View through data in Adwords is actually pretty cool, but only for people who run Adsense or a lot of display ads on the content network. This tool provides conversion data if you have display ads running via the content network. It’s not relevant for simple text ads running in your PPC account.
With that said, the new view through conversion data shows how many conversions were made within 30 days after a user viewed, but did not click on one of your display ads via the content network.
It’s very important to note, that if there was a click at any point from that user within 30 days of their initial ‘view’, then that conversion will be counted as a click conversion, not a view through conversion. View through conversions are tracked by the AdSense cookie on the content network. Meaning if your ad shows up on the content network, AdSense will track that users cookie, if that user did not click on that display ad, but came back to the website in some other fashion, then that one conversion will be counted as a view through conversion.
This is really great for people who have ads running and do a really great job branding for their clients, but then the user just ends up going back to the website through typing in the company domain name and the PPC display ad never gets the credit. I wish Google could somehow do this for all PPC ads, on the search and content network, but maybe that’s in the works!
The view through data is available in all Adwords accounts as a new column on the far right hand side of the page. Again, you will only see the data if you’re running a display ad on the content network.
The good things about seeing this data is to know which ad and on which website is truly generating the most conversions. If you can increase your bids on a particular placement on the content network or copy that display ad and add it throughout other CN campaigns you’re likely to see the same positive results.
