• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, April 9, 2020

Microsoft Advertising on Thursday introduced new conversion option settings related to reporting for Search and Audience Network campaigns.

The first is called Include in conversions. The second is called View-through conversions.

The options allow advertisers to assess how channels contribute to sales and leads, and allow multiple conversion types to be accounted for bidding strategies.

The Include in conversions setting allows marketers to decide whether to include the conversion for a given goal in the defaulted conversion metrics across data tables and reports. This will ensure that conversion metrics reflect only the conversion goals that matter most.

The View-through conversions option is designed to help marketers measure the true value of ads on the Microsoft Audience Network. The conversions are impression-based, not click-based, and they are captured when a user is served an ad, but does not click. They end up converting on the website at a later date.

Microsoft provides this example of an online retailer who sets up a conversion goal to track purchases on the checkout page with a five-day conversion window and a four-day view-through conversion window.

The last viewed impression within the window is attributed with the conversion in the View-through conversion metric.

To avoid duplicates in counting, users who clicked on an ad either on the Microsoft Audience Network or the Microsoft Search Network will be automatically excluded from view-through conversions.

Marketers will need to set up a Universal Event Tracking to use this conversion goal View-through conversion window, which will define the length of time after an ad impression in which marketers want to track impression-based conversions.

Microsoft also provides some additional details to consider -- including whether all accounts will be enabled for the account-level View-through conversions setting, which includes the view-through conversions in the All conversions (All conv.) column.

All UET-based conversion goals will have a new setting called the View-through conversion window, which will be set at one day by default.

View-through conversions only support impression traffic on the Microsoft Audience Network, which includes audience campaigns as well as search campaigns extended to the Microsoft Audience Network. And, historical data for the view-through conversions metric will be shown as null.