Primary vs Secondary Conversions in Google Ads: How to Choose?

[@growmyads]

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[@johnromano2998]

Once again a great job of bringing some super clarity to the conversion tracking cryptic mess.

[@growmyads]

Thanks!

[@hermanjooste5488]

Thank You for the explanation I always wondered what the difference was

[@gabrielferres7522]

Hi! Great video, thanks for the clarification! In the context of a new account, it would make sense to make begin checkout as primary conversion until we have >30 purchases, then make the purchase event the primary conversion? Because is hard for the algorithm to optimize with very low conversion data on purchases

[@johnromano2998]

I never thought of this as a way to indoctrinate the algorithms. Thanks for commenting.

[@gabrielferres7522]

@johnromano2998 Yeah they are called microconversios and are kind of a solution when do you have to train the google algo in new accounts with little data. Would be great to have insights from @growmyads

[@gabrielferres7522]

@johnromano2998 Yeah they are the so called "microconversions", kind of a solution when you have newer accounts or low conversion volume, but is a delicated topic. Would love to have @growmyads insights of this

[@Checka234]

Thanks for your amazing videos! My question is: how many primary conversion do i need for a campaign, that maximizing conversions as bidding strategy works? Currently we use for our multi step lead form also a step in the middle as primary conversion too, because the numer of tracked leads is only like ~ 3 to 6 a month. Does it make sense to work also with this soft conversion as primary conversion (~50 a month) or should we better switch to the lead submit as only primary comversion, still if the conversion number is like 3 to 6 / month?

[@growmyads]

If you are struggling to hit 30+ conversions a month with just your macro conversion (lead form complete) then it is ok to start adding in a few micro conversions that are closer to the macro goal. So it sounds like you are going about it the right way. The goal eventually will be to get more macro conversions and in time be able to fully switch over to just this conversion.

[@Checka234]

@@growmyads thanks so much 💪🙂

[@AngelFernandezDigital]

Hello, what about webinar optins in a site that sells courses, and also has purchase conversions?

[@growmyads]

It depends on budget and if you can get enough purchases in 30 days. Most people can't due to budget limitations if their courses is high ticket. If that is the case then you need to start with Optins and then eventually move over to Purchases when you are spending and generating enough Purchases in a 30 day timeframe. So use Optin as Primary in the beginning. You could also have Purchases set to Primary as well but will have to be careful on how you work bidding then. Otherwise set Purchases to Secondary for the short term. Once you are spending enough and scaling the campaign and can get 20-30+ purchases a month from the Campaign then switch over to Purchases as Primary and switch Optins over to Secondary.

[@AngelFernandezDigital]

@@growmyads thanks. Great reasoning :)

[@aashish_karia]

I have a dropshipping store with generic products, do I need to create different conversion actions (all purchase) for each niche? Or use just single across all campaigns for all the niches? TIA :)

[@growmyads]

If they are sold on the same website then you just want one purchase conversion.

[@ASWDigitalMarketer]

Thanks for the vid! My question : What about campaigns those are sevices based and they need leads, so we keep lead forms as primary conversion but whatsapp message/call & phone number calls from website as secondary conversions? Does it make sense to keep phone calls or whatsapp conversions as secondary conversions?

[@growmyads]

For lead gen it is ok to keep form fills and phone calls as primary conversions.

[@davidvillalpando9971]

Thanks Austin. Question, I saw you had two Purchase conversions there, one being from Analytics. Is it ok to have them both as primary? Won't that duplicate income reports?

[@growmyads]

No if you are have Google Ads tag and an GA4 import then you want to set GA4 import to Secondary not Primary otherwise you'd be double counting if they are for the same conversion action.

[@nmdk-design]

Thank you for your awesome content! Can you please make a video of how you would track Calendly appointment conversions?

[@growmyads]

Will add to the todo!

[@PedramMaleki-t7q]

Thanks for the great video! I have put purchase primary and others secondary. My problem is that the metric I need to be measured is Purchase and not another one. but all metrics like Conv. rate or Cost/Conv. are calculated by sth else. How can I change it? It's really bothering.

[@growmyads]

If purchase is your only primary conversion set then all your conversion metrics should be based on just purchase conversion.

[@livinginclemsonsc543]

Im trying to generate leads through a VSL funnel, should my macro conversion be booked calls, or an earlier step in the funnel like leads submission. I feel like booked calls, because thats my preferred methods to closing new clients. But it seems wasteful to not have date from lead form submissions not help play a roll in the targeting.

[@growmyads]

If you are just starting out then you normally need to have both lead forms and booked calls as conversions. Then once you have enough booked call volume on a monthly basis (30+) you can flick over to just booked calls as your macro. But if you are just starting out you probably won't get enough booked call conversions so you have to run lead forms as well. When you flick over to just booked calls, you can still have lead forms running but just set it to Secondary and that way it isn't being counted as a conversion at the campaign level and the smart bidding isn't using the data for the bid strategy.

[@livinginclemsonsc543]

This was super helpful! Thanks so much!@@growmyads

[@ThomasGlanz]

How about tracking method? Google Tag Manager or imported from G4? I have both and both set as primary. ( which i think is wrong and it's likely doubling the data)

[@growmyads]

Use Google Ads tag over GA4 import. Set GA4 import to Secondary. You are double-counting right now if you have both set to Primary.

