Google Analytics Now Offering Unclicked Display Ad & Video Ad Impression Reports

Google Analytics has launched new display ad and video ad impression reports, giving advertisers a look at how unclicked ads impact the conversion path. Using data from the Google Display Network (GDN), advertisers will be able to see when a user has viewed ads on the GDN or video ads on YouTube before visiting their website and completing a conversion.

Advertisers who enable the new GDN impression reports in their Google Analytics accounts will have access to two additional conversion metrics in their Multi-Channel Funnel reports: Impression Assisted Conversions and Rich Media Assisted Conversions.

An ‘Interaction Type’ selector has also been added so that advertisers can filter reports by impressions (users who viewed an ad but did not click the ad), direct (users who visited their website, converted or completed a goal directly after viewing an ad), and rich media (users who convert after interacting with rich media and YouTube ads).

The Multi-Channel Funnels Top Conversion Path report now has two new path elements to note non-interactive display impressions versus interactive experiences with a Rich Media or YouTube video ad. The “eye” symbol represents a pure display impression from a user who has viewed a display ad during the conversion journey, but not clicked on the ad. The “movie” symbol illustrates when a user has interacted with rich media ads or YouTube video ads.

Advertisers can now see how many conversion paths are driven by display impressions or rich media interactions, and can break-out display and rich media campaigns using custom channel grouping.

Display events can also be assigned partial credit using the custom model builder from the Attribution Modeling tool. Google recommends advertisers give the display events on the conversion path more credit to compare the events against their baseline model.

With the newly added impression reporting, advertisers will also have access to a three new dimensions for defining custom segments, including an ‘Above the Fold’ dimension that uses Google Active View measurement solution, a ‘Video Played Percent’ dimension that lets advertisers know how much of a video was viewed, and a ‘True View’ dimension to track if a user has watched more than 30 seconds of an ad or watched the complete ad.

According to Google Analytics, the new impression reports are currently available to a limited number of advertisers. To make the whitelist, advertisers must enroll online and are not guaranteed access to the reports. Once access has been granted, an advertiser can enable the GDN impression reports by accessing ‘Data Sources’ > “Adwords’ where there is an entry for each linked Adwords account. From there, the ‘GDN Impression Reports’ can be turned on or off.

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Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.