Only primary conversion actions steer Google's bidding and fill the Conversions column. Secondary ones are recorded, but only watched. Here's how to choose, and how to make one purchase action the only one that counts.
Every conversion action in Google Ads is either primary or secondary. That one setting decides what Google's bidding chases.
Get it right, and Smart Bidding steers towards sales or leads. Get it wrong, and it steers towards page views, basket steps or sales counted twice, and gets very good at buying them.
The short version
- Primary actions fill the Conversions column and steer bidding. Secondary actions only show in All conversions.
- Set the actions that are real results, such as a purchase or a lead form, as primary. Set everything else to secondary.
- Have one primary action per result. Two primary actions that record the same sale count it twice.
- After a change, give Smart Bidding a couple of weeks to adjust before you judge it.
What the setting does
Google's conversion goals group your actions, such as purchases, leads or page views. Within a goal, each action is primary or secondary.
- Primary actions are counted in the Conversions column and used for bidding, in campaigns that use your account-default goals.
- Secondary actions are for observation. They show in the All conversions column, and bidding usually ignores them.
For an action to steer bidding by default, two things must be true: the action is primary, and its goal is an account-default goal. A campaign can also use its own campaign-specific goals instead.
Conversions created from within Google Analytics start as secondary.
What should be primary
Primary: what you actually want more of and can put a value on.
- For an online shop: the purchase.
- For lead generation: the lead form, a booked meeting or a phone call that lasts long enough to matter.
- For an app or software: a sign-up or a first payment. Not a login.
Secondary: steps on the way, and anything you only want to watch.
- Page views, time on site, scrolling.
- Add to basket, begin checkout.
- Newsletter sign-ups, if a sale is what you're after.
A useful test: if Google could get you twice as many of this action tomorrow, would you be happy? If the answer is "it depends", it's secondary.
Make one purchase action the only one that counts
A common case: the Google & YouTube app on Shopify created one purchase action, and you've also imported the purchase event from Google Analytics. To keep only the one you trust:
- In Google Ads, go to Goals and open the conversions summary.
- Open the purchase goal and look at its actions.
- Set the action you trust as primary.
- Set the other purchase actions to secondary.
- Check that the purchase goal is an account-default goal. See Google's Manage conversion goals.
To import a Google Analytics event, first link Analytics to Google Ads and mark the event as a key event, then create a conversion action by importing it. See Create conversions from Google Analytics events.
What happens after you change it
Smart Bidding now learns from fewer conversions, but they're the right ones. Expect the Conversions column to drop if you've removed a duplicate. That's the number getting honest, not your results getting worse.
Give it a couple of weeks before you judge, and don't change the setting back and forth, because every change makes the bidding adjust again.
How Bavian handles it
Bavian works with the actions set as primary in your account, and checks every day whether they can be trusted, for example whether two primary actions may count the same sale. It can move most actions between primary and secondary, and tells you what it changed.
