{"id":1411,"date":"2026-10-26T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/floodlight-signed-in-data-2026"},"modified":"2026-10-26T16:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:24:06","slug":"floodlight-signed-in-data-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/floodlight-signed-in-data-2026","title":{"rendered":"Floodlight Recovers Conversions With Signed-In Data. What Changes in Our SA360 Reports and Bidding?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Reported SA360 conversions can rise without extra sales, and Google has not named the size of the shift. Google says: \u201cFloodlight will use Google signed-in data signals to help recover previously unattributed cross-device and cross-environment web conversions across Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360, and Campaign Manager 360 reporting. No action is required.\u201d That sentence is about the setting. Reports still need a mark.<\/p>\n

Treat any rise as possibly attribution until orders, revenue and settings are checked.<\/strong> Use 1 October as the earliest annotation date: our advice, not a Google date. One roadmap says October, the other November.<\/strong> Ask whether recovered conversions reach bidding.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What will move, and what will not<\/h2>\n

This is credit for a conversion that already happened. It adds no order to the CRM. Reported conversion value can still move. Profit Forensics writes down what each number counts before reading it, as in our work on conversions, tracking and scores<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Floodlight is the shared conversion counter for those three products. Unattributed means recorded but not credited to an ad interaction such as a click or an impression. Cross-device means the conversion happened on a different device from that interaction. Reporting conversions<\/a> already says All conversions \u201cincludes cross-device conversions\u201d. Recovery finds credit, not customers.<\/p>\n

On 26 October 2026<\/span>, WordStream, Search Engine Land, PPC Hero, Search Engine Journal, Optmyzr and Semrush returned no article on this in a site search. PPC Land<\/a> listed the gaps. Inimino<\/a> flagged the two months.<\/p>\n

The dates, and the month Google has not settled<\/h2>\n

The record gives October or November 2026, and no day. Use the earlier month as the annotation boundary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Date<\/th>\nWhat the record shows<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Unknown<\/td>\nDate when the notice first appeared<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
October 2026<\/span><\/td>\nCampaign Manager 360 month for signed-in data. Our advice: use 1 October as the earliest annotation date<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
October 2026<\/span><\/td>\nSecond entry: Additional conversion recovery methods (click attribution, durable browser storage)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16 October 2026<\/span><\/td>\nPage date shown on both roadmaps; it dates the page, not the entry<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
26 October 2026<\/span><\/td>\nChecked: October on one page, November on the other, no day<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
November 2026<\/span><\/td>\nDisplay & Video 360 month for signed-in data<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Display & Video 360 roadmap for Q4 2026<\/span><\/a> lists signed-in data under November 2026<\/span>. The Campaign Manager 360 roadmap<\/a> lists it under October 2026<\/span>, then the second October entry. Both pages carry the same page date, 16 October 2026<\/span>, and neither page says which entry takes precedence.<\/p>\n

Both signed-in entries say: \u201cNo action is required.\u201d Because Campaign Manager 360 lists October, waiting until November can miss the change. Google has not confirmed a start date.<\/p>\n

What changes in the columns and in bidding<\/h2>\n

In the reports<\/h3>\n

Google says recovered conversions will appear in reports, and names no column. On reporting conversions<\/a>, Conversions is what automated bidding uses, and it can be overridden to Floodlight actions when bidding uses Google Ads conversions. All conversions is wider. Client account conversions is what the client account’s automated bidding uses. Search Ads 360 reports by click date by default. Campaign Manager 360 attributes a conversion to the day of the conversion. If recovered conversions attach to past clicks and history is restated, a reopened period can change. Only a file you have already downloaded stays fixed.<\/p>\n

In bidding<\/h3>\n

Selected conversion actions and the conversion goal decide what automated bidding uses, as our work on what campaigns bid on<\/a> describes. Ask whether recovered conversions land in that column, and whether the goal is a count or a value. Google has not set the bid’s direction.<\/p>\n

The nearest precedent is our All conversions study<\/a>. In the median account, the category mix of All conversions shifted by 6.42 percentage points between 2024 and 2025<\/span><\/strong>. That is a shift in mix, not a Floodlight effect.<\/p>\n

What Google has not said<\/h2>\n

Neither roadmap gives a day, a column, a restatement, a bidding answer, a size, the regions, or whether it depends on users’ cookie consent. Observed means Google recorded the conversion. Modelled means Google estimated it. How Floodlight counts conversions<\/a>, section Conversion vs transaction metrics, says: \u201cNote that modelled conversions aren’t included in Floodlight reports.\u201d That does not prove these conversions are observed. The question stays open.<\/p>\n

A fair comparison needs the pre-change file, the same dates, the same actions and the same attribution settings.<\/p>\n

Agency or Google<\/h2>\n

Compare platform conversions, CRM orders and settings for the same dates before you name a cause. Ask the agency to show the settings. Show the same screens from your side. An October rise is not signed-in data until the two October entries are separated.<\/p>\n

Record the activities in the column, the counting method, the attribution model and the lookback window (how far back a click can still earn credit). If any changed in that period, the edit may explain the rise. Confirm it with exports from before and after.<\/p>\n

Put this under any Floodlight chart from October. The day 1 October is our advice, not a Google date:<\/p>\n

\u201cMay include signed-in recovery and the separate October entry, Additional conversion recovery methods (click attribution, durable browser storage). Campaign Manager 360, October 2026<\/span>; Display & Video 360, November 2026<\/span>; no day or size. Compare with CRM orders for the same dates before calling it growth. Google Help, checked 26 October 2026<\/span>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In our eight-line report template<\/a>, put it on the conversion definition line.<\/p>\n

