Chapter 3 of Getting Started with Google Ads: Goals (Conversion and Attribution) from Construction to Verification

Without reliable measurement, all optimization is blind. This chapter uses the link of "Event Dictionary → Create → Value → Deduplication → Enhanced Conversion → GA4 Alignment → Offline Postback → Attribution → Diagnosis" to help you get the conversion right and stable.

1. Quick overview of key concepts

• Conversion action: a specific conversion action (such as purchase, lead, sign_up, phone call).
• Include in ‘Conversions’: After checking, you will enter the optimization caliber (for bidding and report main indicators). Auxiliary goals (such as micro-conversions) can be unchecked.
• Attribution (attribution model): Data‑Driven (DDA)/Last click/Position-based, etc., affecting how conversions are assigned to clicks or impressions.
• Conversion window (window period): How long does it take for conversions to be counted on this click; different windows can be set for different actions.
• Count: Every vs One. Use Every when placing e-commerce orders; use One when submitting leads (the same user will only be recorded once if they are multiple times).

2. Event dictionary (reference template)

Prepare event definitions and fields by business type:

• E-commerce:
  • purchase: value/currency, transaction_id, items, shipping, tax;
  • begin_checkout, add_to_cart: micro-conversion;
  • refund: used for backflush (offline postback).
• Clues:
  • generate_lead: lead_score, form_version, source;
  • qualified_lead/opportunity (offline postback).
• App:
  • first_open/login, in_app_purchase, subscription, trial_start, subscription_renewed;
  • iOS needs to consider SKAN's conversion value mapping: compressing key events into a 64-value encoding. Tip: Use the event closest to "income" as the optimization target; when the sample is insufficient, you can temporarily use micro-conversion to feed, and switch to macro-conversion as soon as possible after reaching the target.

3. Create conversion (take website as an example)

Path: Goals → Conversions → New conversion action → Website.

Steps:

1. Enter the domain name to let the system automatically scan for tag events (or configure tags manually).
2. Select the event type (Purchase/Lead/Signup/Custom).
3. Set value (fixed value/dynamic value/unused value), currency and counting method.
4. Select the attribution model and window (DDA is recommended, the window is set according to the business cycle, such as 30