What happens if a shopper first visits your website on their phone through a search, then checks it out again on their tablet and finally makes a purchase on their PC. Can you track that? Well, with the new cross device conversion tracking in AdWords you most certainly can. There are of course some limitations, but regardless, this new tracking ability marks the introduction of a new report which Internet marketers will love.
Why Are They Important
According to Google, “A September 2013 study of multi-device consumers found that over 90% move sequentially between several screens for everyday activities like booking a hotel or shopping for electronics.” With this in mind, we can see why we need this technology.
On 10/021/13 Google introduced estimated total conversions. The main purpose of this report is to show the amount of estimated conversions that take place cross device. But Google doesn’t want to stop here, they also want to add conversions for phone calls and store visits to this report. This will come later…
Cross Device Conversions for AdWords
Why do We Need Cross Device Conversion Reports
With this information Google hopes that marketers can make better AdWords bidding decisions. Think about it, if you know that you are estimated to get X amount of conversions with a certain amount of spend, it makes forking out that budget much easier.
So where does the cross-device conversion aspect come into play? Well, estimated cross-device conversions are the first type of conversion to be launched in this new estimated total conversions report. Google provides the following example on this to clarify how it works.
“For example, say someone shops for “blue jeans” on her mobile phone while waiting for the morning train. She clicks on a mobile ad for ABC Blue Jeans. When she gets to her office, she goes directly to the ABC website to make a purchase. This is an example of a cross-device conversion. We calculate cross-device conversions using a sample of data from users who signed into multiple devices.”
How are Cross Device Conversion Projects Created
Google has been collecting data from the past few months from thousands of AdWords account to come up with this estimate. They came up with the following figures from this study.
When advertisers in the travel industry use AdWords estimated cross-device conversions, they are able to measure 8% more conversions, on average, than they did before.
In addition, they can now measure 33% more conversions that originated on a mobile phone and later converted on different device.
Similarly, other verticals, like entertainment and retail are also seeing positive results. Businesses in these industries are now able to measure 12% and 7% more conversions, respectively, than they could before using Estimated Total Conversions.
As we move into a multi-screen world, cross device conversions will become critical for all Internet marketers to evaluate. This will be an important report to keep an eye on.
