Google introduces view-through conversion tracking

Imagine if you could somehow discover if anyone that saw your display ad, but did not click on it, actually converted later, somewhere down line. That additional knowledge would provide valuable information as to the value of your ad placements and enable better evaluation of ROI.

Well, now you can, thanks to a new feature on the Google dashboard called "view-through conversions".

How does view-through conversion reporting work? The Inside AdWords blog has an example. "Let's say you're selling pet food online and you're measuring conversions on your site's email newsletter sign-up and your shopping cart "Thank You" pages. If a user sees your display ad, does not click on it but then visits your site within the next 30 days to sign-up to receive your email newsletter and to purchase a couple dozen cans of organic cat food, you'll see two View-through conversions reported on your Campaigns tab in AdWords."

It should be noted, however, that view-through conversions are only available for display ad campaigns and you must have AdWords Conversion Tracking installed for it to work. Plus, if a user deletes a cookie after viewing a display ad but before they convert, that conversion won't be captured.

Tags: AdWords, campaign measurement, click conversion, click-through, conversion rates, view-through