly develop apps.

Once you integrate the Firebase SDK with your app, basic app-usage data is
automatically collected and is available in Google Analytics and Google Analytics for
Firebase. This also means that once you link your Firebase account to your Google Ads
account, you’ll be able to see Google Ads data in Firebase, and use Firebase data in
Google Ads.

As an attribution partner, a huge benefit of using Firebase is that you can import
conversions without needing to add any code to enable automatically collected events,
such as how many "first opens," session starts, or in-app purchases you’ve had. In
addition, you can use audiences created in Firebase for conversion tracking and
remarketing in Google Ads.

5.3.1.3. Link Firebase and Google Ads accounts

So, let’s look at how Anders would set up conversion tracking for app installs (in other
words, first-opens of his app) using Firebase as their attribution partner.

First, he’ll need to link his Firebase project to Google Ads. For this, the Google account
will need to have the following permissions:
 In Firebase, the account needs to be an owner on the project you want to link.
 In Google Ads, the Google account needs administrative access.
 5.4. Set up actions for sales and lead
generation
5.4.1. OneStop's challenge
OneStop recently upgraded their website to become a full-blown eCommerce site. For a
niche CPG brand entrenched in the brick-and-mortar world with a low digital footprint,
this was an exciting undertaking! 

Their full-featured website, though, was not enough to move the needle in sales. So
Janelle wants to use conversion measurement to determine the performance of her
Search ads. Her aim is to increase website traffic and either create leads through
product-newsletter signups or, even better, increase sales.

5.4.2. Setting up conversion actions for OneStop

To start, Janelle needs to set up conversion actions on her website. Let's review how
she'd do this.

In the interface below, you'll see how she sets up conversion actions for
onestopbeauty.com. Since increased sales is the highest-priority goal, she starts with
setting up a conversion action for that first, followed by a conversion action for sign-
ups.

5.4.3. Setting up conversion actions for OneStop

Janelle first chooses Website as the conversion source.
Since sales is a priority, she chooses Purchase as the Category and then gives the
conversion a name — in this case, Purchase.

She then selects the specific Value and Count settings appropriate for her Purchase
conversion action.

Janelle also sets up a conversion action for Sign-ups. 

This time she chooses One as the Count setting.

5.4.4. What should Janelle do next?

Remember that, although online sales have been a challenge for OneStop, their
presence in retail has been steady.They know they have a steady stream of customers
who purchase their products offline. Janelle would like to continue retail growth and
wants to measure how her online ads help increase offline purchases.

Offline conversion tracking involves several steps.

Step 1:
Setting up an offline conversion action
Step 2:
Enabling your website and lead tracking system
Step 3:
Preparing your data for import
Step 4:
Importing conversions

5.4.5. Setting up offline conversions

Let’s first learn how Janelle can set up offline tracking. In the next section, you'll learn
how to import offline conversions.

Setting up offline conversions requires using a GCLID. The GCLID, or Google Click
Identifier, is a randomly generated string that gets appended to a URL every time an ad
is clicked. It stores information about that click such as the campaign and ad group the
ad belongs to, as well as other information, such as the time stamp of the click and so
on.

Let's follow along as Janelle goes through the steps needed for offline conversion
tracking.

Step 1: Set up an offline conversion action

Step 2: Enable your website and lead tracking system

5.4.6. Importing offline conversions

Watch the tutorial below to see how Janelle can import offline conversions. To make a
copy of Google's Conversion Import template, check out this link here.
Step 3: Prepare offline data for import
Step 4: Import conversions

5.4.7. Track calls to a phone number on a website

One additional way for Janelle to create leads is to track customer calls to a phone
number on her website. To do this, she'd use Google's website call conversion tracking. 

To track calls to a number on a website, Google provides your business with a unique
phone number that helps identify and measure calls that users have made from your
site after clicking on your ad. This dynamically created Google forwarding number
replaces the business phone number on your site for these users, without any cost to
you.

