Google Analytics Key terms

What is an assisted Conversion in Google Analytics?

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Published on Jan 20, 2023 and edited on May 7, 2024 by Iron Brands

Assisted Conversions are a metric in Google Analytics that helps understand the customer journey and optimize your marketing channels.

What is an Assisted Conversion?

A conversion is a desired user action such as a sign-up or a purchase.

An assisted conversion is a touchpoint that a user interacts with on their path to conversion, but is not the final interaction. In simpler terms, it's a step that contributes to the conversion but isn’t the final converting action.

Google Analytics can track assisted conversions, but it can be confusing and tricky- especially for beginners. As an alternative, you could just use Simple Analytics. Privacy-friendly and simple. No complexity. No cookies. Just the data you need in a simple dashboard.

Google Analytics vs Simple Analytics

Alright, let's dive in!

Understanding the Role of Assisted Conversions

Customer journey often involves multiple touchpoints across various channels before a conversion (like a purchase or sign-up) occurs. Assisted conversions help you understand the value of these earlier interactions, which might otherwise be overshadowed if only the last-click is considered. This can help better understand customer behavior and the contribution of each marketing channel to the conversion.

How Assisted Conversions are Measured

GA measures assisted conversions through two distinct sub-metrics:

  • Contribution to Conversion: an Assisted Conversion is attributed to a channel if a user interacted with that channel before converting on a subsequent visit.
  • Assisted Conversion Value: This metric measures the number of conversions to which a channel contributed, providing an overview of how various marketing efforts contribute to conversions.

Assisted Conversions vs. Last-Click Conversions

As we mentioned, assisted conversions account for the touchpoints before the final conversion. They should not be confused with last-click conversions, which attribute the entire value of the conversion to the last channel that the customer interacted with before converting.

Together, these two metrics can give you a good overview of your conversions work and help you optimize your marketing efforts.

Final Thoughts

Assisted Conversions in Google Analytics offer a more nuanced understanding of how various marketing channels contribute to conversions, acknowledging that the path to conversion is often not linear. They are one of the metrics that make GA a powerful tool- but at the cost of user-friendliness.

If you just want a straightforward dashboard with the insights you need, GA is not a great place to start. Additionally, Google doesn't care about privacy and GA requires an annoying cookie banner.

That's why we built Simple Analytics, a privacy-friendly and simple analytics tool - no personal data, no cookies, just the insights you need in a straightforward dashboard.

If this resonates with you, feel free to give Simple Analytics a spin (It's free). You just need to add the script and off you go. This takes about one minute.

Enjoy!

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