About primary and secondary conversion actions

In Google Ads, actions that you want your customers to take, or conversion actions, are grouped together into conversion goals.

For your goal, you want to select which conversion actions should be used for bidding optimization and included in your reporting. Those key actions are called “primary conversion actions”. Possible conversion actions that are not directly used for campaign optimization are called “secondary”. Most conversion actions can be set to either primary or secondary, but some conversion actions aren't able to be set as primary or secondary.

This article defines primary and secondary conversion actions and how to use them.

On this page

• The difference between primary and secondary actions
• How to update the primary and secondary setting for a conversion action
• How to set up app conversion tracking

The difference between primary and secondary actions

When you set up conversion tracking, you will be selecting primary and secondary conversion actions that support a defined goal:

• Primary actions: These are conversion actions that are reported in the “Conversions” column in your reports and used for bidding as long as the standard goal they are part of is used for bidding.
  • Note: Primary conversion actions not used for optimization may be used to enhance predictions.
• Secondary actions: These conversion actions are for observation only. They are used for reporting in the “All conversions” column in your reports, but not for bidding, even if the goal they are included in is used for bidding. The one exception is if the secondary action is part of a custom goal, in which case it’s used for bidding.

You can create conversions based on Google Analytics events and seamlessly share them with Google Ads. This allows you to manage conversion settings for both Google Analytics and Google Ads from a centralized interface. These conversions are secondary by default when created from Google Analytics and can only be updated to primary in Google Ads.

How to update the primary and secondary setting for a conversion action

1. Go to Summary housed in the Conversions drop-down in the Goals menu.
2. Find the goal that includes the conversion action you’d like to edit.
3. Click Edit goal.
4. In the "Conversion action optimization" section, select either Primary or Secondary (observe only).
5. Click Save.

How to set up app conversion tracking

Set up app conversion tracking using App Connect. Once you've used the App Connect interface in Google Ads to set up conversion tracking and deep linking, you can provide a seamless web-to-app experience for your customers and drive on average 2 times higher conversion rates for ad clicks landing in your app compared to your mobile website.

This improved experience allows your customers to more easily complete their intended action, whether purchasing, signing up, or adding items to their cart. Plus, from within the App Connect interface, you can track these in-app conversion actions and get recommendations on how to improve your campaign.

To get started with App Connect, follow the 3 steps below:

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
2. Click App advertising hub. This will take you to the App Connect interface.

Learn more about converting better with the App Connect interface.