Shopping Ads – How to see exactly where conversions came from
The Google Shopping campaign is a Smart campaign so Google is choosing the placements for me.
It is converting well and very profitably but I am trying to see if my conversions are coming Paid Shopping (traffic = 350) vs. Display Ads (traffic = 1,672)
I don’t have any other shopping campaigns or Display campaigns running so I know all the traffic and conversions are confined to this singular one.
Do you know how to see where the conversions are attributed to – did they come from a Display Ad or an actual Paid Shopping Ad ?
The short answer is:
The inherent “black box” nature of Smart Shopping campaigns, which now generally operate under Performance Max, means the Google Ads platform intentionally consolidates performance into a single “Cross-network” source, making a direct breakdown between Paid Shopping and Display Ads conversions difficult within the standard interface.
To gain better visibility, you should leverage two primary tools: the Google Ads API for custom reporting and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for its attribution insights.
The Google Ads API allows you to pull Custom Reports that can include dimensions like Placement Type or Placement Group, offering a programmatic way to analyze where clicks and conversions are originating outside of the standard Shopping results.
Simultaneously, ensure your Google Ads and GA4 accounts are properly linked; GA4’s Advertising workspace and Exploration reports can apply different attribution models to the source platform and campaign type dimensions, often classifying this traffic under the cross-network channel but giving you a more comprehensive, user-journey-focused view of the conversion path, which is critical for optimization.
The long answer is:
The lack of granular placement attribution is a known constraint of Google’s automated, goal-based campaign types like Smart Shopping and its successor, Performance Max, as the system is designed to automatically optimize spend across all networks (Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Gmail) without requiring manual channel-specific bidding or budgeting, which is why all your traffic is confined to that singular campaign.
The problem you’re facing stems from this automated budget allocation, which is reported as a single “cross-network” entity to discourage manual interference with the machine learning.
To effectively bypass this “black box” and see exactly where conversions are attributed, you need to use powerful, external data analysis tools like the Google Ads API and Google Analytics 4 coupled with the BigQuery API for cost-effective, deep-dive analysis.
Your most technical and actionable solution lies in the Google Ads API.
While the standard UI hides the network breakdown, you can programmatically query the API for detailed performance statistics.
You will want to specifically query the Google Ads API’s Reporting Service to generate a custom report.
Crucially, you should include dimensions that specify the ad placement, such as segments.placement_type (which includes values like Google Search, Google Display Network, YouTube, etc.) or segments.placement_group in your Google Query Language (GQL) statement, alongside metrics like metrics.conversions and metrics.conversion_value.
This allows you to pull raw, unaggregated data directly, then process it to separate the pure Shopping performance from the Display placements.
This method is incredibly cost-effective because you only query for the precise data you need, bypassing the overhead of constant manual reporting.
The second part of the solution involves leveraging Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for its advanced attribution and user journey capabilities.
When your Google Ads and GA4 accounts are correctly linked, GA4 automatically ingests the ad platform data.
Within GA4’s Advertising workspace, you can look at the source platform dimension, specifically filtering for “Google Ads,” and apply different attribution models, like data-driven attribution (DDA), to see how credit for the final purchase is distributed across the different touchpoints (which often include the Display placements) leading up to the conversion.
While much of this traffic may be bucketed into the cross-network channel in the default reports, you can utilize GA4 Exploration reports to drill down further.
For the ultimate control, you should also leverage the free BigQuery API export from GA4.
The BigQuery API allows you to export raw, event-level data, which includes the Google Click ID (gclid).
You can then use the BigQuery API to write custom SQL queries, joining the Google Ads data (retrieved via the Google Ads API) with the GA4 event data, allowing you to meticulously map every single click and conversion to its exact placement (Shopping, Display, etc.) far beyond what the Google Ads or GA4 UI can provide, delivering maximum technical insight and long-term cost-effective reporting.
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