For eCommerce Shopping ad campaigns, conversion tracking setup is important because it allows advertisers to calculate two of the most important metrics in paid search: return on ad spend and advertising margin.
Why Accurate Tracking Matters
More importantly, accurate conversion tracking provides valuable information back to automated bidding algorithms, which use machine learning logic to help maximize campaign performance.
When a Shopping campaign sends accurate conversion values back to the automated bidding logic, automated bidding can deliver significant performance improvements and greatly reduce campaign management time.
Using Conversion Values in Shopping Campaigns
In a Shopping campaign, conversion value setup often generates a value equal to the amount of the sale. Preferably, it is taken a step further by subtracting the cost of goods sold to calculate gross margin. This creates a more accurate signal for campaign optimization. Custom variables can be set up to help handle this.
Sales Value vs. Gross Margin
Using the amount of the sale as the conversion value can be useful, but gross margin may provide a more accurate signal when product costs vary. This helps the campaign focus not only on revenue, but also on the value of the sale after product costs are considered.
Why Fractional Conversions Appear in eCommerce Reporting
When a sale occurs, the value for that transaction is registered as a conversion, not just for the last click, but also distributed, or attributed, fractionally up through the sales funnel. The weighting for the conversion credits is defined by the click attribution model. This is why you may see fractional conversions in eCommerce reporting.
Attribution and Reporting Context
Fractional conversions are not necessarily a tracking problem. They often reflect how the selected attribution model assigns credit across multiple ad interactions before the sale.
Related Shopping Campaign and Tracking Resources
Related topics include Shopping campaigns, PPC campaign management, web analytics, product feeds, and eCommerce advertising results.
For more context, see our related blog articles on automated bidding, conversion tracking, and conversion tracking value models.
