The same two questions have been frequently hitting my inbox over the last couple of months.
Firstly, What's the difference between 1-per-click and many-per-click conversions in Google AdWords?
Second; why do my Google Analytics goal numbers never line up with my AdWords conversion numbers?
The difference between 1-per-click and many-per-click conversions is pretty straight forward. When a click generates a conversion it records a single 1-per-click conversion and one many-per-click conversion. If that same click generates a subsequent conversion then it records it as a second many-per-click conversion. At this point, you will have one 1-per-click conversion and two many-per-click conversions. In other words, 1-per-click conversions will only ever count one conversion per click and many-per-click will count every conversion that occurs within 30 days of the click.
Which one should you be paying attention to then?
Both, but the reasons for doing so are going to depend on what you are tracking.
If you only have one conversion type setup and it is tracking newsletter sign-ups or enquiry form completions, then focus on 1-per-click. Theoretically your many-per-click conversions and 1-per-click conversions should be the same. If you get a few more many-per-click than 1-per-click conversions you can probably put it down to a few visitors filling out your sign-up form more than once. If the difference is a big number then you may have an issue with your form. Maybe it's not clear to the visitor that their enquiry has been sucessful. It could also be that your conversion tracking code is not installed on the correct page or even on additional pages resulting in false positives. Be sure to check the "Webpages" tab in the Conversion Tracking section of your AdWords account to confirm which pages are triggering conversions. Better yet, do away with AdWords tracking code altogether by importing your Google Analytics Goals into AdWords instead.
If your only conversion type is online shop sales, focus on many-per-click. This is a more accurate reflection of the return on your AdWords investment. If you are selling more than one product, then differences between many-per-click and 1-per-click will give you some insight into repeat customers and how effectively you are following up that first sale to get them back to buy more.
The most common example of where many-per-click conversions come in to play is where you have both a lead conversion type and an e-commerce conversion type. An AdWords generated visitor may sign up for your newsletter (lead conversion) and then buy a product from your online shop (e-commerce conversion). Both conversions are credited to the initial ad click.
It is important to note that as long as a conversion occurs within 30 days of the ad click that generated that conversion, it is credited to the day that the click occurred not the date that the conversion itself occurred. Putting aside browser and firewall privacy settings, this crediting back to the day of the click by AdWords is typically the reason your AdWords conversion numbers and Google Analytics goal numbers do not line up. Goal conversions are recorded against the day the actual conversion occurred.
Crediting conversions to the conversions to the day of the click makes perfect sense in terms of measuring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. Success (a new lead or sale) is aligned with the day that the media spend occurred. In the chart below an increase in the total number of clicks for the day was directly responsible for an increase in the number conversions.
What you do not know if you are looking only at the AdWords data is whether or not all those conversions happened on the same day as the increase in clicks.
If conversions that occurred after the date of the actual ad click that generated them were not credited back to the date of the click then it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to identify that a change in your AdWords account was responsible for a corresponding change in conversion numbers.
This article was posted by Bret Buckland. Bret is a Google
Qualified AdWords Professional and Account Manager at Traffika. You
can follow Bret on Twitter
@bjbuck
