New Report Shows AdWords Interactions Pre-Clickthrough

Ever wonder if anyone is interacting with your AdWords ads without clicking through? Google has rolled out a report to allow advertisers to view what it refers to as “free clicks” — clicks and interactions that occur with the ads that don’t result in a click-through.

The new report will show interactions that take place for video ads, display ads built with the Display Ad Builder, and ads with product and location extensions. As Google AdWords have grown more complex, the opportunities for consumers to interact with ads without clicking through have increased, but advertisers haven’t seen whether users are taking advantage of these additional dimensions.

High interaction rates may help advertisers identify ads that are providing users with enough information — a phone number, an address, etc. — that save them from having to click through at all. Low interaction rates, by contrast, could mean poorly executed creative.

You can find the new “Free clicks” report within the Dimensions tab of the AdWords interface.