With the Revenue Assists feature, you can customize how much value to attribute to clicks that lead to a conversion.
Note: At the current time, revenue assists can only be set up in Marin Search. From there, this setting can be accessed by clicking on Admin, selecting the Revenue tab, and then choosing Attribution Settings from the left-hand menu.
Please note the settings on this page only affect clients using our tracking solution, Marin Tracker (JavaScript as well as the Marin Tracker Redirect implementation).
See It In Action
Get up to speed on Marin Tracker and revenue assists even faster with our video walkthrough.
Conversion Value Weighting
This setting allows you to set how much credit each click in a converting path receives. The default setting is Last Click, which means only the click prior to the conversion event receives all the credit for the conversion. You can choose change the weighting model between Exponential or U-Shaped. The Exponential model gives more weight to either the first or last click. The U-Shaped model give more weight to the first and last click and less weight to the intermediate clicks.
Within each model you can choose to change the attribution weighting by moving the slider, which updates the graph showing how the conversion value will be attributed. For Exponential weighting, setting the slider to the far left will attribute all the conversion value to the first click on the path to conversion. For U-Shaped weighting, setting the slider to the far left will attribute the conversion value evenly across clicks.
Note: For Cross Client Attribution, only 100% first click or 100% last click attribution can be used; Exponential and U-Shaped attribution will not work. In order to work properly, all client accounts on Cross Client Attribution must have first or last click attribution set up. You can learn more about Cross Client Attribution here.
Limit Assists To Last 'N' Clicks
This setting allows you to limit the sharing of the conversion value to the previous N clicks. Based on your business model, this setting may or may not apply. For longer sales cycles, we recommend using the default setting (share conversion value across all contributing clicks). For shorter sales cycles, it is advisable to limit the conversion sharing to fewer clicks.
Impact On Bidding & Reporting
Sharing the conversion value across multiple clicks will impact bidding in the following way:
- Based on the settings on this page, conversion value will be spread across multiple keywords in the click path. This additional value (Assist Revenue) will be taken into consideration for bidding purposes.
- The conversion value to be distributed is determined by the Strategy settings of the last-click keyword.
- As always, the Gross Profit column in the grid displays the aggregate conversion value used bidding on that day. This column includes the Assist Revenue for the keyword, group, or campaign.
- Separately, the Assist Conversions and Assist Revenue columns in the grid show the additional conversions and conversion value attributed to the object based on the assist settings. The Assist Adj $ column shows the conversion value that was reattributed to other objects.
- Note that assists on multiple conversion events are not tracked separately. Our application combines all assists on multiple conversion events into a single assist column. The conversion value that will be spread across multiple keywords will be based on the value assigned to the conversion event in the Strategy of the last-click keyword.
- The Conversions and Revenue columns in the grid will not change as a result of settings on this page. These columns will continue to be last-click based.
- Note that changing conversion value assist settings will not affect historical data.
- Note that the assist columns (Assists, Assist Rev $, Assist Adj $) use date of click attribution. This is to ensure that the assist values are attributed correctly for bidding purposes.
Below is an example of how Assist Tracking works. Consider the following keyword-Strategy mapping and Strategy settings:
| Keyword | Strategy | Strategy Settings |
|---|---|---|
| red tennis shoes | Tennis | CPA $100 |
| PowPow shoes | Brand | CPA $10 |
| Date | Keyword | Action |
|---|---|---|
| October 1 | Red tennis shoes | Click |
| October 3 | PowPow shoes | Click |
| October 3 | Conversion |
If Last Click attribution is used (default setting), the following values would be used for bidding and reporting:
| Used for Reporting | Used for Bidding | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keyword | Date | Conversions | Revenue | Gross Profit | Assist Conv | Assist Rev |
| Red tennis shoes | October 1 | |||||
| PowPow shoes | October 3 | 1 | $10.00 | $10.00 | ||
If conversion value is spread evenly, the $10 CPA of the last-click Strategy is spread across both keywords for bidding purposes. Note that the reporting columns do not change.
| Used for Reporting | Used for Bidding | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keyword | Date | Conversions | Revenue | Gross Profit | Assist Conv | Assist Rev | Assist Adj. |
| Red tennis shoes | October 1 | $5.00 | 1 | $5.00 | |||
| PowPow shoes | October 3 | 1 | $10.00 | $5.00 | $5.00 | ||
Ability To Upload Assist Data
For Marin Tracker client, the Assists, Assist Rev and Assist Adj columns will be automatically added to the revenue upload job.
However you can also manually upload these data via Revenue upload job by including those columns in the revenue upload file. This functionality needs you to have defined your own assist scheme.
Additional Information About Revenue Assists
- The platform will attribute conversions across all publishers that are linked to it. If a user clicked on a Microsoft ad and then a Google ad, the Microsoft ad might still get the assist.
- Assists do not currently work if you are using cross-client revenue attribution. The main account will show assist data, but this data will not be accurate or show the desired impact. We suggest not using assists for accounts using cross-client attribution as this can cause inaccurate data if both accounts have shared conversions.
- When using revenue assists, bear in mind that the assist revenue will be attributed to the individual conversion type but will not appear as part of the total revenue. For this reason, revenue for individual conversion types may occasionally be greater than the total revenue figure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the answers to some common questions that we receive about revenue assists.
Will The Revenue Assist Calculation Work With Universal Channels, Or Only Search?
You can use revenue assist calculation with Universal Channels. Revenue assist calculations will only work with Universal Channels under the following conditions:
- You have the platform tracking pixel set up.
- You have tagged all their Universal Channels keywords properly (as defined in the Tracking IDs params section).
- You are using a non-Last Click attribution model.
What Are The Options If You Want To Exclude Some Of The Keywords (E.G. Brand Terms) From The Assist Revenue Attribution?
At this point the platform does not offer a means of excluding clicks. This is something we may add as part of a future platform update.
Are The Revenue Assists Influenced By The Strategy An Object Sits In?
No. Bidding will use the revenue that is calculated based on your attribution model. So if you are using a non-Last Click attribution model, assists will be accounted for in the revenue calculations for that keyword.
Why Am I Not Seeing Any Assists?
Please make sure the following:
- You are on Marin Tracker.
- You are not on a Cross Client Revenue Attribution revenue integration.
If both of these criteria are met, please refer to the following Help article for more ways on troubleshooting missing Assists in your account: Troubleshooting Revenue Assists and the Platform Tracking Pixel
