• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 16, 2015

About 90% of consumers start an activity on one device and end on another, according to Google, which continues to tout that marketers should have the ability to tell what drives conversions.

The cross-device conversions tool is part of Estimated Total Conversions, which now tracks in-app activities for Android and iOS devices. The aggregated, anonymized data from a sample set of users previously signed-in to Google services represents the broader population and only reported if it reaches what Google considers a "highly conservative confidence level. The company announced the service earlier this week.

The platform uses several singles like country, conversion type, date, landing page and devices used for traffic not signed in. Google provides an interesting example. AdWords shows 15 cross-device conversions. This could mean six ad clicks from previously signed-in Google users. While all users who converted may not be signed-in, the algorithm models that nine non-signed in traffic clicks also resulted in cross-device conversions.

Google does say that not all advertisers will have estimated conversions because of limited data. The cross-device conversions are tracked only for AdWords ad traffic on google.com and the Google Display Network, including AdMob. 

Earlier this week, Google announced two bidding tools: target opt-in recommendations and the Target CPA Simulator.

In a way media continues to meld together, and brand marketers who once thought a specific company would support their advertising strategies are now faced with reaching across from one market segments into another. For instance, Google gained a different competitor in the display ad space late last month.

After Verizon announced the deal to acquire AOL, AOL announced a deal to absorb Microsoft's display business. The agreement put AOL in charge of managing and selling display, mobile and video advertising that appears on Xbox, Skype and other Microsoft products in the United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil and five European countries.

Microsoft's display business had been losing share to competitors in the US and worldwide, per eMarketer. Microsoft could see its share of the $74 billion global display ad market decline to 1.2% in 2015, compared with shares of 1.4% and 2.1% in 2014 and 2013, respectively, according to the data.