What is conversion delay?

Analysis of Correct Answer(s)

• Conversion delay (also known as conversion lag) refers to the amount of time that passes between an initial interaction with an ad (typically a click) and the subsequent completion of a desired action, which is a conversion. This can involve:
  • A user clicking an ad and then completing an online conversion action on a website (e.g., making a purchase, filling out a form) at a later time.
  • An advertiser uploading an offline conversion that occurred after an ad interaction.
• This concept is crucial for understanding the customer journey and for proper attribution modeling, as conversions often don't happen immediately after the ad click. Advertisers need to account for this delay when evaluating campaign performance and setting conversion windows.

Analysis of Incorrect Options

• The period of time it takes an advertiser to properly create a conversion measurement strategy for their Google Ads account: This describes the setup and planning phase for conversion tracking, not the inherent delay between an ad interaction and a conversion event.
• The load time of the website page used to measure online conversion actions for the advertiser's site, such as an order confirmation page: This refers to website performance or page speed, which can impact conversion rates but is not the definition of conversion delay itself. Conversion delay measures the time between the click and the completion of the action, not the speed at which a specific page loads.
• The number of days it takes a newly adopted Smart Bidding strategy to ramp up after a campaign's first recorded online or offline conversion: This describes the learning phase or ramp-up period for an automated bidding strategy, where the system gathers data to optimize performance. While related to conversions, it is not the definition of conversion delay.