So, when someone visits OneStop's website after clicking on one of their ads and then
calls their business, using the Google forwarding number on their website, Janelle can
identify and measure those calls using website call conversion tracking. She can see
detailed reports and even better, tell which specific keywords, ads, ad groups, and
campaigns led to those call conversions.

5.4.8. Setting up a website call conversion action

Learn how Janelle sets up a conversion action for calls to a phone number on her
website. 
 5.5. Set up sitewide tags
5.5.1. What is a tag?
In order to measure how a customer engages with your site after clicking an ad, you’ll
need to “tag” your website.

A tag is a small snippet of code that you’ll place on every page of your website. When a
customer clicks on your ad, that snippet of code will collect information about their
actions on your site and send the information back to your Google Ads account. 

You can customize how you see the data by telling Google Ads exactly which actions
are important by identifying which are conversions.

5.5.2. Sitewide tags

A sitewide tag is the best way to measure online conversions. This tag sets new
cookies on your domain, which stores information about the ad click that brought
someone to your site, giving you insight into what experiences work best for your users.

5.5.3. Sitewide tagging requirements

There are some requirements for implementing sitewide tagging. Take a look below.
You may want to reach out to your web developer to make sure they're aware of these,
or send them to our Google Support page.

1. Always use auto-tagging 

This automatically adds a parameter to your URLs to help you track conversions and
report on your ad performance.
Turn on auto-tagging in all your Google Ads accounts, and use the full JavaScript (not
image-only). 

Settings > Account Settings > TAG the specific URL. 

2. If using click-trackers in URL, make sure GCLID still works.

If you use any click-trackers in your tracking URLs or server-side redirects on your site,
make sure they pass on the GCLID to your landing pages.

3. Don’t fire your tags from within an iframe. 

An iframe (inline frame) is an HTML document embedded inside another HTML
document on a website.
For example, don’t fire your tag from within another tracking tag like Floodlight. 

A Floodlight tag is an iframe or image tag that you install on a conversion page on your
site.
For example, don’t fire your tag from within another tracking tag like Floodlight. 

A Floodlight tag is an iframe or image tag that you install on a conversion page on your
site.

5.5.4. Option 1: Use the updated Google Ads conversion

tracking tag (gtag.js)

To make sure that Google Ads can measure all of your conversions, regardless of the
browser your site visitor is using, it's recommended you use the updated Google Ads
conversion tracking tag.

This tag sets new cookies on your domain that will store information about the ad click
that brought people to your website. The cookies receive the ad click information from a
GCLID parameter the conversion tracking tag includes

You'll find this code in the conversion settings in your account.You don’t need to change
it, as it's preconfigured for your account.

Simply copy and paste it between the <head></head> tags of each of your website
pages.

5.5.5. Option 2: Use Google Tag Manager with the new

Conversion Linker tag
If you already have Google Tag Manager set up on your site, you're ready to quickly and
easily deploy and update tags on your website without changing the code on your page.

All you need to do is add the Conversion Linker tag to your landing page URLs, which
automatically identifies information about the ad click that brought someone to your
site. It also then stores this information in new cookies on your domain.

For this sitewide tagging solution, you’ll need to make sure that:
Google Tag Manager is already installed on your website
Google Tag Manager triggers the relevant tags, not through code elsewhere on the site
The Conversion Linker tag is set to load on every page

5.5.6. Option 3: Link Analytics and Google Ads accounts

Another option for sitewide tagging is possible if you use Google Ads conversion
tracking and already have Analytics implemented on your site. 

In this case, you can simply link your Google Ads and Analytics accounts, and the
Google Ads conversion tracking tag will use the GCLID stored in the Analytics cookie on
your site’s domain.

Note that this tagging solution doesn’t work for Floodlight tags. 

