Conversions by conversion time

Source: Google Ads Help, Understand your conversion tracking data.

Over a long period the two columns end close, because they count the same conversions. They differ at the edges of each period.

Which column answers which question

Use the default column to judge ads and campaigns. It ties each result to the spend that bought it. Use conversion time to match what the business saw: the sales, leads or calls logged on a given day or month.

A cost per conversion built on conversion time mixes two calendars. Spend sits on the day of the click, results on the day of the conversion. In a month when spend jumps or falls, that ratio credits or blames the wrong month.

In the default column, recent days keep growing as late conversions arrive; see conversion lag. By conversion time, a past day changes far less, since its conversions already happened. An offline conversion import can still add to it later.

A worked example

A kitchen showroom closes its books for March with 41 sales. In early April, Google Ads shows 38 conversions for March in the default column, and 44 by conversion time.

The 44 include 9 conversions from February clicks. The 38 include 3 conversions that happened in early April, and will grow as more March clicks convert. Set beside the 41 sales in the books, the 44 is the fair comparison. The 38 stays the figure for judging March's campaigns.

1. Open Campaigns, click the Columns icon, then Modify columns.
2. In the Conversions group, tick Conversions (by conv. time), Conv. value (by conv. time) and Value / conv. (by conv. time).
3. Keep Conversions beside them to see the gap.
4. Click Segment, then Time, then Day, to watch recent days fill in at different speeds.

Optizads offers three metrics on conversion time, in the Conversions group of the metric picker: Conversions (by conv. time), Conv. value (by conv. time) and Value / conv. (by conv. time). They are stored for each campaign and each day, on calendar days in the Google Ads account's own time zone, so a day matches the day Google shows.

Optizads re-reads the last 35 days each night, since late conversions keep landing on past days. The conversion-time figures move less, yet they are read again too, so an imported sale reaches the day it was made.

A useful pairing for a client: a Key figures card with Conversions (by conv. time) next to a Google Sheets metric of the month's closed sales. When the two figures part, the tag or the import misses something, and you see it the same month.

• Dividing spend by conversions by conversion time and calling the result the campaign's CPA.
• Comparing the default column with the books' sales and blaming the tag for the gap.
• Judging last week in the default column before its late conversions arrive.

• Conversion lag: The time between a click and the conversion it leads to.
• Conversion window: How long after a click a conversion can still be counted for it, from 1 to 90 days.
• Offline conversion import: Sending conversions that happen outside the website, such as a sale closed by phone, back to Google Ads.

• All conversions: All conversions is the Google Ads column that counts every conversion the account records, including the actions not used for bidding.
• Value per conversion: Value per conversion is the average value of one conversion in Google Ads: conversion value divided by conversions.
• Store visits: Store visits are Google's modelled estimate of the visits to your physical stores that followed a click on, or a view of, your ads.