Best Practices for Optimizing Ads on Click-Through and View-Through Conversions

When analyzing your campaigns, both conversion types have value—whether you’re running brand awareness ads or direct response ads. Here’s how to get the most out of your performance data.

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1. Weight Click and View-Through Conversions Differently

Click-through conversions show immediate intent, and they’re easier to attribute directly to a specific ad. View-through conversions, while important, don’t always show the same level of intent and can be influenced by other factors like remarketing or organic search.

To get an accurate picture of your ad’s effectiveness, assign different weightings to each type of conversion. For example, you might count each click-through conversion as 1.0 and each view-through conversion as 0.3-0.5, depending on how confident you are that the view-through contributed to the final conversion.

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2. Factor in Funnel Stage

The type of campaign and where it fits in the marketing funnel will affect how you measure success. Upper-funnel campaigns focused on brand awareness are more likely to generate view-through conversions, while lower-funnel campaigns (like retargeting or conversion-focused ads) should generate more direct click-through conversions.

If your ad has a high number of view-through conversions, ask yourself if it’s in the right part of the funnel. For example, if you’re running an awareness campaign, view-through conversions are expected. But if your ad’s goal is direct response, a higher ratio of view-throughs to clicks could be a sign of misalignment.

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3. Analyze Conversion Timing

It’s important to evaluate the time lag between when users see an ad and when they convert. If a user converts soon after seeing an ad (within 1-3 days), it’s likely the ad had a strong influence, even if they didn’t click it immediately. Longer time lags, however, suggest that other factors may be driving the conversion, and the ad’s influence could be lower.

By analyzing conversion time lag, you can better understand the role your ad plays in the customer journey and optimize accordingly.

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What Should You Do If Your Direct Response Ads Are Driving More View-Through Conversions?

Let’s say you’re running a direct response campaign on Facebook, where the goal is to drive clicks and immediate conversions. But instead of click-through conversions, you’re seeing a large number of view-through conversions. What does this mean, and what should you do?

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A. Assess the Ad Creative

If your direct response ads are getting more view-through conversions than click-throughs, it could be a sign that the creative is engaging but not actionable enough. Users might see the ad, find it memorable, but not feel compelled to take immediate action.

Solution: Revisit your creative and ensure that it has a clear, compelling call-to-action (CTA). Test variations with stronger CTAs, more engaging visuals, or limited-time offers that push users to act now rather than later.

B. Adjust Targeting

Your targeting could be too broad, attracting users who are interested but not quite ready to convert. When running direct response campaigns, it’s essential to focus on audiences that are further down the funnel and closer to making a decision.

Solution: Narrow your targeting to users who have already shown intent, such as those who have visited your site before or engaged with similar content. You can also layer in lookalike audiences based on past converters for a more focused approach.

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C. Re-Evaluate Attribution Windows

Facebook and other platforms often default to longer attribution windows for view-through conversions, sometimes up to 30 days. This can inflate the number of view-through conversions reported and make it seem like your ad is performing better than it actually is.

Solution: Adjust your attribution window to a shorter timeframe—like 1-day click and 1-day view—so you can better gauge how impactful the ad is in driving immediate conversions. If view-through conversions are still high, you might want to tweak your campaign objectives or optimize the creative further.

How Cometly Helps You Optimize for Both Click and View-Through Conversions

At Cometly, we provide tools to give you accurate attribution across all of your marketing efforts, helping you understand the full customer journey. With real-time insights, Cometly allows you to:

• Track conversions across all channels.
• Understand which ads are driving direct engagement and which are influencing conversions through brand awareness.

Make data-driven decisions on where to allocate ad spend and optimize creative for better performance.

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Ready to Drive Better Results With Accurate Attribution?

If you’re running ads and want to optimize both your click-through and view-through conversions, Cometly can help you gain the insights you need to maximize ROI. Schedule a personal demo today and see how Cometly can give you a complete view of your ad performance.

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Accurately tracking and analyzing your deal revenue is essential for optimizing your marketing efforts and driving business growth. Cometly provides marketing analytics and the tools you need to not only track your buyer journey but also gain actionable insights from high-level reports to granular ad performance analysis. Start using Cometly today to take full control of your marketing spend and ensure that every dollar is driving results.

By understanding the role of click-based and view-through conversions, you can make smarter decisions about your ad strategy. Whether you’re focused on direct response or building brand awareness, balancing the two types of conversions is key to success. And with Cometly, you can ensure you’re tracking and optimizing for both, so you get the most out of every campaign.

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