Conversion Lag Calculator: how long Google Ads conversions take

The time between a click on your ad and the conversion it leads to; Google calls it the conversion cycle. Because Google Ads reports conversions on the date of the click, a conversion that happens 10 days later is added to the day of the click, so recent days keep filling in for a while.

On the Campaigns, Ad groups or Search keywords page, click Segment, then Conversions, then Days to conversion. It splits the conversion columns into up to 19 rows. Google suggests a date range that ends at least 30 days ago, or longer ago with a longer conversion window, so late conversions are in.

Google suggests judging a target change over one to two conversion cycles and not making several changes within one cycle. Then add the days it takes for 90% of conversions to come in, because the last days of any period are still filling in. With a lag of a few days that can be about two weeks; for property or B2B leads it can be two months or more.

Google allows a click-through conversion window of 1 to 90 days and recommends at least 7 days. Conversions after the window are never counted. If many of your conversions still arrive near the end of the window, a longer window lets Google Ads count them; the calculator flags this when 10% or more come in during the last quarter of the window (our measure).

Because people who clicked yesterday have only had a day to convert. The calculator estimates the share of conversions in so far for yesterday and the last 7, 14 and 30 days from your own lag, and what to multiply a recent figure by. It is an estimate from your history, not a forecast.