Conversions for some advertisers start online and finish offline. For example, a consumer starts researching online for a purchase, clicks on an ad and then telephones a call centre to complete the purchase. Or a consumer with a mobile phone taps a 'Call now' button in an ad and purchases an item over the telephone.
For these types of conversions, Search Ads 360 will automatically have data about the online portion if you have set up a Floodlight tag to track the event. If you want to provide data about the offline portion to enhance your reports for use in automated rules or for optimisation in a bid strategy:
- For conversions that involve call centres, you can use a call tracking service that analyses call-centre traffic, attributes calls to search advertising and automatically uploads conversions.
- For other types of offline conversions (including call centre conversions), you can upload the conversion data yourself.
Integration with call tracking services
All of the following call tracking service providers can automatically upload conversion data to Search Ads 360:
- Americas: CallCap, DC-Storm, DialogTech, Infinity Tracking, Invoca, LiveRamp, Marchex, ResponseTap
- UK/Europe: Bellmetric, Calltracks, DC-Storm, Freespee, Infinity Tracking, MaTelSo, ResponseTap, VisualDNA
- Australia/SEA: AVANSER, Delacon, Jet Interactive
To start uploading data from these services, contact the service provider.
Options for uploading offline conversions yourself
You can use any of the following techniques to upload offline conversions yourself:
- Upload from the Campaign Manager 360 API:
If you use Campaign Manager 360 for display campaigns or Search Ads 360 for search campaigns, you can upload conversions from the Campaign Manager 360 API instead of the Search Ads 360 API. This is the preferred solution. - Upload from a bulksheet:
Enter data about conversions into a spreadsheet and then upload the spreadsheet to Search Ads 360. - Upload from the Search Ads 360 API:
If you have a computer system that maintains conversion data, you can write a program that uses the Search Ads 360 API (application programming interface) to automatically upload conversions. To use the API, you’ll need to work with a computer programmer who can make REST calls using a programming language.
Permissions required for uploading conversions
To upload conversions from any source (bulksheets, the Search Ads 360 API or Campaign Manager 360 API), you need edit access to the sub-manager account in which you're uploading conversions.
In a shared Floodlight configuration, you need edit access to each child sub-manager account that you want to upload conversions to. You don't need access to the parent sub-manager, nor do you need access to child sub-managers that you're not uploading conversions to.
If you use click IDs to attribute conversions, make sure that you have edit access to the sub-manager that generated the click ID. If you specify a click ID from a sub-manager that you don't have edit access to, the upload will not succeed.
Important details about uploading conversions from a bulksheet or the Search Ads 360 API
The details in this section apply only to conversions uploaded from Search Ads 360 bulksheets or the Search Ads 360 API. They do not apply to conversions uploaded from the Campaign Manager 360 API.
Uploaded conversions ignore Floodlight lookback windows
When a user interacts with an ad then visits a Floodlight-enabled webpage, Floodlight uses lookback windows to decide whether to include the interaction for a Floodlight activity. For example, if a user clicks one of your ads and then visits your Floodlight-enabled website 15 days later – but your lookback window for clicks is only 10 days – no activity is recorded. (Here's how you can set up lookback windows in your Campaign Manager 360 advertiser.)
However, if you attribute offline conversions to clicks or visits, the default last-click attribution model ignores the Floodlight lookback window. That is, the last-click model will attribute a conversion to a click or visit no matter how much time passes between the click and the conversion. Continuing the example above, if you upload a conversion for a click that occurred 15 days ago, Floodlight will count the conversion, even if your lookback window is set to 10 days. To prevent unintended attributions, the best practice is to upload conversions as soon as they are available and avoid uploading conversions for clicks that occurred outside your lookback window. If you're storing click IDs in a web log, each entry in the web log will often include a timestamp. Use this timestamp to filter out clicks that occurred outside the lookback window.
Search Ads 360 does apply the lookback window in attribution models other than the default last click.
Uploaded conversions ignore Floodlight instructions
Floodlight instructions transform the raw data recorded by a Floodlight activity, such as changing the currency of a recorded transaction. Search Ads 360 does not apply Floodlight instructions to conversions that you upload via the Search Ads 360 Conversion API.
Uploading custom Floodlight variables from bulksheets is not supported
You cannot specify custom Floodlight variables for conversions that you upload from a bulksheet. To upload custom data for offline conversions, use the Campaign Manager 360 API.
Attribution models: Only some offline conversions are included
See which types of attribution models can be applied to offline conversions.
How soon can I use the uploaded data?
If an uploaded conversion has a timestamp within the past 24 hours, it will be available in the campaign-management UI within 8 hours of the upload. If an uploaded conversion has a timestamp older than the last 24 hours, it will be available within 30 hours of the upload.
Can I upload historical conversions?
It depends. Historical conversions are subject to a few restraints:
- Conversions attributed to keywords, ads, product groups or visits are forced into the last-click attribution model no matter when they're uploaded, whereas those attributed to Google click IDs (GCLIDs) are forced into this attribution model after 60 days.
- You can't upload conversions attributed to GCLIDs if either of the following is true:
- The conversion timestamp is older than 90 days.
- The GCLID is older than 90 days.
- You can't edit conversions that are older than 90 days.
- You can't upload or edit conversions that are older than 90 days.
- You can't upload conversion timestamps older than 14 days for the purposes of auction-time bidding.
Will Campaign Manager 360 reports contain the uploaded conversions?
No. Search Ads 360 does not send conversions that you upload from bulksheets or the Search Ads 360 API – neither conversions that you add nor conversions that you edit – to Campaign Manager 360. Reports that you create in Campaign Manager 360 Report Builder and data transfer files do not show conversions uploaded from the Search Ads 360 API or bulksheets.