Greedy Impression Index
One or more Google Ads conversion actions show view-through conversions exceeding click-driven conversions by more than 3x. A high VTC-to-click ratio means impression-based credit is doing most of the reporting work, which inflates the apparent performance of display, video, and remarketing campaigns and skews bidding decisions away from incremental media.
Why It Matters
A high view-through to click ratio can make display, video, or remarketing campaigns appear to drive more incremental performance than they really do. View-through conversions are impression-based, so long windows can claim credit for users who would have converted anyway. The advertiser may overfund prospecting or remarketing that is mostly harvesting post-impression credit.
How To Fix It
Review the view-through conversion window for flagged actions in Google Ads. Shorten the VTC window, separate VTC-heavy actions from bidding decisions, and compare performance using click conversions or experiments. For high-stakes budget decisions, evaluate incrementality instead of treating VTC and click conversions as equivalent.
Example
Conversions: 40 total
View-through conversions: 32
Click conversions: 8
VTC/click ratio: 4.0xThis account shows a view-through to click conversion ratio exceeding 3:1 on one or more enabled Google Ads conversion actions. Per Google Ads attribution documentation, view-through conversions credit users who saw but did not click a display or video ad, and large VTC-to-click ratios typically indicate that impression-based credit is harvesting users who would have converted anyway rather than measuring incremental media. The optimisation risk is overspending on display and remarketing whose apparent performance evaporates under incrementality testing. Fix: shorten the view-through window on flagged conversion actions, separate VTC-heavy actions from bidding-eligible goals (mark them Secondary), and use experiments or geo-holdouts to measure incrementality before treating VTC and click conversions as equivalent. Source: support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375431.
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References
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