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Assisted Conversions
Assisted conversions are the number of conversions in which a channel appeared somewhere in the path but was not the last interaction before purchase. They credit channels that move a prospect toward conversion without ever getting the final click, typically upper-funnel formats like display, video, or paid social. The count is pulled from a multi-touch conversion-path report, not from a single-channel view.
Formula
Worked example
A Dutch fashion retailer runs 5,000 total conversions in a month. Display appears in 1,400 of the conversion paths, and is the last click in 350 of them. Assisted conversions for display = 1,400 − 350 = 1,050, and the assisted-to-last-click ratio is 1,050 / 350 = 3.0. This tells the planner display is drawing three times more conversions into its influence than it ever gets credited for on a last-click basis, which argues against cutting its budget based on last-click ROAS alone.
How it is used
Planners pull this from the conversion-path or multi-channel funnel report and use the assisted-to-last-click ratio to flag channels that last-click attribution undervalues, usually to defend upper-funnel budget in a negotiation with a last-click-only stakeholder. The mistake is reading a high assisted count as proof the channel caused those conversions: it only means the channel co-occurred somewhere in the path within the lookback window, which inflates for any channel with broad reach or retargeting, like display and branded social.
The common mistake
Don't cite assisted conversions as evidence of incremental impact; back the reallocation with a holdout or geo-lift test before moving budget on the strength of the ratio alone.