Offline conversion attribution
Offline conversion attribution sends cases closed outside the browser back to the ad platforms as events.
A full arch case closes on the phone and in the chair, weeks or months after the click. The ad platforms cannot see any of that by default, so they optimise toward the last thing they can see, which is a form fill. Offline conversion attribution closes that loop by sending the seated case and its real collected value back as an event.
The sales cycle is what breaks the default setup. The ad platforms' own attribution windows are far shorter than a full arch decision, so the click identifier has to be captured on the landing page and held in an independent tracking layer for six to twelve months rather than in a platform cookie. Hold it in the cookie and a case closing in month seven arrives with no origin attached.
Sending real collected values rather than a flat placeholder is the part that changes delivery. A placeholder tells the platform every case is worth the same, which is the fastest way to buy more of the cheapest case.
What is included and what is excluded
Counts
- Click identifiers captured on the landing page and held for six to twelve months
- Server side conversion events with hashed identity and deduplication
- The seated case and its collected value fired on pipeline stage change
- Call tracking with dynamic number insertion, so phone leads keep their source
- Monthly reconciliation against the practice management system
Does not count
- Browser side pixels alone, which lose events to blockers and private modes
- Flat placeholder conversion values
- Unhashed patient identifiers, which are never transmitted
- Attribution windows shorter than the sales cycle
A worked example
A case closes 190 days after the original click.
- 01Day 0: click identifier captured on the landing page
- 02Day 1: lead created, identifier written to the record
- 03Day 34: consultation attended
- 04Day 190: financing funds, case reaches Started
- 05Day 190: event sent server side with the collected value attached
The platform credits the original click 190 days later. A 30 day cookie would have credited nothing.
How this differs from
- Collected
Collected is the figure. Attribution is what connects it back to a specific click.
- Return on ad spend
This is the mechanism that makes an honest return on ad spend calculable at all.
- Started
Started is usually the pipeline stage change that fires the event.
These definitions come from our published measurement standard. Read The Arch Standard for the reporting rules they sit inside, or see every term.
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