[@gads_guy]

Excellent explanation. Thanks

[@ABhampster]

Thanks for the video. If you set the campaign goal as campaign specific to 'purchase' not account goals, then you don't need to be concerned about setting all other goals as secondary is that correct?

[@growmyads]

Correct but many people forget to do that so we always suggest setting them at the account level.

[@justinjewett488]

Thanks for the video. I would be interested in having you perform an audit for a few of my SEM accounts. What is the best way to connect to share more?

[@growmyads]

Thanks! You can request an audit here: growmyads.com/google-ads-account-review-form/

[@esmusssosein5033]

Thank you for the insightful video; it was tremendously helpful. However, I do have a question: Should the conversion goals of the campaign also be set to the primary goal?

[@growmyads]

In most cases your Primary goal is going to be the macro goal you want for all campaigns. In specific cases, you might have a different goal for a special campaign trying to focus on something else (e.g. Leads for commercial terms vs purchases) then you would set it at campaign level and only that campaign would track that as a goal and not your other campaigns.

[@esmusssosein5033]

@@growmyads pls i need help

[@esmusssosein5033]

@growmyads Thank you very much for your response. I have a follow-up question to ensure clarity. As a wedding photographer, the primary conversion point for me is the page view of the thank-you page following the completion of my contact form by visitors. Therefore, when navigating to my Campaign settings and Conversion Goals, I need to designate only the page view of the thank-you page as the primary conversion point. Additionally, conversions for phone and email clicks will be tracked as secondary goals. Does this accurately reflect the process?

[@ZiggyShibambu]

Please create on for apps

[@yovelshoval5139]

Most of the time is it better to do maximize clicks / maximize conversions for a new account (e-commerce or b2b)?

[@growmyads]

Manual CPC or Max Clicks - if it is a new account you don't have any conversion data yet, so the smart bidding won't do much for you on a Max Conv until you get conversion volume generated.

[@imcarobello]

Hello!! Thank you very much for your content. You explain in a very easy to understand way! I would appreciate him if you could help me with a question: If a Search campaign is carried out to sell a Diploma in Health, is it possible to leave 2 main conversions? The registration in the form and the purchase? (the person arrives at a Landing, registers in a form to receive information, goes to the product page and can register by paying.)

[@growmyads]

Yes you can, but the goal would be to eventually scale up to where you are receiving 30+ purchases in a month on average then switch to purchase only. The problem with running both is Google will yield to easiest conversion which will be registrations. At times you will find that Google increases registrations but you don't see actual purchases increase at the same %. This will indicate that the smart bidding is finding lower quality traffic so you are just left with a bunch of registrations but no gain in purchases which is ultimately what you want more of. The other strategy you could do is value based bidding. Give registrations a value based on what they are worth to you. Then your purchase value should be higher than registration value. With this method you can start using tROAS bidding and dial in a ROAS that makes sense. Ultimately, you want to just focus on purchases long-term and train the smart bidding on purchase data only. However, at times if you need both to just get going and start getting some heat, then the above suggestions are generally sound strategies.

[@imcarobello]

@@growmyads Thank you very much!!!

[@fernandoqueiroz4077]

If I want to track both purchase and initiate checkout and keep both as primary events, could my ad account develop a bias towards acquiring leads that generate initiate checkout instead of leads that result in a purchase? Could this potentially worsen my account's intelligence

[@growmyads]

Yes, exactly. This is why you don't track checkouts as primary. Set those to secondary for your own insights.

[@fernandoqueiroz4077]

@@growmyadsI understand. But I've been thinking about optimizing a bit as a primary. Because the ad account is new and is performing poorly. Would it be temporarily worth leaving it in primary?

[@cricketlovers4121]

Hey man, I have one question. Ive been running a car accident campaign for a personal injury lawyer since a month. Ive chosen all the keywords related to car accident attorneys yet they don't trigger too often. Mostly the conversions are coming from people who search for malpractice or workers comp attorneys as seen in the search terms in insight section. I tried adding all of these irrelevant search terms to negative keywords to put a stop once and for all. But after that, no conversions came for the next 3 days. Why is it like this? My select keywords have decent search volume, yet they arent getting impressions or conversion and everything Is getting sucked up by irrelevant search terms. Would appreciate if you help me

[@growmyads]

Would be happy to help but will need to know the following: 1. Campaign type you are using (I am assuming standard Search campaign but want to double check) 2. Match type being used for keywords 3. Bid strategy 4. How many conversions are generating per month?

[@cricketlovers4121]

@@growmyads 1. search campaign 2. broad + phrase match( majority broad match) 3. Max conversion. 4. Got 56 conversions this month

[@chandanshaw4667]

@@cricketlovers4121 1. Go with Responsive Search Ads 2. Use Phrase + Exact Keywords 3. Start with Max Clicks 4. Note: Negative keywords are won’t match to close variants. {so negative keyword -> flower | but ads are eligible to show for keyword -> flowers}

[@Troid-X]

did you figure out bro?@@cricketlovers4121

[@alanschutz4910]

thank you helped a lot

[@growmyads]

Glad it helped

[@freedom-online-2023]

Thank you so much 🙂

[@growmyads]

You're welcome!

[@jbarnett7045]

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