conversionValue

Conversion value is a metric used in digital marketing and attribution to quantify the value of a conversion event beyond a simple yes/no indication. It assigns a numeric or categorical value to an action, such as a purchase or signup, to reflect its estimated importance, revenue potential, or likelihood of future engagement. This value enables more nuanced analysis and optimization than binary conversion tracking alone.

In practice, conversion value can be defined in various ways. For e-commerce, it often equals the monetary value of a transaction. For apps and digital services, it can combine revenue with other signals such as subscription level, retention likelihood, or user quality. The goal is to provide campaigns and models with a signal that helps distinguish high-value conversions from lower-value ones.

Platform implementations vary. In many advertising and analytics ecosystems, developers assign a conversion value to each conversion event, and that value feeds into bidding strategies such as value-based or ROAS-based bidding. In Apple’s SKAdNetwork, for example, conversionValue is a small integer (historically 0 to 63) sent with the post-install event to indicate user engagement levels, subject to privacy constraints and reporting delays. Other platforms may support floating-point values or separate value reporting tiers.

Considerations when using conversion value include data quality, consistency in how values are defined across campaigns, currency normalization, and alignment with business goals. Privacy requirements, sampling, and attribution windows can affect value interpretation and comparability, so teams should document their value mappings and periodically recalibrate them.