5.6. Set up event tags

5.6.1. Adding a phone snippet
Similar to adding an event tag, you could also add a phone snippet after the global site
tag. For example, recall that Janelle creates leads for OneStop by tracking customer
calls to a phone number on their website. She sets up a conversion action for call
conversions and downloads the phone snippet that Google Ads created. She can now
paste that phone snippet on her website.

She opens up the HTML for the page where the phone number appears on their website
and pastes the phone snippet between the <head></head> tags of the page, after the
global site tag.

Now, when a user goes to her website by clicking on her ad, they'll see a Google
forwarding number in place of OneStop's usual website phone number. By using this
new dynamic Google forwarding phone number, Janelle can monitor the duration of
each call and record which ad led to a call conversion.
5.7. Quiz
 6. Analyze and Optimize with Conversion
Data
6.1. Analyze data with Hiroko
6.1.1. View-through conversions
View-through conversions are conversions recorded when users view (but don’t interact
with) an ad and then later convert.

In phase two of their business, Hiroko wants to monitor how effective her latest fitness
video campaign has been in driving more traffic to their website and getting more users
to sign up for her fitness classes. But, as Hiroko is trying to look at her view-through
conversions (VTCs), she's confused. 

She's not seeing VTCs.

VTC's aren't included in the

Conversions column, only in
the View-through
Conversions and All
Conversions columns.

To see your VTCs, click on

the Columns tab > Modify
Columns > Conversions >
View-through Conv. and then
click Apply to make sure that
the VTC column appears in
your conversion report.

Note: When someone watches up to 30 seconds or clicks on a part of the ad, that
counts as a view.

She thinks VTCs seem low. 

This could be due to VTCs automatically excluding conversions from people who've
also clicked on the ad or on any of your other ads.
For example, on video campaigns, view-through conversions tell you when an
impression of your video ad leads to a conversion on your site. The last impression of a
video ad will get credit for the view-through conversion.

Another reason this number could be low is that VTCs aren't reported from browsers
that don’t allow cross-site cookies.
 6.2. 2. Understand data discrepancies with
Janelle
6.2.1. Discrepancy: Google Ads conversions vs. offline
source sign-ups
When Janelle compares her Google Ads data with her offline data, she’s surprised to
see a difference in the number of sign-ups in Google Ads vs. her offline data source.
Why is this?

In Google Ads, a conversion attribution goes to the date and time of the last ad click,
and this is the date and time reported. In tools, such as Google Analytics or many other
third-party measurement systems, a report of a conversion occurs at the time when the
conversion actually takes place. This difference appears as a seeming discrepancy
between Google Ads and other reporting sources.

Janelle has a conversion action set up for when customers sign up for beauty news,
product samples, and more.

Now, imagine that one of Janelle's customers does the following:

Clicks on their ad on Monday and browses their site but doesn't sign up on the site's
lead form
Returns to their site on Thursday and this time signs up on the lead form for receiving
product samples and coupons
When Janelle reviews the data, Google Ads will report that this conversion occurred on
Monday since this was the date of the click. 

But, OneStop's backend systems may report a conversion for Thursday since this is
when the customer actually signs up.

6.2.2. Discrepancy: Duplicate conversions

Looking at OneStop's purchase data, Janelle sees duplicate conversions when
compared with her CRM data. Since she’s used Every as her conversion count setting
when creating this conversion action, if a customer returned to the conversion page or
reloaded the page, Google Ads would've counted that as two conversions. So it's best
practice to add an order ID to remove duplicate conversions from conversion counts.

To do this, OneStop's webmaster will need to modify the event tag to capture a unique
order ID. An example of this ID could be an order confirmation number that the site may
already be using. Once a variable order ID is added to the event tag, it pulls the unique
order number and sends it along in the tag. If Google Ads sees more than one
conversion with the same order ID, it then knows the second conversion is a duplicate
and doesn't count it.

6.2.3. OneStop's Attribution report

Janelle knows that on the path to conversion, a customer may do multiple searches and
interact with many ads from the same advertiser. Many clicks or impressions might
guide that customer toward a conversion. Since Janelle is running numerous ad
campaigns, she now wants to see exactly how their video ads are contributing in the
path to conversions.

