---
title: "Which attribution model should I use in Google Ads? · Goldbeater"
description: "Data-driven or last click: what each Google Ads attribution model credits, how to switch and move your targets, and the attribution window to set."
canonical: https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models
last-updated: 2026-10-05
---

Guide

# Which attribution model should I use in Google Ads?

Data-driven or last click: what each Google Ads attribution model credits, how to switch and move your targets, and the attribution window to set.

In short

- An attribution model decides which of the ad clicks before a conversion get the credit for it. Google Ads offers two: data-driven, the default for most conversion actions, and last click.
- First click, linear, time decay and position-based were retired in 2023, and the actions still on them were moved to data-driven.
- The model changes the Conversions column and every bid strategy that learns from it: under last click, the searches that start customers earn nothing, and bidding cuts them back.
- A change counts conversions from then on, and credit moves between campaigns, so move each campaign's target by the change its current model columns show.
- Goldbeater reads every conversion action your bidding learns from, every day, and raises one crediting the last click alone, a click-through window under the 7 days Google recommends, and actions one campaign bids on that are measured different ways.

Know what your ads really earn.

- Conversions credited to the last click alone
- Conversions measured two different ways
- A conversion window too short for customers who take a few days

Goldbeater finds these in your own account, says what each is worth and drafts the fix. 163 other checks find what else is wasting your budget and where it could earn more. Goldbeater's AI agent follows up every week.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look)

No card needed. Then $49 a month up to $5,000 of ad spend, or from $249 with a 7-day trial above that.

1. [01 An attribution model decides which ad clicks get credit for a conversion](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#what-they-do)
2. [02 Why the model changes your bids, not only your reports](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#why)
3. [03 How to compare the two models before you switch](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#compare)
4. [04 How to switch to data-driven attribution in Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#set-up)
5. [05 After you switch, move your targets with the model](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#targets)
6. [06 The conversion window: how long after a click a conversion still counts](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#window)
7. [07 Measure the actions one campaign bids on the same way](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#consistent)
8. [08 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#in-goldbeater)
9. [09 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#questions)

Contents

1. [01 An attribution model decides which ad clicks get credit for a conversion](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#what-they-do)
2. [02 Why the model changes your bids, not only your reports](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#why)
3. [03 How to compare the two models before you switch](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#compare)
4. [04 How to switch to data-driven attribution in Google Ads](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#set-up)
5. [05 After you switch, move your targets with the model](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#targets)
6. [06 The conversion window: how long after a click a conversion still counts](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#window)
7. [07 Measure the actions one campaign bids on the same way](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#consistent)
8. [08 What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#in-goldbeater)
9. [09 Questions](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-attribution-models#questions)

Know what your ads really earn.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look)

No card needed.

The manual way comes first, in Google Ads itself. Then the same problem as Goldbeater finds it, every day, without anyone asking.

## An attribution model decides which ad clicks get credit for a conversion

A customer often clicks more than one of your ads before they buy. An attribution model decides how the credit for that sale is shared among those clicks, and so which keywords, ad groups and campaigns the conversion is counted under. Google Ads offers two:

- Data-driven shares the credit by what your own account’s data shows each click contributed. It compares the paths of people who converted with the paths of people who didn’t, across clicks and video engagements on Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display and Demand Gen ads, and gives more credit to the steps that make a conversion more likely. It’s the default for most conversion actions.
- Last click gives all the credit to the last ad clicked and its keyword. Every click before it earns nothing.

One sale, two models

Example

Someone searches “sofa”, then “linen sofa”, then the shop’s own name, clicking an ad each time, and buys after the last click. Under last click the brand search gets the whole sale, and the two searches that found the customer get none. Under data-driven each gets part of it, by how much searches like it lead to sales in the account.

First click, linear, time decay and position-based are gone. In June 2023 Google stopped letting you choose them for an action not already on one, and from September 2023 it moved every action still on one to data-driven. Last click and external attribution, where another tool has already decided the credit, were left as they were.

## Why the model changes your bids, not only your reports

The model is set on each conversion action, and it decides what that action adds to the Conversions and All conv. columns. Every bid strategy that learns from the Conversions column, such as Target CPA or Target ROAS, learns from those numbers. Only your primary actions reach that column; the [conversion tracking guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/conversion-tracking-check) says how to check which those are, and the [value-based bidding guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/value-based-bidding) covers what each one is worth.

Under last click, the generic searches that start customers look like they rarely convert, and the brand searches that end the journey look like they do all the work. Smart Bidding believes the numbers it’s given, so it bids down the searches that find new customers. Google’s own Model comparison report exists to find those keywords and campaigns: the ones undervalued on a last-click basis.

Every conversion action can use data-driven attribution, whatever its volume. Google recommends at least 200 conversions and 2,000 ad interactions in 30 days for it to share the credit accurately. With less, it still runs, and on a small account it can give the same result as last click.

