Once you've set up conversion tracking, it's important to understand how long it takes customers who see and click your ad to complete the conversion, and how that impacts the data you see in your account. Sometimes the conversion happens rapidly, within a day of the click, but conversions can be reported up to 90 days after the click, depending on the conversion window you’ve chosen.
The time between impression and conversion affects which values you see in your account. Here are some examples where this conversion delay might affect what you see:
- Comparing performance: If you compare recent performance with past performance, your recent performance might not look as strong, because some of the people who clicked your ad haven’t converted yet. Since you're missing these conversions that will come later on but your spend is fully reported, it may appear that you have fewer conversions, a higher cost per conversion, and so on.
- Missing bid simulator estimates: If your customers take a long time to convert, conversion estimates in the bid simulator may not appear. Learn more about the bid simulator
Conversion and Conversion Value estimates: What they are and where to view them
Conversion estimates help you understand the number of conversions your ads are estimated to receive based on historical data and performance for the time period selected. If you've assigned values to your conversions, conversion value estimates give an idea of the conversion value you might receive on that bid strategy.
These values, conversion estimates and conversion value estimates, are calculated and displayed on the “Bid Strategy” report and the campaign tables.
Below are some scenarios to keep in mind:
- Conversion Delay: If the time period selected includes a conversion delay where not all conversions have actually been reported, the estimate will reflect how many more conversions or conversion value you might get.
- Conversion adjustment: Sometimes you may use conversion adjustments. For example, you may want to account for returns and adjust conversions accordingly. If the selected period is impacted by the conversion delay, and you have historically used conversion adjustments, there may be a lower number of conversions or conversion value estimate.
- Combination of delays and adjustments: Conversion estimate and conversion value estimate may not always be aligned as described in the scenario above. For example, if you have a number of small value returns, we may estimate that you will receive fewer conversions, but you may still receive a higher conversion value estimate if there were high value conversions that were delayed in the same time period.
To view a report that shows the conversion delay history for your account, follow the instructions below.
Instructions
- In your Google Ads account. click Campaigns, Ad groups, or Search Keywords from the left section menu.
- Check that the date range for your report ends at least 30 days ago (or longer if you have a longer conversion window) to make sure the report has complete conversion data. To change the date range, use the date range selector in the upper right corner of the page.
- Click the segment icon
, then select Conversions > Days to conversion. This segments the conversion columns in your report into up to 19 rows.
, then select Conversions > Days to conversion. This segments the conversion columns in your report into up to 19 rows.Tip
If you use Smart Bidding, you can also view the conversion delay in your bid strategy reports if more conversions are likely to arrive in your selected date range. When viewing these reports, hover over your conversion and conversion value metrics (“Conversions,” “Cost/conv.,” and “Conv. rate”) to see the average duration of the delay. You’ll also view how many conversions we predict haven’t been reported yet based on the delay. In the performance chart, the date range during which more conversions may still be reported will be marked.
