How Conversation Ads measurement works¶
Conversation attribution is the process of linking a conversation in your agent to the ad click that started it, and then linking that conversation to the outcome it produced. This page describes why the link is hard to make, the information Advertising.chat uses to make it, and what a campaign report contains as a result. For the product overview, see Conversation Ads.
The gap between the click and the conversation¶
A click-to-conversation ad opens a messaging thread with your agent. Nothing about the click itself reaches the platform that runs the conversation. The agent receives only the customer's first message, which the ad can pre-fill but the customer can edit before sending. An RCS deep link carries the agent's identifier and the pre-filled text, and has no tracking or referral parameter.
As a result, each system sees half of the picture. The ad platform reports clicks and cost. The agent platform reports conversations. Neither can say which click started which conversation, or what that conversation earned.
How the link is made¶
Advertising.chat sits between the two systems. Your agent platform tells Advertising.chat when a new conversation starts, including the first message exactly as received, and reports the outcomes that follow. Advertising.chat then links the conversation to a click with the most precise method available:
| Method | How it links | Precision |
|---|---|---|
| Click token | On Advertising.chat placements, each click carries a token into the first message. | One click to one conversation. |
| Pre-filled text per ad | Each campaign or ad group opens the conversation with distinct pre-filled text, which is matched against the first message. | The campaign or ad group, not the individual click. Fails if the customer rewrites the message. |
| Ad platform match | The outcome is sent to the ad platform with the customer's hashed phone number, and the ad platform matches it to the signed-in user who clicked. | The ad platform attributes the outcome in its own reports, without identifying the click to Advertising.chat. |
| Click reconciliation | Clicks and conversations are compared per ad, per day. | A click-to-conversation rate per ad. Too coarse to link one conversation. |
Each linked conversation records the method that linked it, so a report separates exact links from inferred ones. The ad platform match also means that outcomes reach the ad platform's bidding even for conversations that no other method could link.
What a campaign report contains¶
A campaign report combines the ad platform's view with the agent platform's view:
- Clicks and cost, from the ad platform.
- Conversations started, and the share linked to a click, by method.
- Outcomes, as your agent platform reports them.
- Cost per conversation and cost per outcome.
- Revenue per conversation, when Offer Manager runs in the same conversations.
Click reconciliation answers a question that matters on its own: how many clicks on an ad became conversations. A low rate points at the pre-filled text or at the agent's opening, rather than at the ad.
Customer data¶
RCS and SMS conversations are identified by phone number. Phone numbers are hashed before they are sent to an ad platform, and the ad platform match depends on the ad platform's customer data terms and on the customer's consent. Requirements differ by industry, and the Advertising.chat team confirms them with you before a campaign launches.