The Difference Between Primary and Secondary Conversion Actions

Fri, Jun 17, 2022

Kasim talks about the difference between primary and secondary conversion actions. He also shares how you can use secondary conversion actions for CRO and what you should be cautious about when selecting what to track.

Google’s definition of the two conversion actions:

Primary actions: These are conversion actions that are reported in the “Conversions” column in your reports and used for bidding as long as the standard goal they are part of is used for bidding.

Secondary actions: These conversion actions are for observation only. They are used for reporting in the “All conversions” column in your reports, but not for bidding, even if the goal they are included in is used for bidding. The one exception is if the secondary action is part of a custom goal.

Read more about primary and secondary conversion actions here:

https://support.google.com/google-ads…

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Transcript
kasim:

We wanna talk about the difference between primary and

kasim:

secondary conversion actions.

kasim:

Now, according to Google primary actions, these are conversion actions

kasim:

that are reported in the conversions column and used for bidding.

kasim:

As long as the standard goal they're part of is used for

kasim:

bidding cool secondary actions.

kasim:

These conversion actions are for observation only they use for

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reporting in the all conversions column in your reports, but not forbid.

kasim:

Even if the goal they are included in is used bidding.

kasim:

The one exception is if the secondary action is part of a custom goal.

kasim:

Okay.

kasim:

Interesting.

kasim:

So when you go to build a conversion action you'll see a couple of things

kasim:

that I think are relevant goal in action optimization is gonna ask

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you the type of conversion action.

kasim:

So we have categories, sales categories on lead categories.

kasim:

I wouldn't phone this.

kasim:

You might say like, oh, contact, lead form, book an appointment.

kasim:

They're all the same thing that they're scheduling.

kasim:

I think Google's trying to understand human intent.

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And so you telling Google exactly what type of conversion action.

kasim:

This is, is really important because there's common denominators behind

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Google knows who its phone call.

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People are versus its scheduled appointment people are versus

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its form fill people are.

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Make sure to use the thing that's most applicable to whatever it

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is that you're trying to track.

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Once you do that, then Google says great for this goal chooses.

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If this is primary or secondary, and this action will be optimized for and

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reported in the conversions column.

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Secondary action.

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This action is marked secondary will not be used for optimization

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by default and will only be reported in the all conversion column.

kasim:

Here's why I called BS.

kasim:

When performance max rolled out, the only conversions we were given

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were the all conversions column.

kasim:

I think that Google is using secondary conversions as

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predictive indications of intent.

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And honestly, I can't imagine them not using that.

kasim:

So I'd be really careful about what it is that you're tracking

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as a secondary conversion.

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Number one, number two.

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Use as many secondary conversions as you can.

kasim:

A member of our team Osama was going over how he uses secondary conversions in

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order to gauge the efficacy of a funnel.

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And it is fricking brilliant.

kasim:

Y'all, here's what he does.

kasim:

He builds secondary conversion actions for every single step

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up until the actual conversion.

kasim:

And so what that does is because, right, if you are only building your

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primary conversion action let's see if I can give you an example of this.

kasim:

If you only had a primary conversion action here, and let's say it didn't work.

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you wouldn't know anything other than, oh, the campaign failed, but imagine

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having, and just for the sake of this discovery, let's say that I've got

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my action plan form as my primary conversion action, but then I have viewed

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the plans and pricing page secondary.

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Add to cart selected checkout, viewed the checkout page.

kasim:

I guess those would be the same, but you know what I mean?

kasim:

Like you build a secondary conversion action for every single step up

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until the primary conversion action.

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Now, from a diagnostic standpoint, you just gave yourself a real quick

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and easy view as to, okay, well, they viewed the product, they viewed

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the pricing page on the product.

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They added it to the cart.

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They selected checkout and they died at the checkout.

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wonder why or they died at the, whatever.

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This just gives you a sense as to how far people are getting.

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And so if they're dying at the checkup page, now I go look at the checkup

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page and that's where my CRO begins.

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It's what are we doing wrong?

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Are we explaining the terms or do we have all the materials on there?

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Are we explaining shipping?

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It's set for

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Et

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um,

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et cetera.

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So use secondary conversion actions.

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In order to identify what could potentially be going wrong with

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your primary conversion actions.

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And then also, and this is the part where I can't ever prove this.

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So everybody gets to call BS cuz there's, it's hard because I

kasim:

don't wanna come off as paranoid.

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, but Google's given us a ton of reason to be paranoid.

kasim:

So I'd use secondary conversion actions that you think are

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predictive indications of a intent.

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Even if you're not trying to measure your funnel, when you should be,

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you're giving Google a sense as to what's working, what's not working.

kasim:

And then that actually begs the question as to maybe be careful of as

kasim:

to what you're loading up in secondary conversion actions, cuz you don't

kasim:

want to give Google false indications, false positives are super dangerous.

kasim:

One of the things that we've done is we load up analytics data as

kasim:

a secondary conversion action.

kasim:

So it's not measured.

kasim:

Do I have that here?

kasim:

Yeah.

kasim:

So it's not measured, but we can still see it in benchmarking against

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the primary conversion action.

kasim:

And see how the reconciliation looks at a glance at a glance.

kasim:

Anyway, what else do I wanna go over?

kasim:

That's.

kasim:

that feels good.

kasim:

This little note here, incidentally is a nice explanation.

kasim:

Is how they work.

kasim:

I'll include a link to this in the description of the video.

kasim:

Appreciate y'all watching.