To see how this works, she needs to look at the Attribution report. So, let's first
understand what an Attribution report is, because until now, you've only been looking at
the Campaigns report.

6.2.4. What is an Attribution report and how is it

different from the Campaigns report?
Attribution reports reveal the paths customers take to complete a conversion. These
reports attribute the conversion to different ads, clicks, devices, and other factors along
the conversion path. 

The data in the Attribution reports and Campaign reports don’t serve the same intent, so
you can expect to see differences in the two. Attribution reports can help you estimate
how changes to your attribution model might impact conversion reporting, whereas
Campaign reports can help you evaluate and optimize performance using your current
attribution model.

6.2.5. Discrepancy: Attribution report data vs.

Campaigns report data
So, Janelle wants to look at the Attribution report to understand what role their video
ads play in the path to conversion. However, as she is navigating between the two
reports, she sees that the number of conversions on the Campaigns tab doesn’t match
the number of conversions in the Attribution report.
 6.3.  Explore more data discrepancies with
Anders
6.3.1. Anders' challenge
Anders has been reviewing conversion data for Minmo Gaming. If you recall from the
Set Up Conversion Tracking to Meet Your Goals course, their main goal has been to
capture app installs and first-opens. But he’s also added more conversion actions, like
capturing sign-ups, to their product release newsletters. Yet, when looking at the
Conversions column, all he notices is the number of conversions.

How can he determine from this number how many of them represent first-opens of
their app and how many are for sign-ups to their newsletter?

6.3.2. Segmenting data by conversion action

By default, the columns show the aggregated total across all conversions in an account.
To get the view of individual conversions Anders would like to see, he needs to segment
the data by conversion action. 

Watch this quick walkthrough to see how can he can get to this view. He clicks Segment
> Conversions > Conversion action.

6.3.3. Discrepancy: lower recent conversion volume vs.

past performance
Looking at their conversion reports, Anders finds that conversion volume appears to be
lower compared with the previous quarter. What could be the possible reasons for this?

6.3.4. Conversion delay

If you compare recent performance with past performance, and recent performance
doesn't look as strong, this often happens simply because some of the people who
viewed or clicked your ad haven’t converted yet. 

In some instances, a conversion may happen rapidly, within a day of the click. But,
depending on the conversion window you’ve chosen, a report of a conversion can occur
anytime up to 90 days after a click. 
Since you're missing these conversions expected to come later on — but your spend, on
the other hand, is fully reported — it may appear like you have fewer conversions, a
higher cost per conversion, and so on.

You can get more information on conversion delay through the Time Lag report in the
Attribution tab.

6.3.5. Other factors that influence conversion volume

Besides conversion delay, there are many factors that can influence conversion volume
over time.

6.3.5.1. Customer seasonality or competition

In your Ads account, if you see a fluctuation in clicks over a time period this can directly
influence the amount of traffic to your website and thus the volume of conversions. 

Changes you made in your Ads account or influence by outside factors, such as
seasonality or a change in competition, could've influenced click and conversion
volume.

6.3.5.2. Changes to ads

If you made any changes to your ads, the audience for your ads may have changed, and
this audience may be more or less likely to perform a conversion. Some common
changes in ads that could influence conversion volume are:

 Keyword additions or pausing

 Targeting
 Ad creatives
 Max CPC

Changes to budgets and bidding strategy can also affect conversion volume.

You can use the Change History tab in your menu bar to see if you made any changes
around the time you started to see a difference in conversions.

6.3.5.3. Changes to attribution model

When you move from using a last click attribution model there's a longer delay for
conversions to report (up to 15 hours), and partial or full conversion credit may attribute
further into the past, which can make recent conversion volume appear lower.