## How to compare the two models before you switch

1. Go to Goals › Attribution, and select Model comparison in the page menu.
2. Choose Campaigns, Ad groups or Keywords from the Dimension menu.
3. Set Compare to Last click and With to Data-driven, and pick a date range that leaves out the last few days.
4. Read Cost / conv. or Conv. value / cost under each. The rows whose cost per conversion falls, or whose return rises, under data-driven are the ones last click undervalues.

The report’s totals won’t match the Campaigns table. It leaves out conversions from Search partners, Gmail and App campaigns, and an offline conversion uploaded more than 7 days after it happened, and it dates each conversion by when it happened rather than by the click.

## How to switch to data-driven attribution in Google Ads

1. Go to Goals › Conversions › Summary.
2. Select the conversion action’s name, then Edit settings.
3. Select Attribution model, and choose Data-driven. Last click is the other choice there.
4. Select Save, then Done.

The setting is there for website and Google Analytics conversion actions. For conversions tracked across accounts from a manager account, it’s set in the manager account. The Switch to DDA tab under Goals › Attribution moves eligible actions to data-driven in one place.

The change counts conversions from then on; the ones already recorded keep the credit they had. To see how past conversions would read under the new model, add the current model columns from the Attribution section of the Columns menu: Conversions (current model), Cost / conv. (current model) and Conv. value / cost (current model) among them.

## After you switch, move your targets with the model

Google says to expect three changes in the Campaigns table after a switch to data-driven:

- Decimals. A conversion’s credit is shared among clicks, so the Conversions column shows fractions.
- A dip in the last few days. Google Ads dates a conversion by the click, and data-driven credits earlier clicks too, so the most recent days fill in more slowly. Wait until the Avg. days to conversion in the Path metrics report have passed before judging it.
- Credit moving between campaigns, ad groups and keywords that count the same action.

A target CPA or target ROAS was set in the old model’s numbers, so leaving it where it was makes a campaign that gains credit overbid or one that loses it underbid. Google’s method: over a period that leaves out the last couple of weeks, compare Cost / conv. with Cost / conv. (current model) for each campaign, and move its target CPA by the same percentage. For a target ROAS, compare Conv. value / cost with its current model column the same way.

A target moved with the model, worked

Example

Sofas — Phrase bids to a target ROAS of 400% and returned 4.40 under last click. Its Conv. value / cost (current model) reads 4.84, 10% higher, because data-driven gives it credit for sales that ended on a brand search. Its target moves 10% with it, to 440%, and it bids as it did before the switch. The [Target ROAS guide](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-target-roas#what-to-set) says how to read a target from there.

## The conversion window: how long after a click a conversion still counts

Each conversion action has its own windows. A conversion after the window is never recorded: it isn’t in your reports, and bidding never learns from it.

- Click-through conversion window: 30 days unless you change it, and from 1 day up to 30, 60 or 90 depending on where the conversions come from. Google recommends at least 7, because a longer window gives a richer set of conversion data.
- Engaged-view conversion window, after someone engages with a video ad: 3 days unless you change it, up to 30.
- View-through conversion window, after an ad was seen and not clicked: 1 day unless you change it, up to 30 days.

To choose one, read how long your customers take: Goals › Attribution, then Path metrics, and its Avg. days to conversion. A window shorter than most customers take undercounts every campaign, and most of all the ones that reach people early. The attribution reports’ Lookback window control is a different thing: it only changes what the report looks back over.

1. Go to Goals › Conversions › Summary, select the conversion action, then Edit settings.
2. Under the Settings tab, expand Click-through conversion window and choose the number of days.
3. Select Save, then Done.

Like a model change, a new window counts conversions from then on: a sale that fell outside the old window isn’t counted after the fact. Smart Bidding counts and optimizes for whatever window you set. A Google Analytics conversion that credits paid and organic channels has its window changed in Google Analytics.

## Measure the actions one campaign bids on the same way

A campaign’s bid strategy adds up every primary action in the goals it bids on. When those actions are credited by different models, or counted over different windows, the total mixes numbers counted by different rules, and a campaign whose customers take longer, or click more ads first, reads worse on one than on the other. Read each primary action’s settings side by side.

Primary conversion actions, last 30 days

Sample data

| Conversion action | Attribution model | Click-through window | Conversions |
| ----------------- | ----------------- | -------------------- | ----------- |
| Purchase          | Last click        | 30 days              | 171         |
| Showroom booking  | Data-driven       | 3 days               | 24          |

Purchase gives each sale to the last click. Showroom booking is data-driven but counts only bookings within 3 days of the click, under the 7 Google recommends, and every campaign bids on both, so it adds up conversions credited and counted two different ways.

Give them the same model, data-driven unless you have a reason, and the same click-through window, the one that fits how long your customers take, unless one action really has a shorter or longer path to it.

## What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it

Every day Goldbeater reads the settings of each conversion action your bidding learns from: enabled, primary, and in a goal an enabled campaign bids on. It judges the ones measured on your site or imported to it, whose settings are yours; Google sets the model itself for actions it measures, such as directions and calls from Maps, YouTube’s and an app’s. It raises:

- An action that credits the last click alone: one that recorded conversions in the last 30 days on last click, or still on first click, linear, time decay or position-based, which Google hasn’t moved. It advises switching it to data-driven.
- A click-through window under 7 days on such an action. It advises lengthening it to 7 days at least, or to Google’s default of 30, unless it’s short on purpose.
- Actions measured different ways under one strategy: a campaign bidding on two or more that use different models or click-through windows, each action’s model, window and conversions in a table. Where only the windows differ, it drafts each window set for all of them, the one most of them use first, and recommends none, since how long a customer takes to book or to buy is yours to know.

