Best practices for uploading offline conversions

We recommend the following best practices for uploading offline conversions:

1. Upload conversions as soon as they are available.
   If you're using bulksheets and are unable to upload multiple times a day, upload once daily or try automating your uploads by using the Search Ads 360 API or Campaign Manager 360 API.

   If you're attributing conversions to specific visits, wait at least 30 minutes after the visit before you upload the conversion. Search Ads 360 might not recognize the visit's clickID if you upload sooner than 30 minutes after the visit.

2. Make sure that each upload contains the most recent conversions.
   We recommend uploading the entries in chronological order.
   Note that a bid strategy might not be able to consider older conversions that you upload later in a different request.

3. Upload offline conversions as soon as they happen. If you wait more than 24 hours without uploading conversions, upload an availability timestamp.

   The availability timestamp should be one of the following:

   • If you've recorded conversions during the last 24 hours but haven't uploaded them yet, the timestamp should be the time that the last uploaded conversion occurred. This tells Search Ads 360 that conversions may have occurred during the last 24 hours, but you haven't provided the data yet. Bid strategies and other automated systems will consider performance history only up to the last conversion you uploaded.
   • If no conversions have occurred during the last 24 hours, the timestamp should be the current time and date. This tells Search Ads 360 that no conversions have occurred during the last 24 hours. Bid strategies and other automated systems will include the last 24 hours—a full day without conversions—as part of the performance history.

   You can use a bulksheet or the Search Ads 360 API to upload an availability timestamp. The Campaign Manager 360 API doesn't support availability timestamps. If you use the Campaign Manager 360 API to upload offline conversions, make sure you upload conversions at least every 24 hours or use Search Ads 360 bulksheets or the Search Ads 360 API to upload an availability timestamp.

Bid strategies and offline Floodlight activities

You can use offline conversions as primary source for most or all of the Floodlight conversions that a Search Ads 360 bid strategy uses for optimization if you select the offline conversions in the bid strategy's settings.

1. Start creating or editing a bid strategy.
2. On the Goal page, click Next.
3. Under Conversion source, select Floodlight from the list.
4. Optional. Select an attribution model that supports offline conversions.
5. Under Select conversion type, click Selected conversions.
6. In the Floodlight tags list, click the move right arrows to select activities that include offline conversions.
7. Click Save bid strategy.

Constraint on bid strategy performance

If you include an offline Floodlight activity as a conversion source in a bid strategy and are unable to upload conversions or availability timestamps for the activity, the bid strategy's performance may be constrained. It may stop adjusting default bids.

When this occurs (and if the bid strategy isn't already applying startup learning behavior), you'll see a message like this in the Bid Strategy Health column:
No uploads for offline conversions in at least number days.

If you see this message:

1. View the conversion sources in the bid strategy. 
   If you don't see the Floodlight activity directly defined as a conversion source, check any formula columns that are specified as a conversion source. 
2. For each offline Floodlight activity, take any of the following actions:
   • Upload conversions from a bulksheet or the Search Ads 360 API.
   • Upload an availability timestamp from a bulksheet or the Search Ads 360 API.
   • Remove the Floodlight activity from the bid strategy.