6.3.5.4. What does Anders find?

So, let’s see what could be causing lower conversions for Minmo Gaming this quarter.
To do this, we’ll use the Change History tool. 
 6.3.6. Optimize with data
6.3.6.1. Improve your conversion rate
Once you're able to measure your conversions, you can then focus on improving your
conversion rate. If you're getting a good amount of traffic from your ads but not enough
conversions, there are several things you can do to improve your conversion rate.

6.3.6.2. Use specific keywords for better conversion rate

Specific keywords often tend to have a better conversion rate than general keywords.
For example, consider the keywords below. Which one do you think leads to a higher
conversion rate?

Acme
Acme printers
Acme 710c

Generally, more specific keywords like "Acme 710c" tend to lead to a better conversion
rate than general keywords like "Acme." That's because people searching for specific
models or product numbers have typically already researched their product and want to
make a purchase.

But keep in mind that using more specific keywords can lead to fewer impressions. If
your keywords are too specific, fewer people may end up searching for those terms. 

The trick is to find the right balance between being general enough to match what
people are searching for and specific enough to lead to conversions.

6.3.6.3. Use Search Term report to reach the right target audience
Google Ads shows you how well your individual keywords are doing, but it can also
show you the exact words that your customers searched for when your ad showed up.
You can view this list of terms in the Search Terms report. After reviewing this report,
you can then decide to add or exclude certain keywords from your keyword list. Doing
this can help you reach the right customers by either expanding or refining who can see
your ad. 

For example, Minmo Gaming Inc. sells video game avatar figurines as an in-app
purchase. Anders finds their ad displayed to people searching for "video game
figurines." In this case, Anders could consider adding "video game figurines" as a
specific keyword so that their ad has a better chance of showing up for this search.

To view this report, go to Keywords > SEARCH TERMS menu > Search terms.
 6.3.6.4. Use negative keywords to further refine audience traffic
When you use negative keywords, your ad won't show up when people search for those
specific keywords. This is helpful when you're trying to limit your ad so that it doesn't
show up for people who are just browsing and aren't ready to purchase anything yet.

In the Minmo Gaming example, after looking at the Search terms report, Anders sees
their ad displayed when people search for "video game magazine." But people searching
for magazines probably aren't looking to buy video game avatar figurines right now. In
this case, Anders could consider adding "magazine" as a negative keyword so that their
ad won't show for these searches.

Some advertisers also use "free" as a negative keyword. Unless your site offers free
products or trials, you might want to add this as a negative keyword to attract fewer
people who are just looking for free products.

6.3.6.5. Include prices in your ad to attract potential buyers

Another way to get more relevant traffic is to include prices in your ad text. If a
customer sees the price of your product and still clicks your ad, you know they're
interested in potentially buying that product at that price. If they don't like the price, they
won't click your ad, and you'll save yourself the cost of that click.

As an experiment, you might want to consider adding prices in your ad text to see if that
helps your ads lead to a better conversion rate. This can be especially effective when
your prices are lower than competitor prices.
To test whether this will work for you, you can run an experiment by creating a new ad
and rotating your ads. When using ad rotation, you can compare the click-through rates
and conversion rates of the ad that includes the price vs. the one that doesn't.

You can also set up campaign Drafts and Experiments to propose and test new
changes.

6.3.7. Refine your bidding

Bid adjustments allow you to decide when a click or impression is worth more to you.
For example, imagine that you own an online clothing store, and you've set up two
conversion actions: one for each time a customer puts something in their shopping cart,
and another for online sales.

You want to optimize your bidding for the sales conversion action and track these
conversions in your Conversions column. You don’t want to bid for the shopping cart
action, and you don’t need to see this data in your main Conversions column.

You can choose which conversions to optimize for by checking the Include in
Conversions setting for your sales conversion action and unchecking that setting for the
shopping cart conversion action. Now, your automated bid strategy will only optimize
for your sales conversions, and your Conversions column will only show sales
conversions. However, data for the shopping cart action is still included in your All
Conversions column.

