Google Analytics is giving advertisers more control over how conversions get credited to their campaigns, with the update live now as of August 11. Until now, Google has allowed only a set number of options, which were often too broad to reflect the actual timeframes in which customers make a purchase. This update is useful for marketers who have a shorter or longer average conversion window than what was previously available through Google.
What Is Happening
Advertisers are now able to set custom integer-based lookback windows for two conversion types in Google Analytics:
- Engaged-view conversions can have a lookback window of any integer between 1 and 30 days instead of the previous default of 3 days
- While click-through conversions can have a lookback window of any integer between 1 and 90 days instead of the previous options of 1, 7, 14, 30, 60, or 90 days.
These settings can be found within Google Analytics under Advertising -> Conversion Management -> Settings, and the same custom lookback windows will also be available within the linked Google Ads conversion management interface, meaning advertisers will not have to set these rules twice across different systems.
Understanding the Two Conversion Types
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Click-Through Conversions
The click-through conversions attribution model allows you to attribute sales to an ad by measuring a user’s conversion after clicking your ad within the lookback window. Previously, when the lookback window was between 1-90 days, you could choose only the number of days as a conversion cycle from 1, 7, 14, 30, 60, and 90 days. For instance, if your customer’s sales cycle was 45 days, previously you had an option to install an increment of 60 days or 30 days that created room for underperformance or overperformance of conversions, respectively. With the custom integer of 1-90 days in the new look back window, it would be possible to select the number of days your customers take to purchase a product without choosing a fixed number of conversion days that do not align with your sales cycle.
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Engaged-View Conversions
Engaged-view conversions count a sale or other conversion as being influenced by an ad if the person views or engages with the video ad for a certain amount of time before clicking on it and then proceeding to convert. Previously, this amount of time had to be specified precisely within a 3-day window. This window can now be set to any integer value from 1 to 30 days. This change is significant for advertisers who have to rely on video content to drive conversions since it allows them to set a timeframe of engagement which works best for their audience with a certain minimum of time needed before a conversion can be reported as influenced by the video ad.
Where to Find the New Settings
Advertisers who want to update the conversion windows can make the necessary adjustments directly in Google Analytics:
- Open the Advertising section in Google Analytics
- Then, go to the tab “Conversion management”
- Select the more options icon and choose Settings”
- Next, in the settings interface, you need to find the specific conversion event that needs to be updated and set a new integer value in the field “Click-through or engaged-view window”
Why This Matters for Advertisers
Using the concept of attribution windows is essential to ensure the accuracy of the performance of a specific ad because even a small mistake between the time of exposure and the actual buying moment can lead to incorrect conclusions.
As such, a window that is either too short or too long will damage the accuracy of the data on the ad’s performance, leading either to underinvestment in the channel or overspending on underperforming ads. Choosing the right window depends on the specifics of the advertised product and the associated length of the decision-making process. By introducing the possibility to choose any integer value, Google has created conditions for an even more relevant attribution model that fits the actual conversion patterns of different businesses.
In this case, the shorter period will benefit organizations that sell low-consideration products and want to optimize their spending on shorter-term promotions, whereas longer windows will be required for higher-consideration products. In conclusion, Google’s change to the selection of the conversion duration window is a response to the advertisers’ needs in creating a more relevant attribution model.
This kind of precision also matters for how advertisers evaluate different channels against each other. If a search campaign and a video campaign are both feeding into the same conversion goal but operating on mismatched attribution windows, comparing their performance side by side can be misleading. Aligning both windows to the actual buying behavior of a business gives advertisers a fairer basis for deciding where to shift budget, rather than comparing numbers that were never measuring the same thing in the first place.
Part of a Broader Push Toward Flexible Attribution
This update is the latest development in Google’s efforts to give advertisers greater flexibility in how conversions get attributed in Google Analytics. Recall that earlier this year, Google introduced the ability to define conversion attribution settings separately for each conversion event, as opposed to having the same conversion attribution model apply to all conversions as before. The update was intended to provide more flexibility with respect to how conversions get tracked in Google Ads and therefore help advertisers in optimizing their bids.
Google has been updating the conversion reports in analytics to complement the new attribution settings. For instance, the conversion attribution analysis report shows how different touchpoints contribute to a conversion across the customer journey. The report highlights assisted conversions by identifying channels that played a part in influencing the customers’ purchasing decision before they eventually converted. In addition, Google updated the traditional funnel analysis report to highlight early, mid-funnel, and late channels that contributed to a conversion. Together with the custom lookback window, these reports suggest that Google intends to give advertisers full control over how conversion gets attributed to different channels.
Google has positioned these changes as a way to reduce the discrepancies between conversion tracking reports in Google Analytics and Google Ads. The discrepancy between the two arises due to the fact that the two systems often use different attribution models to track conversions. The new custom conversion windows are a way of reducing discrepancies by giving advertisers the opportunity to choose which conversion method is most appropriate for their business. By implication, therefore, the latest lookback window update helps narrow the differences in conversion reports between Google Analytics and Google Ads.
What This Means Going Forward
For advertisers that have so far been using Google’s old preset windows for conversion tracking, whether they had been nudging the settings to fall on the desired timeframe, or using their own external tracking to compensate for the missed time window, this update should be a welcome change. In particular, any marketer that has been tracking conversions for an atypical sales funnel and had to rely on the default settings should take a closer look at their settings now that the option is available, for the advertiser may have been unintentionally under or over-reporting their conversions. Advertisers that have been using both search and video campaigns should be mindful when adjusting both the engaged-view and click-through windows, as the former will have to be set separately from the latter.
The advertiser would do well to not only update the number in the conversion window but use the opportunity to review the conversion tracking as a whole. As the engaged-view conversion window is no longer bound to the same scale as the click-through conversion, which can now stretch to 90 days as opposed to the previous 30, the marketer should ensure the conversion window adequately reflects the behavior of customers for the specific conversion being tracked. For instance, a property that uses conversion tracking for both newsletter subscriptions and completed purchases will likely have different numbers for each of their conversion windows.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q 1: What did Google Analytics just change about conversion attribution?
Google Analytics now allows advertisers to set custom integer lookback windows for click-through and engaged-view conversions as opposed to a set of predetermined values.
Q 2: What is the new range for click-through conversion windows?
Click-through conversions can now take on any integer value between 1 and 90 days as opposed to the set of predetermined values of 1, 7, 14, 30, 60, or 90 days.
Q 3: What is the new range for engaged-view conversion windows?
Engaged-view conversions can now take on any integer value between 1 and 30 days as opposed to the fixed three-day window.
Q 4: Where do I update my conversion attribution windows?
The update can be made from the Advertising > Conversion management > Settings menu option. The same option is also available in the connected Google Ads conversion management interface.
Q 5: Do I have to update my conversion attribution windows in both Google Analytics and Google Ads?
Both tools are connected, and the same attribution window settings apply to Google Analytics conversion management and Google Ads conversion management. The update only has to be made once.
Q 6: What is the difference between click-through and engaged-view conversions?
Click-through conversions count conversions that happened after clicking on an ad, whereas engaged-view conversions count conversions that happened after engaging (watching) an ad.
Q 7: Why does a custom attribution window matter?
An attribution window that is too short will fail to attribute conversions that happen after a click or engagement, thus understating the number of conversions, and an attribution window that is too long will overstate the number of conversions that happen after a click or engagement.
Q 8: Is this change related to any other Google Analytics updates?
This update is part of a series of changes related to GA4’s conversion attribution. Previously, GA4 allowed advertisers to customize attribution settings for each conversion event and provided additional insight into user touchpoints.
