Google Shrinks Adword’s View-through Conversion Window from 30 Days to 1 Day

Google made quite a big announcement recently stating that the view-through conversion window for display ads and video ad impressions will be shrunk from 30 days to 1 day.

While this new change will not have an effect on the already existing 30 days conversion window of search ads, it is a significant change for other forms of marketing via Google AdWords.

What are View-through Conversions?

View-through conversions (VTC) are the conversions that happen when a user converts after a display or video ad impression that is only viewed and not clicked on.

This means that a cookie is dropped when a user views a display advertisement or watches a video ad impression but does not click on them. This cookie has duration of 30 days within which anytime the user converts, the conversion is attributed to the display advertisement or video ad impression he/she previously saw. 

For Display Network ads, the last impression viewed is taken into account ad a view-through conversion. According to Google, one impression of a display advertisement is when at least 50% of the ad is onscreen and viewable by users for at least 1 second. When these criteria are met, a cookie is dropped which tracks the user’s behavior for certain duration.

For Video ads, the view-through conversion tells you when an impression on your video ad translates into a conversion. The last video ad impression is taken for view-through conversion by Google. Remember that an impression is different from a view in regards to video ads. Here, a view is when a user watches a video ad for at least 30 seconds or whole (when the ad is less than 30 seconds in length). Meanwhile, an impression is when the user is shown the video ad for at least 1 second of its entire duration.

Note: View-through conversions does not include conversions of people who’ve also interacted with your other ads.

With this change, users who convert within 24 hours of viewing display and video ads are only counted as conversions.

When and How?

The new change in view-through conversion window will go into effect from March 29, 2017. According to Google, the update will be applied to new conversion actions as well as existing ones which are currently set to the default conversion window.

As it is, the change will not disturb the search ads cookie lifetime of 30days. So, all Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads of Google will still drop cookies with the duration of a month.

Also, the view-through conversions are not included in the Conversions column in AdWords and hence this change will only affect the data in VTC column reporting.

Adding Conversion Columns to Your Reports

It is pretty simple to add a new column for conversion tracking to your reports on the Campaigns tab. Follow the instructions given below to add the Conversion column

Step 1: Go to the Campaigns tab and click on the Columns button and then click on the Modify Columns option.

Step 2: Click on Conversions.

Step 3: Select the columns you’d like to include to your reports.

Step 4: Click on the Apply button to save your new column and generate reports for conversion tracking.

Why the New Change in View-through Conversion Window?

Considering the fact that users convert more likely within one day of viewing an ad, the new change will help in more accurately attributing the conversion to particular display ads or video ads.

Shrinking the default attribution window to just one day also makes sense to a lot of advertisers who bank on their customers’ ability to effectively recall brands within 24 hours of viewing their ads.

Advertisers will still be able to customize the window setting for each conversion action by going to ‘Conversions’ under the Tools tab.

About the Author 

The insights are shared by Rohan Bhargava, Co-founder, CashKaro.com.