6.3.8. Optimize with Smart Bidding

Although you can also set bids manually, automated bidding takes the heavy lifting and
guesswork out of setting bids to meet your performance goals. There are six types of
automated bid strategies available.

Smart Bidding is a subset of automated bid strategies that uses machine learning to
optimize for conversions or conversion value in every auction — a feature known as
“auction-time bidding.” Check out this link to learn more about the benefits of Smart
Bidding. 

Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, and Enhanced CPC (eCPC) are all

Smart Bidding strategies, going from most automated to least automated respectively
(in other words, from least control to most control). Other automated bid strategies that
don't use Smart Bidding include Maximize Clicks and Target Impression Share.
In this section, you’ll learn how you can use Smart Bidding strategies to save time and
improve your return on investment. 

6.3.9. Target CPA Bidding

6.3.9.1. What it is

Target CPA is a Google Ads Smart Bidding strategy that sets bids to help get as many
conversions as possible at the target cost-per-acquisition (CPA) you set. It uses
advanced machine learning to automatically optimize bids and offers auction-time
bidding capabilities that tailor bids for every auction. Target CPA is available as either a
standard strategy in a single campaign or as a portfolio strategy across multiple
campaigns.

1.1.1.1. How it works

Using historical information about your campaign and evaluating the contextual signals
present at auction time, Target CPA (cost-per-acquisition) Bidding automatically finds
an optimal CPC (cost-per-click) bid for your ad each time it's eligible to appear. Google
Ads sets these bids to achieve an average CPA equal to your target across all
campaigns using this strategy.

Some conversions may cost more than your target and some may cost less, but
altogether Google Ads will try to keep your cost per conversion equal to the target CPA
you set. These changes in CPA take place because your actual CPA depends on factors
outside Google's control, like changes to your website or ads or increased competition
in ad auctions. In addition, your actual conversion rate can be lower or higher than the
predicted conversion rate.

For example, if you choose a target CPA of $10, Google Ads will automatically set your
CPC bids to try to get you as many conversions at $10 on average. To help improve your
performance in every ad auction, this strategy adjusts bids using real-time signals like
device, browser, location, time of day, remarketing list, and more.

6.3.10. Target ROAS Bidding

6.3.10.1. What it is

Target ROAS lets you bid based on a target return on ad spend (ROAS). This Google
Ads Smart Bidding strategy helps you get more conversion value or revenue at the
target ROAS you set. Your bids are automatically optimized at auction time, allowing
you to tailor bids for each auction. Target ROAS is available as either a standard
strategy for a single campaign or a portfolio strategy across multiple campaigns.

1.1.1.2. How it works

Google Ads predicts future conversions and associated values using your reported
conversion values, which you report through conversion tracking. Then, Google Ads will
set maximum CPC (max. CPC) bids to maximize your conversion value while trying to
achieve an average ROAS equal to your target.

Some conversions may return a higher ROAS and some may return a lower ROAS, but
altogether Google Ads will try to keep your conversion value per cost equal to the target
ROAS you set. For example, if you set a target ROAS of 500%, Google Ads will
automatically adjust your bids to try to maximize your conversion value while reaching
this target ROAS. To help improve your performance in the ad auction, this strategy
adjusts bids using real-time signals like device, browser, location, time of day, etc. It
also automatically adjusts bids based on whether someone is on one of your
remarketing lists.

Google Ads will recommend a target ROAS value after you’ve set up a new bid strategy
in the Shared library and chosen which campaigns to apply it to. Your actual ROAS over
the last few weeks calculates this recommendation. We’ll exclude performance from
the last few days to account for conversions that may take more than a day to complete
following an ad click. You can choose whether to use this recommended target ROAS
value or to set your own.

6.3.11. Maximize conversion bidding

6.3.11.1. What it is

Maximize Conversions Bidding automatically sets bids to help get the most
conversions for your campaign while spending your budget. It uses advanced machine
learning to automate bid optimization and offers auction-time bidding capabilities that
tailor bids for every auction.

