Ad destination is a reporting segment that allows you to understand where a user reaches when they click an ad and how they interact with ads across different channels.
Learn more About Ad destination.
In this article, you’ll learn about the requirements needed for ad destination, its implementation, and how to access it.
On this page
- Requirements
- Implement Ad destination
- Access Ad destination reporting
- Metrics and dimensions available for Ad destination reporting
Requirements
SDK source rules
You must configure the SDK (Software development kit) source to properly pass conversion data to Google per the requirements below:
iOS
- You must be sending connector pings from the SDK source.
- Any App Analytics Provider (AAP) SDK is now supported for ATT-aware reporting, including Google Analytics for Firebase, Appsflyer, Singular, Adjust, Branch, Kochava, Airbridge, Lazada Group, and others.
- Ad destination will only report app data from SDK source(s) that have both biddable app conversions and session start events imported.
- Specific requirements for iOS session_start events:
- For consented users, session_start events with GCLID are used.
- For unconsented users, session_start events must include a valid GBRAID.
- For GBRAID-based session_start events to be considered valid for Ad destination reporting, the app_open_source field must be set to 'ad_click' when the app is opened from an ad click. If this field is missing or not set correctly, iOS "App deep link" data will not populate in the Ad destination.
Note: iOS data may have some limitations due to the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy.
Android
- You must be sending connector pings from the SDK source.
- Any App Conversion Tracking is supported.
- Ad destination will only surface and report app data from SDK source(s) that have biddable app conversions.
App conversion bidding rules
- You must set “App conversions” as “primary” for app conversion data to populate for most metrics.
- The “All Conv.” and “All Conv Value.” metrics can have “App conversions” as “primary” or “secondary”.
- If you aren’t bidding on app conversions, you will not find any app conversions in your campaign reporting.
Implement Ad destination
Follow these steps to get access to ad destination reporting and to ensure the most accurate segmentation in your report:
- Set up your web conversions.
- Send all connector pings: GCLID AND Session start + GBRAID + app_open_source to Google Ads.
- GCLID and GBRAID require auto-tagging in your Google Ads settings.
- Link the Google Analytics for Firebase or third-party account to your Google Ads account.
Access Ad destination reporting
You can access ad destination reporting in 2 ways:
Campaigns page
- Go to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu
.
- Select the Segment icon
and choose Ad destination.
and choose Ad destination.Report editor
- Go to Report editor within the Insights and reports dropdown.
- Select + Create report or choose an existing report.
- In the “Search for metrics and dimensions” field, search for and add Ad destination.
- Add it as a row or column and pair with other dimensions or metrics that you want.
Note: You can also use the “Ad destination” sub-segments to filter your reports.
Metrics and dimensions available for Ad destination reporting
Metrics
With the ad destination segmentation, you can find campaign performance insights of your channels for the following metrics:
- Clicks: The number of times someone clicks your ad.
- Cost: The sum of your spend during a specific period.
- Conversions: The number of conversions you received after ad interactions (such as text ad clicks or video ad views) from all actions you've included.
- Conversion rate: An average of ad interactions that lead to a conversion. It’s “Conversions” divided by the interactions with your ad.
- Interactions: The main action associated with an ad format. These include clicks for text and Product Shopping ads, views for video ads, and more.
- Impressions: An impression is counted each time your ad is served and helps you understand how many times your ad is viewed.
- Conversion value: The sum of conversion values for your conversions.
- Cost / conversion: The average cost of a conversion. It’s your cost divided by your conversions.
- All conversions: The total number of conversions that Google Ads measures for each conversion action.
- All conversions value: The combined value for each conversion action.
Dimensions
You can add the below dimensions with Ad destination reporting:
- “Conversion Action” allows you to segment reporting based on your conversion events.
- “Device Platform” allows you to segment reporting based on the OS type of a user’s device.
