How-to · Updated October 11, 2026
Keep view-through conversions out of the Google Ads numbers you judge
Updated October 11, 2026
15 minutes
Segment Campaigns by Ad event type: the Impression rows are view-through conversions. Most campaigns report them only in All conv., but a Demand Gen campaign can bid on them and count them in Conversions. Uncheck Include view-through conversions in each Demand Gen campaign, and judge your Google Ads numbers on Conversions, not All conv.
Before you start
- A login that can edit campaigns and conversion actions in the Google Ads account.
- A list of your campaigns by type. Google describes view-through conversions for display and video ads, so Demand Gen, Display, Video and Performance Max campaigns are the ones to look at.
- Your own lead count for the last 30 days, to hold against the totals before and after.
Find view-through conversions in your report
Segment by Ad event type: a number under Conversions on an Impression row means bidding counts conversions from people who saw an ad and never clicked it.
- In Google Ads, click the Campaigns icon, then Campaigns, and set the last 30 days.
- Click the Columns icon, select Modify columns, and tick All conv. and View-through conversions if they are not showing. Click Apply.
- Click the segment icon, then Conversions, then Ad event type. Each campaign splits into rows by what came before the conversion, such as Clicks and Impression. Google lists view-through conversions as Impression.
- Read the Impression rows. A number under All conv. only is reporting. A number under Conversions means the campaign is bidding on view-through conversions.
Google says view-through conversions are for reporting only and stay out of Conversions, with three exceptions: Performance Max for store goals, App campaigns and Demand Gen campaigns.
Turn off view-through bidding in Demand Gen
One checkbox per Demand Gen campaign decides whether view-through conversions from its video ads count in bidding. Google's pages disagree on the default, so read each campaign's setting rather than assuming it is off.
- Open Campaigns, then click the gear icon next to the Demand Gen campaign's name.
- Open the Conversions Optimization drop-down and uncheck Include view-through conversions.
- Click Save. Repeat for every Demand Gen campaign where the box is ticked, not only those that showed numbers under Conversions on their Impression rows.
Google itself says view-through bidding may not be the best option if you only care about click-through conversions, or if you judge Demand Gen outside Google Ads and cannot measure view-through conversions there. A business that counts leads in its own inbox or booking system is in the second case: the lead arrives there, but nothing shows that it followed an ad the person only saw.
Keep view-through out of the numbers you judge
Judge the account on Conversions and Cost / conv., and shorten the view-through window if anyone reports from All conv.
- In any report or dashboard you read, use Conversions. All conv. includes view-through conversions, secondary actions and more, so it can run well ahead of your real leads.
- To shorten the window, click the Goals icon, open the Conversions drop-down and select Summary. Find the conversion action and select Edit settings.
- Expand View-through conversion window, choose 1 day, then click Save and Done.
Google says a longer view-through window usually increases the number of view-through conversions recorded, and recommends 1 day for view-through conversions used in bidding. The default for a new action is 1 day, so a longer window was most likely chosen when the action was set up or edited.
Check it worked
After a week, run the Ad event type segment again for the days since the change. On each Demand Gen campaign you changed, the Impression rows should show nothing under Conversions, while View-through conversions and All conv. still show them.
Then hold Conversions against your own lead count for the same days, leaving out the last few, which can still fill in.
Are engaged-view conversions the same thing?
No. An engaged-view conversion follows a video watched for a set time, such as at least 10 seconds of a skippable in-stream ad, and Google includes them in Conversions. A view-through conversion follows an ad that was only on screen. In the Ad event type segment they are separate rows, and a conversion is credited once, to a click first, then an engaged view, then an impression.
Where Google's own pages disagree
On the default: Google's Demand Gen view-through bidding page says new Demand Gen campaigns have it turned on, while its general view-through page says it is off by default. The checkbox in each campaign is the answer that counts.
On what a view is: for Display ads, Google counts an impression as viewable when at least 50% of the ad is on screen for at least 1 second. The Demand Gen view-through bidding page says a view is counted when at least 1 pixel of an ad is on screen for any time.
What the Platform Comparable columns add
On Demand Gen campaigns, the Conversions (Platform Comparable) column includes view-through conversions and gives Demand Gen full credit, to compare with social ad platforms. It does not affect bidding, and Google says not to use it to compare Demand Gen with Search, Display or Performance Max.