1.1.1.3. How it works

Using historical information about your campaign and evaluating the contextual signals
present at auction time, Maximize Conversions Bidding automatically finds an optimal
CPC bid for your ad each time it's eligible to appear. Google Ads sets these bids to help
get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget.

6.3.12. Enhanced CPC (eCPC)

6.3.12.1. What it is

Enhanced CPC (eCPC) helps you get more conversions from manual bidding. It works
by automatically adjusting your manual bids for clicks that seem more or less likely to
lead to a sale or conversion on your website. Unlike Target CPA, which automatically
sets bids based on your target cost-per-conversion, your max. CPC bids constrains
eCPC when optimizing for conversions.

For Search and Display campaigns, eCPC helps increase conversions while trying to
keep your cost-per-conversion the same as you’re getting with manual bidding. For
Shopping, eCPC helps increase conversions while trying to maintain your same overall
spend.

1.1.1.4. How it works

The eCPC feature looks for ad auctions that are more likely to lead to conversions, and
then raises your max. CPC bid (after applying any bid adjustments you've set) to
compete harder for those clicks. If a click seems less likely to convert, Google Ads will
lower your bid. eCPC will try to keep your average CPC below the max. CPC you set
(including bid adjustments), but it may exceed your max. CPC for short periods of time.

Note that eCPC is a form of Smart Bidding that uses a wide range of auction-time
signals such as demographics, browser, location, and time of day to tailor bids to
someone’s unique context. But other Smart Bidding strategies, such as Target CPA and
Target ROAS., do this to a fuller extent.
6.4. Quiz
 7. Knowledge check assessment
7.1. Question 1 of 27
For video campaigns, the last impression of a video ad will get credit for the view-
through conversion.
True
False

7.2. Question 2 of 27
What can be used to customize how the data is tracked in the
Conversions column?
Auction Insights report
Custom tables
Include in Conversions setting
Modify Columns setting

7.3. Question 3 of 27
Which three of the following actions can improve your conversion rate?
Select All Correct Responses

 Don't use negative keywords

 Use negative keywords to further refine audience traffic
 Use specific keywords for better conversion rates
 Use the Search Terms report to reach the right customers

7.4. Question 4 of 27
Which two of the following statements are true about Attribution
reports?
Select All Correct Responses

 App conversions and store visits are included in Attribution reports

  App conversions and store visits are not included in Attribution reports
 Attribution reports can help you estimate how changes to your attribution model
might impact conversion reporting
 Attribution reports can help you evaluate and optimize performance after you’ve
changed your attribution model

7.5. Question 5 of 27
A company that designs coffee mugs wants to see which of their video
creatives makes viewers remember their brand best. Which of the
following Google tool can they use to find out?

 Ad recall

 Brand favorability

 Brand Lift
 Conversion Lift

7.6. Question 6 of 27
Which of the following attribution models uses machine learning to
evaluate individual customer paths?

 Data-driven

 Last interaction

 Linear
 Time decay

7.7. Question 7 of 27
Hiroko is running a Search campaign for a couple of months and would
like to make some improvements. Identify three ways that she can
optimize her campaign after assessing performance.
 Assess which audience targeting is performing best and double down
  Don't make changes until the campaign has been running for at least six months
 Remove poorly performing creative and test out new creative
 Turn on automated bidding

7.8. Question 8 of 27
Jason is running a video campaign and realizes that while his overall
views are high, his engagement rates are low. Which three of the
following questions could he ask to investigate?
Select All Correct Responses

 Was the creative effective in getting attention and highlighting the brand?
 Was the right audience targeted?
 Were enough people shown the video?
 Were there any possible executional missteps?

7.9. Question 9 of 27
9739092

Which three of the following are good measurement habits for any
individual or company?
Select All Correct Responses

 Bring data to all of your meetings

 Encourage learning from failure
 Look at data only every month or so
 Run tests continuously