Using Micro Conversions to Improve Google Ads Smart Bidding Performance

1. Micro Conversions: Why Care?

Micro conversions can provide Smart Bidding with additional signals when transactional conversion data is limited. Building a strong data foundation can give your campaigns an advantage in Smart Bidding auctions.

• Fill data gaps: If you don’t have enough transactions to effectively fuel Smart Bidding, micro conversions can provide additional conversion signals.
• How many conversions are enough? Google generally recommends having at least 15 conversions per month, but for more reliable optimization, we recommend aiming for around 100 conversions per month per campaign type, such as Search or Shopping.
• Start with high-intent actions: Choose a micro conversion that is strongly correlated with a purchase, such as Add to Cart.
• Keep your primary conversions focused: Avoid setting more than one or two micro conversions as Primary conversions. Too many primary conversion actions can dilute your optimization signals.

2. Micro Conversions: Are They Right for Everyone?

Micro conversions are generally less relevant if:

• You already have plenty of transactional conversion data.
• Your customers have a relatively short purchasing journey.
• Your products are relatively inexpensive and customers typically make a quick purchase decision.

Micro conversions tend to be more valuable for products with a longer customer journey, which is often the case for higher-priced products. We typically see longer purchase journeys for products starting around $500–$1,000 and above.

Supported Micro Conversions

Reaktion currently supports the following micro conversion events out of the box:

Transactional micro conversion indicators:

• Add to Cart
• Initiate Checkout
• Add Payment Info

Browsing behavior micro conversions:

• Page View
• Product View
• Search

3. How to Set Up Micro Conversions

Follow our easy setup guide to start tracking micro conversions.

Please note: Micro conversion tracking is currently supported for Shopify only.

Set up Reaktion tracking for Shopify - guide here

4. Optimize Campaigns Based on Micro Conversions

Once your micro conversions are set up, you can use them to provide additional signals for campaign optimization.

Assign a value to your micro conversions

Assign a conversion value that reflects the estimated business value of each action.

For example, an Add to Cart action should have a higher value than a simple Page View, because it indicates stronger purchase intent.

1. Create a Custom Conversion Set to group relevant conversion actions together. This makes it easier to apply your selected micro conversions at the campaign level.
2. Create Custom Columns in your advertising platform to monitor the performance of your individual micro conversions alongside your transactional conversions.
3. Collect data before making changes:  Allow your campaigns to collect data for 3–4 weeks before making major adjustments. This gives you enough time to understand how your micro conversions correlate with purchases and how they affect overall campaign performance.
4. Switch your account to optimize for micro conversions, once you have collected enough data and are confident that your selected micro conversions are strong indicators of purchase intent, you can switch your campaign optimization to use them.
5. Start with a conservative conversion value: When assigning values to micro conversions, it’s better to start conservatively.
   As a rule of thumb, start with a value that is around 25% lower than your initial estimate. You can then gradually increase the value as you collect more data and gain a better understanding of how each micro conversion contributes to actual purchases.