YouTube video viewers have strong intent to watch the content they’ve come to YouTube for and because of that, are very likely to stay on the platform when they encounter an ad as part of their viewing experience. This tells us why 70% of YouTube viewers say that they bought a brand as a result of finding the brand on YouTube.
From video ads, people don’t often take action directly after viewing the ad. Instead, they often take action after they’ve finished their full viewing session. This is where Engaged-view conversions come in.
Measuring your campaigns and conversions accurately has never been more important and knowing the full impact of your ads means looking beyond clicks. Engaged-view conversions have proven to be a more robust non-click conversion metric, and you can use them in your Google campaigns with video assets.
An Engaged-view conversion caters specifically to video advertising and the different behaviour users exhibit when watching videos as opposed to viewing other types of ads.
Engaged-view conversions are counted when a user watches at least 10 seconds of a skippable in-stream ad (or watches the entire skippable in-stream ad, if it’s shorter than 10 seconds) or watches at least 5 seconds of an in-feed or Shorts ad, and then converts within the Engaged-view conversion window.
Benefits
- More accurate way to measure performance delivered by direct response video ads
- Greater indication of user engagement
- Helps you better understand the value of your ads and grow your business as user behaviour evolves and new viewing habits, devices and experiences become available.
Campaign types that track Engaged-view conversions
- Video campaigns
- App campaigns
- Display campaigns
- Demand Gen campaigns
- Performance Max campaigns
Engaged-view conversions reporting
You’ll find Engaged-view conversions included in both the 'Conversions' and the 'All conversions' columns of your campaign reporting (in the 'Campaigns' tab on the Page menu). 'All conversions' includes the data in your 'Conversions' column, conversion actions you’ve chosen not to include in your 'Conversions' column, shop visits, certain phone calls and more. These additional conversions can give you a more accurate understanding of how users interact with your business, and this helps you better calculate the effectiveness of your advertising. Learn more About 'All conversions'.
You’ll also find Engaged-views included in the 'Interactions' column of your campaign reporting (in the 'Campaigns' tab on the Page menu). Interactions include clicks, swipes and views. If you’d like to compare click-through conversions to Engaged-view conversions in your campaign reporting, click the Segments icon 
Engaged-view conversion windows
Engaged-view conversion windows can be adjusted to give you more control over measuring conversions. You can set a different conversion window for each conversion action. Set and update conversion windows in your conversion action settings. You’ll also be able to choose an Engaged-view conversion window whenever you create a new conversion. Learn more About conversion windows.
Engaged-view conversion window defaults vary depending on the type of conversion that you’re measuring:
| Conversion and campaign types | Default look-back window |
|---|---|
| Web conversions and offline conversion import | Three days |
| App conversions: | |
| App campaigns for installs (ACi) | Two days |
| App campaigns for engagement (ACe) | One day |
| Video action, Demand Gen, Performance Max and in-app actions through Web to App Connect | One day |
| Shop visits and shop sales conversions | Three days |
Instructions for updating or editing Engaged-view conversion windows
- In your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon
.
- Click the Conversions drop-down in the section menu.
- Click Summary.
- Find the conversion action that you'd like to edit. Click its name in the “Name” column.
- In the 'Settings' section, click Edit settings.
- Click Engaged-view conversion window. In the drop-down, select how long it takes to track conversions after an ad interaction.
- Click Done.
.- When you select Google paid channels, the 'Key event look-back window' setting will only affect Google Analytics key events and not Google Analytics conversions. If an option is selected, you must go to the Google Ads conversions summary page by navigating to Goals > Conversions > Summary through Click-through conversion window or Engaged-view conversion window to change the conversion window settings for Google Analytics conversions.
- When you select Paid and organic channels, the 'Key event look-back window' setting will affect both Google Analytics key events and Google Analytics conversions.
