Defining a Conversion

An AdWords conversion occurs when someone clicks on your AdWords ad and performs a behavior on your website that you recognize as valuable. Conversions can include the purchase of a digital camera, a visitor submitting their contact information for an insurance quote, or a prospective buyer downloading a white paper about your company's software capabilities. The conversion rate listed in your account is the number of conversions divided by the number of ad clicks. Conversions are only counted on Google and our Google Network partners.

 The conversion rate is adjusted to reflect only the ad clicks on which we can track conversions.

The Two Types of Conversions

Another important concept to understand is the difference between conversions (1-per-click) and conversions (many-per-click).

• Conversions (1-per-click)
  Conversions (1-per-click) count a conversion for every AdWords ad click resulting in a conversion within 30 days. This means if more than one conversion happens following a single ad click, conversions after the first will not count. These metrics are useful for measuring conversions approximating unique customer acquisitions (e.g. leads).

Other metrics related to Conversions (1-per-click) are:
- Conversion Rate (1-per-click): Conversions (1-per-click) divided by total clicks.
- Cost/Conv. (1-per-click): Total cost divided by conversions (1-per-click)

• Conversions (many-per-click)
  Conversions (many-per-click) count a conversion every time a conversion is made within 30 days following an AdWords ad click. Conversions (many-per-click) will count multiple conversions per click. These metrics are useful for measuring conversions that are valuable every time they happen (e.g. ecommerce transactions).
  
  Other metrics related to conversions (many-per-click) are:
  - Conversion rate (many-per-click): Conversions (many-per-click) divided by total clicks. Note that because you may receive more than one conversion per click, this conversion rate may be over 100%.
  - Cost / Conv. (many-per-click): Total cost divided by conversions (many-per-click).