Interaction rate in Google Ads

Source: Google Ads Help, View performance across campaign types.

On a Search-only campaign, interactions are mostly clicks, so interaction rate sits close to CTR. Once video or call ads join, the two part: a video view or a call counts as an interaction, and not as a click.

Avg. cost is its companion: spend divided by interactions. On a mixed account it describes the price of an action better than Avg. CPC, which divides all spend, video included, by clicks alone.

Why it matters for conversion rate

Google's own Conv. rate divides conversions by interactions, not by clicks. On a video campaign, every view sits in that base. That is why a video campaign's conversion rate looks tiny next to Search, and why the two should not be compared.

A worked example

A language school runs Search and a YouTube campaign. In May, Search has 60,000 impressions and 2,400 clicks. The video campaign has 90,000 impressions, 9,000 views and 300 clicks.

Across the account, interactions are 2,400 + 9,000 = 11,400 over 150,000 impressions: an interaction rate of 7.6%. CTR is 2,700 clicks over the same impressions: 1.8%. Neither is wrong. Each answers a different question, and both are best read per campaign type.

1. Open Campaigns, click the Columns icon, then Modify columns.
2. In Performance, tick Interactions, Interaction rate and Avg. cost.
3. Keep Clicks and CTR beside them to see where the two figures part.
4. Filter the table by campaign type before comparing rates.

Optizads stores interactions and impressions for each campaign and each day, and divides the period's sums. Interactions and Interaction rate sit in the Engagement group of the metric picker, Avg. cost in Costs.

Optizads' Conversion rate divides conversions by clicks, the way most clients read it. Google's Conv. rate divides by interactions. On a Search-only account the two match closely; with video or calls they do not. If you want Google's version, a calculated metric divides Conversions by Interactions.

Ask Oppy for Key figures with Interaction rate and CTR over the last 90 days, against the previous period. Ask Oppy draws the card in the conversation from the account's own figures. The same card goes into a report through the report builder.

• Reading an account-wide interaction rate that mixes Search clicks with video views.
• Comparing a video campaign's conversion rate with Search when both divide by interactions.
• Using Avg. CPC on a mixed account, where video spend inflates it.
• Treating a rise in interaction rate as better ads when the video share simply grew.

• Click-through rate (CTR): Clicks divided by impressions: the share of people who saw an ad and clicked it.
• Impression: One showing of an ad.
• Video campaign: A campaign that shows video ads on YouTube and video partner sites, for reach or views.
• Conversion rate: Conversions divided by clicks.

• Ad engagement rate: Engagement rate in Google Ads is engagements divided by impressions: how often people engage with an ad after it is shown.
• Video view rate: Video view rate is the share of your video ad impressions that became views: views divided by impressions.
• Average CPM: Average CPM is what a thousand impressions of your ads cost on average: spend divided by impressions, times 1,000.