What to check in your account<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Name the source.<\/strong> Download Search Ads 360 by click date. Download Campaign Manager 360 by the day of conversion, as a separate file.<\/li>\n
  2. Save the baseline.<\/strong> Click the columns icon, then Modify columns<\/a>. Keep Conversions, All conversions, Client account conversions and cost, by day, through 30 September 2026 (our file date, not Google’s). Add \u201cby conv. time\u201d if the board uses conversion date. Date the filename.<\/li>\n
  3. Screenshot the definition.<\/strong> New action: at the sub-manager level, Tools & settings, Conversions, Summary, Goals tab, then create a Floodlight action, choose its conversion goal and continue to its settings (create the action<\/a>). Record Count, Include in “Conversions” and Attribution model. Existing action, after Summary: Conversion goals, the name, Details, Edit settings (the rename page<\/a> documents Conversion name). Check whether the same three fields are shown there. Lookback window: a separate Campaign Manager 360 screenshot (About Floodlight<\/a>).<\/li>\n
  4. Ask in writing.<\/strong> Reporting conversions<\/a>: is the bid in a Search Ads 360 strategy or in the client Google Ads account, and do recovered conversions enter that column, All conversions only, or a separate column? Ask the agency to show the screen.<\/li>\n
  5. Log edits from now.<\/strong> Use 1 October as the earliest annotation date. For activities, counting, attribution, goals, budgets, targets and landing pages, record time, person, reason, and the old and new value. Backfill any edit after the baseline.<\/li>\n
  6. Annotate<\/strong> until both roadmaps name one month and a full month has passed. Name both October entries.<\/li>\n
  7. Compare after the month’s conversions have settled.<\/strong> If platform conversions rose and CRM orders did not, treat it as a possible measurement or attribution change: trace one event through both systems and check CRM completeness, duplicates and the two October entries before naming a cause.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When this does not apply<\/h2>\n

    No board figure uses Floodlight.<\/strong> Google says the change affects reporting in Search Ads 360, Campaign Manager 360 and Display & Video 360. Check every board metric on the affected action, including All conversions. Enhanced conversions<\/a> are a separate mechanism that sends scrambled (hashed) customer data.<\/p>\n

    Counting, attribution, lookback or the set changed in the same weeks.<\/strong> The attribution FAQ<\/a> ties gaps to \u201cdifferent attribution models, lookback windows, and counting methodologies\u201d. For a third-party counter, the discrepancies page<\/a> says they are \u201cinevitable\u201d. For your own period, match the conversion set first. Split at the edit.<\/p>\n

    The board uses CRM orders.<\/strong> Reported value can still move. Bid direction depends on the goal’s column and on count versus value. See our guide to Google Ads and CRM gaps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    When to call an independent check<\/h2>\n

    For an SA360 or CM360 stack, ask for a Profit Forensics review when the written bidding answer has no settings screen, or the first report after October drops the saved activity list.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Researcher’s take<\/h2>\n

    I would not tell a board that sales rose because Search Ads 360 conversions rose. Google has listed two possible months and has not said whether bidding is affected. That is no reason, by itself, to pause anything. Write the definition down this week, keep a file that cannot change, and make every later claim, ours included, answer to that file.<\/p>\n

    Igor Ivitskiy, Doctor Ads Profit Forensics<\/em><\/p>\n

    FAQ<\/h2>\n

    Will reported SA360 conversions rise in November?<\/h3>\n

    They may rise earlier. A rise is not more sales. One roadmap says October 2026<\/span>, the other November 2026<\/span>. Neither gives a day or a size.<\/p>\n

    How much will our reports and bidding shift?<\/h3>\n

    Google has not named a size, or whether recovered conversions enter the goal’s column. Read the settings before you change a target.<\/p>\n

    How do we annotate the change in reports?<\/h3>\n

    Use the footnote from 1 October 2026, our advice, not a date Google published. Name both roadmaps and both October entries.<\/p>\n

    How we know<\/h2>\n

    Google Help, last checked 26 October 2026<\/span>, when both roadmaps and the trade coverage were rechecked. Display & Video 360, Coming soon: Display & Video 360 updates in Q4 2026<\/span><\/em>. Campaign Manager 360, Coming soon: Campaign Manager 360 updates in Q4 2026<\/span><\/em> and Floodlight conversion discrepancies<\/em>. Search Ads 360: Reporting conversions<\/em>, Frequently asked questions for attribution modeling<\/em>, About enhanced conversions<\/em>, How Floodlight counts conversions<\/em>, Create a Floodlight conversion action<\/em>, Rename a Floodlight conversion action<\/em>, About Floodlight and Floodlight conversions<\/em>, Customize tables and charts<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    The only figure from our own published work is 6.42 percentage points<\/span>. We have not measured signed-in recovery. The annotation date, the baseline and the attribution reading are Igor Ivitskiy’s editorial interpretations.<\/p>\n

    No new portfolio data in this article: it combines Google’s documentation (checked 26 October 2026<\/span>) with what our audits look for. Where a figure comes from our published studies, the study is linked.<\/p>\n

    A Profit Forensics examination starts by locking the metric definition, then comparing equivalent periods before and after the change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    SA360 conversions can rise without an increase in sales. Google lists October and November; ask if recovered conversions affect bidding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metrics-and-scores","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions\/1432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedoctorads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}