Google Ads Change Again: Here’s What You Need To Know

Last-click Attribution.

You may not know what that means, but for a long time, it’s been the Holy Grail that Google used as the default conversion model inside Google Ads.

So, what does that mean for you, a company that purchases Google Ads?  

Let’s first identify the difference in attribution modeling.

Here’s where most of us are now:

Last click: In a scenario of 5 advertising touchpoints, the 5th and final touchpoint receives full credit for the lead or purchase.

Here’s where you should be headed:

Data-driven: Again, in a scenario of 5 touchpoints, each touchpoint is given credit based on the role it played in delivering that final lead or purchase. In this model, you are now accounting for the series of steps a prospective customer takes before they convert on your site. And you’re allowing your campaigns to attempt to recreate the customer journey that yields the highest conversion rate.

Let’s look at an example.

Let’s say you own a Jeep dealership in Cleveland. A customer finds your site by clicking on your ads after performing each of these searches: “Jeep Grand Cherokee,” “Jeep Grand Cherokee trim packages,” “Jeep Dealerships in Cleveland,” and then “Jeep Grand Cherokee Deals.” 

They submit a lead after clicking on your ad that appeared with “Jeep Grand Cherokee Deals.”

In the Last click attribution model, the last keyword, “Jeep Grand Cherokee Deals,” would receive 100% of the credit for the conversion.

In the Data-driven attribution model, each keyword would receive part of the credit, depending on how much it contributed to driving the conversion. 

The majority of the credit would go to the first touchpoint (the originator) and the last touchpoint (the converter), ensuring you capture the valuable data on how to fill and nurture a prospective customer through your sales funnel.

The important thing to know is that Google is adopting the data-driven conversion model.

And the bottom line is this…

When last-click attribution was the default, it was a pretty simple way for smaller companies to work with data.

As your advertising budget grows and you want to reach multiple stages of the sales funnel, your campaigns will benefit from data-driven attribution because they will recognize the most common customer journey that leads to a conversion (as opposed to rule-based attribution, which is what last-click attribution was).

Overall, the quality of this data is much better and is connected to the number of impressions, and as a result, conversions that your campaigns will get. 

And as third-party cookies are phased out, data-driven attribution will help compensate for data gaps when brands can’t effectively track users or conversions by driving more meaningful actions at each stage of the funnel.

Google Ads are complicated.

Your advertising partner should be up-to-date on the changes Google is making and well-versed in how Google assigns value to marketing actions taken by website visitors and how to effectively set up your campaigns. 

Do you have questions about your current campaign performance, or you’re wondering if you need a new marketing partner to help you get the most value from your Google Ads? Give us a call.