What Is A “View-Through” And Why Should I Care?

Google recommends that advertisers track View-Through Conversions. Here’s what Google says, “Measure the success of your display ad campaigns by using View-Through Conversions… View-Through Conversions are what happens when a customer sees an ad (but doesn’t click), and then later completes a conversion on your site.” In order to track View-Throughs, a pixel code is placed on your website.

Google goes on to explain, “View-Through Conversion tracking provides you with information about which display ad placements are helping to drive conversions, even though they aren’t directly producing clicks. For example, when someone returns to your site through a bookmark, an organic listing or direct URL and converts after seeing your ad…View-Through Conversions are different from Click-Through Conversions, which occur when a consumer completed a conversion on your site after having clicked on your ad.”

A “conversion” can be whatever it is that you want a person to do when on your website. It might be filling out a contact us form, registering for your blog or newsletter, downloading information, or making a purchase.

By tracking both conversions that occur from someone clicking on your ad, as well as people who convert because they saw your ad – didn’t click – but came back later on their own, gives you a more in-depth view of the value of your advertising.

Here’s an example. If you look at the report below, you see that this advertiser had 409 conversions where customers came to the website and converted from a click on their ad. In addition, they also had 265 conversions where customers came to the website and converted after seeing the ad, not clicking, but coming back later. Without a View-Through pixel being placed on their website, the advertiser would not have known that those 265 conversions came from their digital advertising ads.
Tracking View-Throughs can also give you a clearer view of the return on your marketing investment than if you just look at your clicks. Looking at the same report above, you see that this advertiser had 157 clicks for the week which is a Click-Through-Rate of .16% – a very impressive number considering the national average is .07%. But go a step further and take those 157 clicks and add in the 265 view-through clicks to see your total engagement for your digital advertising:
157 clicks + 265 view throughs = 422 people driven to the website by the ads.
422 / 100,287 impressions served x 100 = .42%
(By the way, in case you were wondering, that is the formula used for figuring out a Click-Through Rate:                        Clicks / Impressions x 100 = CTR)

.42% vs. .16% is a big difference. If you were just looking at clicks and not total engagement by measuring view-throughs, this is traffic you wouldn’t have attributed to your digital advertising!