Let’s state a fact: Google Ads in 2025 runs on automation. From Smart Bidding and Responsive Search Ads to Performance Max and upcoming AI-driven campaign types, machine learning now determines how ads are served and how budgets are distributed. But automation is only as strong as the data that powers it and how well advertisers understand the journey behind each conversion.
That’s where attribution paths (formerly, “conversion paths”) come in. They show how people actually move from the first ad click to the final step, highlighting how multiple touchpoints contribute to results. As automation and AI increasingly shape Google Ads bidding, knowing how to interpret these paths has become essential. They reveal where conversions really start, which campaigns are quietly assisting, and how much value your upper funnel is driving. Without that context, Smart Bidding can overvalue easy-to-measure conversions while undervaluing campaigns that build demand.
Understanding attribution paths is no longer optional. It’s one of the most reliable ways to ensure automation stays aligned with business reality – and not just with what’s easiest for Google’s algorithm to see.
Where To Find The Attribution Paths Report
The Attribution paths report lives under Advertising → Attribution in Google Analytics 4.
Image from author, October 2025It shows the sequence of touchpoints leading to a selected key event (GA4’s new term for “conversion” in reporting).
When linked with Google Ads, GA4’s Attribution paths can include a wider set of touchpoints, not just clicks. These may cover impressions, engaged views, emails, downloads, and site usage events. In practice, advertisers may see earlier interactions, such as YouTube views or Display impressions, represented in their conversion paths, rather than only the last click.
That impression visibility is a hidden gem. Instead of asking “Which campaign got the last click?” you can ask, “Which channels actually contribute to conversion journeys?”
From “Conversions” To “Key Events”
The terminology shift trips up many teams. In GA4 reports, you’ll see key events; in Google Ads, you’ll still import and bid on conversions. Functionally, they’re the same, just labelled differently depending on the platform. This matters because the Attribution paths report lets you segment by the exact key event you optimize for in Ads.
Image from author, October 2025Beyond Last-Click: How To Use The Report
Here’s where the Attribution paths report becomes more than a pretty diagram:
Prove And Price Upper-Funnel Ads
Under a last-click model, touchpoints like YouTube impressions or Display views receive no credit for a conversion. But if you switch to Data-Driven Attribution (DDA) in GA4’s Attribution models, the system redistributes some credit to these earlier touchpoints when there’s statistical evidence they influenced the conversion. Attribution paths then show where those touchpoints occurred in the journey, giving you a directional view of their assist value. This isn’t causal “incrementality testing,” but it’s a practical way to highlight the contribution of upper-funnel Ads before requesting more budget.
Check Conversion Lag Before Tightening The Strategy
Time lag and path length metrics reveal how long users take to complete a conversion on average. If journeys average 10+ days, but you’re using a seven-day conversion window in Ads, your Smart Bidding may be cutting conversions off too early.
Segment By Conversion Type
A newsletter signup path looks very different from a qualified lead path. By selecting one key event at a time, you avoid combining low-value and high-value conversions, ensuring a more effective approach.
Validate Budget Shifts
The Attribution models report (sitting next to Attribution paths) shows how credit changes under DDA vs. last-click. Use Attribution paths to ensure that model-based reallocations reflect actual journeys, not anomalies.
For example, a B2B software advertiser discovered through Attribution Paths that most demo requests came from users who watched a YouTube awareness ad first, clicked a retargeting ad on Display, and then searched the brand name before converting. Under a last-click model, only the branded search ad received credit. But once path data revealed the full sequence, it became clear that the upper funnel was generating the demand, and the brand campaign was simply closing. With that context, the advertiser was able to justify maintaining a top-of-funnel budget.
Caveats You Can’t Ignore
Assisted Conversions Are Gone
Unlike Universal Analytics, GA4 doesn’t provide an “assists” metric. If you want it, you’ll need to export path data and calculate it manually.
Expect Discrepancies
Numbers in GA4’s Acquisition reports and Attribution paths often don’t line up. GA4’s Acquisition reports use different attribution logic depending on the report. User Acquisition attributes all credit to the first touch. Traffic Acquisition is attributed to the last non-direct touch. Key event (conversion) attribution is the only place where GA4 applies the property’s cross-channel attribution model (by default, data-driven). By contrast, the Attribution reports let you swap models entirely, compare outcomes, and even visualize how impressions or non-click touchpoints factor into paths. In other words, Acquisition reports show you who arrived and converted, while Attribution paths show you how credit is distributed across multiple interactions. Both are useful, but they’re answering different questions.
Data Availability
GA4 attribution only covers data from June 14, 2021, onwards, and only online touchpoints are covered by default.
Privacy, Sampling, And Model Lag
Modern attribution reports operate within data limits that every advertiser should account for. Privacy thresholds prevent Google from showing data when impression or click counts are too low, which is why some paths appear grouped under “Other.” Sampling can also affect the accuracy of multi-channel or multi-device reports, meaning figures should be treated directionally rather than as absolutes. Finally, attribution data has built-in lag: conversions that happen days after a click will backfill into earlier reports, so results from the past 24-48 hours are rarely complete. Waiting for that lag to settle before drawing conclusions gives automation a fairer dataset to learn from.
From Insights To Action In Google Ads
GA4 analysis means little unless you feed it back into your Ads strategy. Here’s how practitioners are using Attribution paths to shape accounts:
Import the right key events. Optimizing for form fills alone often floods Ads with spam. Instead, integrate your CRM and import sales qualified leads (SQLs) or other meaningful events as primary conversions.
Budget with “path context” in mind. If upper-funnel campaigns frequently appear in early path positions, avoid cutting their spend, even if the last-click ROI looks weak. They’re building journeys for your search campaigns to close later.
Control overlap with PMax. Performance Max campaigns behave like bottom-funnel, feed-driven engines, rather than true full-funnel campaigns. Attribution paths confirm this: If PMax dominates late-stage paths, don’t mistake it for incremental awareness.
Set guardrails. Guardrails are often just good account structure – negatives, segmentation, and clear bidding rules. Attribution insights only help if your Ads setup allows the algorithm to learn from them.
Why This Is The Moment To Care
Google has spent the past several years adding transparency: brand exclusions in PMax, channel reporting, and search terms data. But transparency in Ads itself is still limited. GA4 Attribution paths are where you can actually prove assist value, diagnose lag, and reframe conversations with stakeholders.
GA4’s reporting is messy, but if you know how to read it, you can tell a clearer story than Ads alone ever could.
GA4’s Attribution paths aren’t just a reporting feature. They’re one of the few places you can see the whole journey before Smart Bidding reduces everything to a single number. Treat it as a decision layer: Validate which campaigns deserve credit, import the right events into Ads, and use those insights to argue for budgets across the funnel.
More Resources:
- How CMOs Can Use Conversion Tracking & Attribution For Smarter Paid Media Strategy
- Marketing Attribution: Everything You Need To Know
- PPC Trends 2026
Featured Image: Anton Vierietin/Shutterstock
