Say Farewell to Converted Clicks in Google Adwords

Since the birth of Google’s AdWords brainchild way back in the early 00s, “Converted clicks” has been a viable metric to measure behaviour on your site traffic coming from an ad. Come September 21st 2016, however, it will be officially no longer available with Google saying it has now become an outdated metric.

From that point onwards, the default measuring stick will be data included with the “Conversions” column in AdWords.

Why Is Converted Clicks Being Retired?

The primary reason for “Converted clicks”‘ swansong is that is simply doesn’t offer as much insight and analysis as “Conversions”.

“Converted clicks” basically measures any action taken once a search results in a user clicking through to your site from your ad, regardless of the action being taken, whether it’s the one you want or not.

“Conversions” on the other hand lets you grasp exactly what is happening. It is much more astute and follows the rules you laid out regarding what exactly constitutes a conversion. It is therefore much more capable at delivering a true reflection of your ads’ effectiveness and how well they are working.

What to Do If You’re Still Using Converted Clicks

Google has said that people using “Converted clicks” will be emailed with a migration tool to help with the process. Whether you use this is up to you though as it is a fairly simple process to make the switch manually.

All you have to do is select Tools and then click Conversions. Find the settings option from the left panel and then click Conversion click metric. You’ll see the “Which of the following measurements would you like Conversion Optimiser, Target CPA and Enhanced CPC to focus on?” message and it’s simply a case of choosing the Conversions check box.

There a few factors to consider when switching over so it’s worth giving it some serious thought. You can set your new metrics up in more or less the same fashion as “Converted clicks” but if you haven’t done so recently, it might be time to decide which actions show a true conversion for you and your ads.

• Carefully think about your “Conversions” column and which actions should be part of it. This includes whether or not multiples instances of conversions after a click are counted individually or as one – such as downloading multiple forms or making separate product orders
• You’ll still be able to record other actions in “All conversions” but the “Conversions” column should be reserved for your main goals
• You may have to customise conversions windows or values
• You’ll be able to find cross-device conversion numbers in the “Conversions” column once “Converted clicks” has gone but for now just have a look and ensure everything seems fine

Any historical data built up over time using “Converted clicks” will no longer be available come September so make sure you don’t forget to download anything you need before its says its final goodbye and it’s gone forever.

All to Your Advantage

Because “Conversions” offers everything that “Converted clicks” does and more, what may seem like a scary step at first will probably turn into a very useful one once you’ve gotten your head around your new model.

Bidding and reporting, specifically a more accurate reflection of the two, mobile actions and cross-device actions will all be easy to view and breakdown, either now or September 21st at the latest.