Finding

Sample data

Medium Medium severity Tracking accuracy

Purchase gives each conversion to the last ad click alone

Purchase

What Goldbeater saw

It recorded 171 in the last 30 days and bidding for 5 campaigns learns from it, while every search and ad click before the last earns no credit, so the campaigns that start customers read worse than they are and bidding cuts them back.

- Recorded

  171

- Campaigns bidding on it

  5

Why it matters

A conversion action bidding learns from that gives each conversion to the last ad click, so the searches and ads that started the customer earn nothing and bidding cuts them back. Data-driven attribution shares the credit among the clicks that led to it.

What to do

Switch Purchase to data-driven attribution in its settings in Google Ads (Goals › Conversions). Each conversion's credit is then shared among the ad clicks that led to it, so conversion counts can move between the campaigns counting Purchase, and Smart Bidding learns from the new figures. Where a campaign bids to a target CPA or ROAS, compare its Cost / conv. or Conv. value / cost with the same column marked (current model), over weeks that leave out the last few, and move the target by the same percentage, as Google advises, so it bids as it did before the switch.

What would change

The steps under What to do are the fix. Goldbeater drafts no change for this one.

This is “Conversions credited to the last click alone” on a sample account. See what it finds in your own account and what the fix is worth, and ask your AI analyst about any finding.

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look)

Sample data. Cedar & Pine Interiors is an invented account, and its figures are made up.

The finding is the table’s first row. The [audit checklist](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist) has every conversion line with where to find it in Google Ads.

## Questions

- What attribution models does Google Ads have?

  Two you can choose for a conversion action: data-driven, the default for most, and last click. First click, linear, time decay and position-based were retired in 2023, and the actions on them moved to data-driven.

- Is data-driven attribution better than last click?

  Google made it the default: it credits every click that helped, where last click credits only the one before the sale, so bidding stops cutting back the searches that find customers. Google recommends 200 conversions and 2,000 ad interactions in 30 days for it to be accurate, and with less it can give the same result as last click.

- Does changing the attribution model change my past conversions?

  No. It counts conversions from then on. The current model columns, such as Conversions (current model), show how past conversions would read under the model you’ve chosen.

- Why are there decimals in my Conversions column?

  Data-driven attribution shares each conversion among the clicks that led to it, so a campaign can be credited with part of one.

- What conversion window should I use?

  One at least as long as most of your customers take from a click to a conversion, which the Path metrics report shows. Google starts every action on 30 days and recommends at least 7.

- Is the attribution window the same as the conversion window?

  Usually that’s what’s meant: the conversion window on a conversion action, which decides which conversions are recorded at all. The attribution reports also have a Lookback window control, which only changes how far back a report looks.

How Goldbeater checks this

## Know what your ads really earn.

Goldbeater finds these in your own account every day. Each finding shows its evidence, an estimate of what it costs a month where it costs money, and, where a setting fixes it, a change drafted for you to approve.

A check is code that runs the same way every time, so a new finding means your account changed. Each week Goldbeater's AI agent follows up on what the checks find, and [your AI analyst](https://goldbeater.ai/ai-analyst) answers any question about your account.

Checks A finding is worth

- Conversions credited to the last click alone

  Fixing it raises the Tracking accuracy

- Conversions measured two different ways

  Fixing it raises the Tracking accuracy

- A conversion window too short for customers who take a few days

  Fixing it raises the Tracking accuracy

[Get a free first look](https://goldbeater.ai/app?start=look)

No card needed. [See every check](https://goldbeater.ai/checks).

Google's own pages

## Where the manual method comes from.

1. [About attribution models](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6259715?hl=en)
2. [First click, linear, time decay, and position-based attribution models are going away](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13427716?hl=en)
3. [About data-driven attribution](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6394265?hl=en)
4. [Best practices for managing attribution model changes](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9203352?hl=en)
5. [About attribution reports](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722023?hl=en)
6. [About conversion windows](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3123169?hl=en)
7. [About primary and secondary conversion actions](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11461796?hl=en)

More guides

## Other things worth checking by hand.

- [How do I audit a Google Ads account? Work through 166 checks, area by area, conversions first.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-audit-checklist)
- [All conversions vs Conversions in Google Ads: what's the difference? Which column bidding reads, and what the other one adds.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/google-ads-all-conversions-vs-conversions)
- [What is value-based bidding in Google Ads, and how does it work? Tell bidding what each conversion is really worth.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/value-based-bidding)
- [What is Maximize conversion value bidding in Google Ads? Know what the budget buys before you add a target.](https://goldbeater.ai/guides/maximize-conversion-value)

[All 75 guides](https://goldbeater.ai/guides)

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