Good news for data analysts: Path to Conversion reporting is set to get a revamp, with Assisted Conversions reporting returning to Campaign Manager 360.
It’s been just over a year since Google made some major changes to Campaign Manager 360’s Attribution reporting capabilities. March 2024 saw the removal of the ‘Attribution’ reporting tab from CM360, leaving just the Path to Conversion report available, as an offline report. This meant the report was still accessible but only in the form of an Excel download, rather than the visual reporting dashboard that used to be part of the ‘Attribution’ tab in CM360.
Fast-forward to today and Google have announced that Path to Conversion (PTC) is set to be revamped and available as an Instant Report. This will allow users to get conversion journey insights in a quicker and simpler way to the existing offline report. The main difference between the two is that the revamped report will be using aggregate data, whereas the offline report will continue to be available for those wanting more granular level data.
‘Assisted Conversions’ reports are also coming back to CM360. This is a report which hasn’t been available since the changes to CM360 a year ago, so it’s a significant step and will allow users to learn more about how activity in different channels affect each other, and conversions.
Why have Google done this?
Google removed the Attribution reporting tab from CM360 due to the plans to phase out 3rd party cookies from all Chrome browsers. Google put the brakes on the phase-out back in July last year, but the industry is still moving towards a world where there isn’t a heavy reliance on 3rd party cookies.
To this end, Google recently announced a significant policy change regarding Digital Fingerprinting. This is a game-changer when it comes to attribution analysis, because it means those “broken journeys” can be reduced, giving us more accuracy on the touchpoints leading to conversions.
It’s likely that the new PTC and assisted conversion reports will be using data from digital fingerprinting, specifically cross-device reporting (which isn’t available through the existing offline PTC reports). Digital fingerprinting will allow more modelled data to be used in the reports, helpful for providing quick insights.
What does that mean for me?
Whilst conversion journey insights are available through the current PTC report, it could require the use of Big Query to make sense of the data export, particularly when there are multiple touchpoints in a conversion journey. However, for the most part, the new reports will allow advertisers to gather insights into their conversion journeys much more simply. In addition, with assisted conversions reporting coming back, there will be an additional layer of insights available within the CM360 interface, which will help answer common questions such as “Are my video campaigns influencing conversions attributed to paid search?” without the likes of Big Query needing to be used.
As is stands, the revamped Path to Conversion report is due to become available towards the end of 2025 or Q1 2026, with Assisted Conversions reporting due to be launched in Q1 2026.
Are you interested to hear more about how you can get under the skin of your conversion journeys? Speak to our experts and find out how we’ve helped client solve attribution challenges with actionable insights for multi-channel campaigns.
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| Author | Amisha Rathod |
| Channel | Analytics |