Why the Conversions Column Differs from the Total of All Conversion Types

If you are using Marin Tracker as a revenue integration, you may notice that summing up the individual conversion types does not equal the number seen in the total Conversions column.

This can occur even if these conversion types are set to Include in Total Conversions seen in the Conversion Types settings page.

Explanation: If Individual Conversion Types Are Set To 'One-Per-Click' 

When conversion types are set to One-per-click, this means every conversion one user makes from a single paid search click for one conversion type will aggregate to 1 conversion in the revenue file.

For example: After clicking on a Creative, one user makes 3 Register conversions, so only 1 conversion will show up in the revenue file and will be added to the Register conversion type column.

Total conversions in the Conversions column are always set to one-per-click. This means that Marin Tracker de-dupes this column based on the above logic (de-duping on Unique User ID per click), but across all conversion types.

Example 

This means if a Unique User ID of b222b2bb-2222-2222-2222-222222bb222b has clicked on an Ad and performed a Register conversion and a Purchase conversion, Marin will only show 1 total conversion count in the Conversions column after de-duping. Therefore, the sum of conversions across the individual conversion types will usually be greater than the amount seen in the Conversions column.

Using this logic, revenue will not be de-duped and therefore all revenue metrics will be included in the total revenue column called Revenue.

One user from one paid search click is able to have multiple conversions as long as they are different conversion types. The UUID b222b2bb-2222-2222-2222-222222bb222b will have one conversion in the Register column and one conversion in the Purchase column.

Explanation: If Individual Conversion Types Are Set To 'Many-Per-Click' 

When conversion types are set to Many-per-click, every conversion one user makes from a single paid search click for one conversion type will be accounted for in the revenue file.

For example: After clicking on a Creative, one user makes 3 Register conversions, so all 3 conversions will show up in the revenue file and will be added to the Register conversion type column.

The de-duping logic for the total conversions in the Conversions column is the same regardless of whether the individual conversions are set to one-per-click or many-per-click. Therefore you may see an even larger discrepancy between the Conversions column total and the sum of the individual conversion types if they are set to many-per-click.

Note: Revenue will not be de-duped and therefore all Revenue metrics will be included in the Revenue column.

Written by Marketing @ Marin Software

Last published at: December 8th, 2023