Secondary-Only Volume
One or more conversion actions on this account have volume in the "All conversions" report column but zero in the "Conversions" column. That means the action is marked Secondary in Google Ads. It is recording for analysis but is not feeding Smart Bidding. Sometimes that is intentional; sometimes a valuable action got demoted by mistake and the bidding optimizer no longer sees it.
Why It Matters
Google Ads splits conversion actions into Primary (counted in the "Conversions" column, drives Smart Bidding) and Secondary (counted only in "All conversions," recorded for analysis but excluded from bidding). The split is deliberate. It lets accounts track many actions for diagnostics while telling Smart Bidding which subset matters for optimization. The finding surfaces every action that is currently Secondary. Most of the time, the team meant for that. Page views, scrolls, and add-to-cart events should be Secondary. The risk case is when a macro action got demoted because someone was experimenting with conversion goals and forgot to put it back. A Purchase action marked Secondary by accident is a critical problem. The optimizer cannot see it. The campaign optimizes toward whatever other Primary action exists, often a weaker proxy. This is info-level because the finding does not know intent. The fix is to review each Secondary action and confirm the role matches what the business needs.
How To Fix It
- Open the AdLint details and list each action with All-Conversions volume and zero Conversions volume.
- For each, decide whether the Secondary role is intentional. Diagnostic and micro events: yes. Purchase, qualified Lead, signup: probably no.
- In Google Ads, open Tools and Settings > Measurement > Conversion goals. Promote any mistakenly-demoted macro action to Primary in the relevant goal group.
- Confirm campaigns inherit the right Primary goal. Campaign-level goal overrides can bypass account-level changes.
- Annotate the promotion date. Smart Bidding will re-evaluate against the larger Primary signal over the next 7 to 14 days.
Example
Action: "Qualified Lead"
All conversions: 412
Conversions: 0
Likely cause: marked Secondary during a goal restructuring and never promoted back.This Google Ads account has conversion actions with volume in "All conversions" but zero in the "Conversions" column, indicating Secondary status. Per Google's Primary vs Secondary conversion documentation, Secondary actions record for analysis but do not feed Smart Bidding. The finding is informational because the role may be intentional for diagnostic actions; the risk case is when a macro business action (Purchase, qualified Lead) is mistakenly Secondary and the optimizer falls back to weaker proxies. Fix: review each flagged action, promote any mistakenly-demoted macro action to Primary in conversion goals, confirm campaign-level goal inheritance, and allow a 7- to 14-day learning period after promotion. Source: support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9143218.
Drop this paragraph into your client deliverable. Sources back to the canonical platform documentation linked below.
References
Audit your own files for this check
AdLint runs this check (and 177 others) against your GTM, Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter/X, and Snapchat exports. Everything stays in your browser. No uploads, no accounts.
Run a free audit