Data-driven attribution

Last click gives all the credit to the final ad before the conversion, usually a brand search. Data-driven attribution looks at the paths in your account and gives part of the credit to the searches that started them.

It changes which campaigns look valuable, and Smart Bidding uses it to decide what each click is worth, so it affects spend as well as reports.

1. Open Goals, then Conversions, then Summary, and open a conversion action.
2. Check Attribution model: data-driven is the default for most actions.
3. Open Goals, then Attribution, to compare models and see conversion paths.
4. Look at the Top paths report to see how many interactions lead to a conversion.

A travel agency switches from last click to data-driven attribution. Its generic destination campaigns gain credit for trips that began with them and ended on a brand search, so they are no longer cut for looking weak.

• Comparing campaign results before and after a model change as if nothing else changed.
• Expecting data-driven attribution to see channels outside Google Ads.
• Treating its fractional conversions as errors.

The audit checks Oppy runs on this, each with its own page.

• Performance Max buying queries the Search campaigns already bid on
• How much of the budget buys the account's own name

• Attribution model: The rule that decides how credit for a conversion is shared between the clicks and ads that led to it.
• Conversion: An action you count as a result of an ad: a purchase, a lead form, a call, a sign-up or a store visit.
• Smart Bidding: Google's automated bid strategies that set a bid for each auction toward conversions or conversion value.