Simplifying conversion measurement: saying goodbye to "Converted clicks"

Conversion tracking was introduced to AdWords in 2001 to measure what happened after someone clicked on your ad. The ability to know whether or not people completed a desired action on your site meant that you could determine which keywords, ads and campaigns were the most effective. The original conversion measurement metric was very basic - simply reporting whether an ad click led to any type of action on your site. That outdated metric is called “Converted clicks” in AdWords today.

In the 15 years since the introduction of conversion tracking, multiple improvements have been made to measuring and attributing conversions. Notably, the “Conversions” column family now offers the full picture of how many conversions AdWords drives for your business. In order to simplify things, ”Converted clicks” will soon be retired, with “Conversions” becoming the default way to measure valuable actions for your business.

“Conversions” is the ideal way to measure these valuable actions, and most advertisers already use “Conversions” as their primary reporting and bidding metric.
“Conversions” are capable of measuring behavior that spans multiple conversion events or multiple clicks. For example, “Conversions” can take advantage of non-last-click attribution models and different counting options. Additionally, they can measure important, mobile-centric actions like cross-device conversions and store visits. “Converted clicks,” on the other hand, can do none of that. For those reasons and plenty more, “Converted clicks” will not be supported past September 2016.

If you’re already using “Conversions” for reporting and bidding, no action is required. However, if you use Target CPA or Enhanced CPC and your primary bid metric is set to “Converted clicks” at the present time, you should plan to update to “Conversions” by September 21st. We’ve put together a simple migration tool if you’re automating your bidding based on “Converted clicks” which we will be sending via email to affected accounts. Of course, you can always update your settings manually.

If you rely on the “Converted clicks” reporting column to make bidding and budgeting decisions then you should also move to “Conversions.” This column can be configured to report similar numbers to your “Converted clicks” column, though you should review your setup to make sure you are counting the actions that matter most to your business. “Conversions” can give you everything “Converted clicks” does, along with much more.

If you’re in need of updating, there are a few considerations as you make the change:

• Choose which conversion actions that you measure should be included in the “Conversions” column. Other actions can still be measured in “All conversions” 
• Determine whether to count multiple instances of a conversion after a click or only one 
• Customize your conversion windows and values (if necessary) 
• Review your cross-device conversion numbers, which will be included in the “Conversions” column starting in September 
• Download any historical “Converted clicks” reporting stats that you want to keep