Summary
Set purchase as the account-default goal and newsletter signup as a secondary or observation-only goal. Account-default goals drive Smart Bidding and populate the Conversions column, while secondary goals are tracked and reported in All conversions without affecting bids. That combination gives you full visibility on signups and a bidding algorithm focused purely on revenue.
Nitin Batra is a Google Ads Search certified professional who configures conversion goal hierarchies and Smart Bidding strategies across live ecommerce and lead generation accounts.
Last updated: August 22, 2026
Set purchase as an account-default goal and newsletter signup as a secondary or observation-only goal, so Smart Bidding optimises only for purchases while signup conversions still appear in your Google Ads conversion reports.
- Set purchase as account-default and newsletter as a secondary/observation goal.
- Set both newsletter signup and purchase as secondary/observation goals.
- Set both newsletter signup and purchase as account-default goals.
- Set newsletter as account-default and purchase as a secondary/observation goal.
The correct answer is: Set purchase as account-default and newsletter as a secondary/observation goal.
Key Takeaways
- – Set purchase as the account-default goal and newsletter signup as a secondary or observation-only goal.
- – Only account-default and campaign-specific goals feed Smart Bidding and appear in the “Conversions” column; secondary goals report into “All conversions” only.
- – Bidding follows whatever you count, so the conversion goal setup is effectively a bidding instruction, not just a reporting preference.
- – A common mistake is making every conversion action a default goal, which lets low-value actions like signups outbid actual revenue events and inflate cost per purchase.
Where exactly do I change a conversion action to a secondary goal in Google Ads?
Go to Goals, then Conversions, then Summary in the left navigation. Click into the conversion action or the goal group it belongs to, and open its settings. Under “Goal type” or the conversion action’s own settings you can choose account-default, campaign-specific, or secondary, and saving it as secondary removes it from bidding straight away.
What is the difference between the Conversions column and the All conversions column?
The “Conversions” column only counts conversion actions marked as account-default or campaign-specific goals, and this is the number Smart Bidding optimises towards. “All conversions” includes everything you track, secondary goals included. So a newsletter signup set as secondary will show up in “All conversions” reporting but will never influence bids.
Can I keep a newsletter signup as a default goal if I assign it a conversion value?
You can, and with Target ROAS a low value would reduce its weight, but it still competes for budget and still counts as a conversion event. If the business objective is purchases only, the cleaner setup is secondary. Assigning arbitrary values to soft actions usually creates more reporting confusion than it solves.
Do campaign-specific goals override the account-default setting?
Yes. If you set campaign-level conversion goals on a particular campaign, that campaign ignores the account-default list and bids only towards the goals you selected there. This is useful when one campaign genuinely has a lead generation objective while the rest of the account is focused on sales, and it avoids you having to change account-wide settings.