Is Ads Manager over-reporting? If you’re getting conversion results that seem too good, do this…
Assuming you set up your events properly, it’s rare that your results would be improperly inflated. More than likely, the results are accurate, at least in the way that Ads Manager is expected to report them based on attribution settings.
But context could change your perception of what your results actually mean.
Click the Columns dropdown menu and select Compare Attribution Settings. Select each of these settings:
- 1-day view
- 1-day engaged-view
- 1-day click
- 7-day click
- 28-day click
This will get separate columns for each attribution setting. It will calculate the results that occurred within each window.
If you’re running a purchases campaign, there’s nothing wrong with having some view-through conversions. While view-through may not be equal to click attribution in terms of confidence that your ad led to the conversion, both have value.
The problem would be if a high percentage of your conversions were view-through. This would signify that the contribution of your ad to these conversions was likely minimal. While some conversions may be legitimate, the vast majority are likely from people who didn’t even see your ad but would have converted anyway.
That said, all of these attribution settings have value when optimizing for purchases. They just aren’t equally reliable and should be evaluated that way. Prioritize 1-day click, followed by 7-day and 28-day click. The view-through gets the least value.
If you’re promoting anything that is light-touch or free, you can disregard anything other than 1-day click. This would include things like a free registration or ebook or a custom event for basic engagement on a website.
Context when interpreting results is important. It’s partly your responsibility to use that context to form an accurate picture of the results.