View-through conversion
view-through conversions / conversions without a click / VTC / why did conversions go up but not clicks
A view-through conversion credits an ad that was seen but never clicked. Google counts an impression as viewable when at least 50% of the ad is onscreen for at least 1 second, so the standard being met is lower than most people picture when they hear that someone saw the ad.
Google describes the column as telling you when customers view, but do not interact with, your ad and later complete a conversion on your site. Microsoft puts the same idea in plainer words: when an ad plants the idea of your product in a customer's mind, that ad gets credit for the eventual conversion, even if the customer never clicked it.
The question that decides what the number is worth is what counts as having viewed. Google answers it precisely. Using its Active View technology, an impression of a display ad is considered viewable when at least 50% of the ad is onscreen for at least 1 second. Half the pixels, one second, no interaction. That is the event being credited with a sale that happened later.
Both platforms rule out the obvious double count in the same way. Google says view-through conversions automatically exclude conversions from people who have also interacted with any of your other ads, and Microsoft says customers who click any of its ads are automatically excluded so they are not counted twice. Both also credit the last impression rather than the first.
Where they differ is in how quietly the number joins your totals. Microsoft counts view-through conversions the same as other conversions by default, so they are inside the All conv. column unless you turn that off in account settings. It then adds a detail worth reading twice: they are not included in the All conv. CPA column even when they are included in All conv. The count moves and the cost per acquisition does not follow it. Its default window between impression and conversion is 1 day.
In practice
Before comparing this month to last, find out whether view-through conversions are switched on and whether the window changed. A rise in total conversions with no rise in clicks, spend or revenue usually means the increase arrived through this column. That is not fraud and not an error. It is a different event being counted alongside the clicked ones under a single heading.
Not the same as
- A click
- Nobody interacted. The standard met was half the ad onscreen for one second.
- Modeled conversions
- Those estimate events that cannot be observed. This is an observed impression followed by an observed conversion, with the causal link assumed rather than measured.
Why it matters to you
This is the number most likely to make display and video advertising look better than the rest of the account, because the bar for earning credit is so much lower. That does not make it worthless. Advertising people have not clicked does influence them. But a total that mixes clicked and merely viewed conversions cannot be compared against a total that does not, and on one platform the cost per acquisition column has quietly excluded them while the conversion count has not.
What to ask or check
- 01Are view-through conversions included in the totals in this report, and were they last month?
- 02What is the window between the impression and the conversion, and has anyone changed it?
- 03If the conversion count rose, did clicks, spend and revenue rise with it?
What people get wrong
That someone having seen your ad means they looked at it. Google's standard is at least 50% of the ad onscreen for at least 1 second, with no interaction of any kind.
Red flags
- A conversion total that rose while clicks, spend and revenue stayed flat.
- Month-on-month comparisons where view-through conversions were included in one period and not the other.
- A cost per acquisition quoted from a column that excludes conversions the count includes.
Who owns it
The platforms define the standard and the defaults, and both default to counting these. Whether they sit inside the totals you review is an account setting somebody chose.
Where you will see it
In display and video reporting, and inside combined conversion totals unless somebody turned it off.