Recently, someone asked a great question on an ecommerce forum, and it was one I’ve heard from quite a few advertisers before:
“Should I switch my Performance Max campaigns to Data-Driven Attribution (DDA), even if I don’t meet the recommended Google thresholds?”
Let’s get into it, because this decision might seem small, but if done incorrectly it could quietly drag down your performance.
What Google Wants vs What Works
Google recommends a minimum of 3,000 clicks and 300 conversions in the last 30 days to activate Data-Driven Attribution (DDA).
But let’s say you’ve got something like 7,500 clicks and 168 conversions in the past month on one of your PMAX campaigns. Not quite enough, right?
So the obvious temptation is to sneakily include secondary conversions like add-to-carts and abandoned checkouts to meet the numbers.
Let me stop you right there.
Don’t Game the System with Secondary Conversions
The thresholds that Google publishes are account-level thresholds, not campaign-level ones. So the first thing to check is whether your entire account — across all campaigns — has crossed the 3,000 clicks / 300 conversions mark.
If it has, you’re fine. No need to shoehorn in secondary conversions just to pad the stats.
In fact, I strongly recommend you don’t do that.
Here’s why:
Secondary conversions can mess up Smart Bidding. If you make “add-to-cart” or “abandoned checkout” a primary conversion, Google will start optimising your campaigns to drive more of those and not actual purchases.
That might get you more conversions, but the wrong kind. Your ROAS will plummet, and you’ll be stuck wondering why sales fell off a cliff even though conversion volume went up.
In our own client accounts, we’ve seen this exact thing happen. That’s why we always relegate those kinds of actions to secondary conversions and only use final purchases for optimisation.
What’s the Real Benefit of DDA Anyway?
In my opinion, DDA doesn’t give you a massive bump if your account is on the smaller side.
Let’s put it this way:
The potential gain from switching to DDA? Maybe +5% performance.
The potential loss from optimising towards the wrong conversion events? Possibly -20% or worse.
So the risk to reward ratio is not in your favour if you're bending the rules just to switch attribution models.
That said, if your account naturally meets the thresholds, and your conversion tracking is clean (i.e., purchase only), then yes, switching to DDA is usually a good move.
We’ve seen it work well even below the recommended thresholds, and Smart Bidding seems a lot more tolerant of low data volumes these days too.
What If You Run Multiple Accounts?
Now here’s a twist. The original question came from someone who owns ten different ecommerce stores, each with their own Google Ads account.
The campaign in question came from the largest account, which had 168 purchases. All other stores had smaller numbers.
Here’s the key: Thresholds are per individual Google Ads account, not across your entire MCC (manager account).
So each account needs to qualify for DDA on its own.
The user had also followed our Big Flare checklist tip of moving all those “add to cart” and “abandoned checkout” conversions to secondary… and saw a 20%+ cost saving as a result!
If You’ve Already Switched to DDA on a Low-Volume Account…
This was another follow-up question: someone had already switched to DDA on their second-largest store, which had just 66 purchases in the last 30 days.
So, should they switch it back?
It depends.
If you want to know how the models are behaving, go into your account and pull up the Model Comparison Tool.
Here’s how:
Tools & Settings → Attribution → Model Comparison
This tool lets you compare Last Click vs DDA and shows you how each model assigns credit to your campaigns.
What you’ll often see is:
DDA gives less credit to brand campaigns.
DDA gives more credit to top-of-funnel and generic prospecting campaigns.
So if your business goal is new customer acquisition, DDA might actually be better aligned, even if it's a bit noisy due to low data volume.
But if you’re seeing major inconsistencies or DDA is cannibalising credit from your best-performing campaigns, then maybe hold off.
Use a Long Lookback Window
If your conversion volume is low, you’ll want to extend your date range in the Model Comparison Tool.
Don’t just look at the last 30 days. Look back 3 or even 6 months so that Google has more data to work with. The longer the window, the more reliable your comparison will be.
The Verdict
Here’s where I land on this:
Don’t cheat the threshold by making soft actions like “add to cart” your primary conversions.
If your account naturally qualifies for DDA, or is only slightly below, you can go for it. It probably won’t hurt.
If you’ve already switched and performance hasn’t cratered — great, leave it.
Always use the Model Comparison Tool before making a change.And finally, your attribution model should align with your goals (e.g., acquisition vs remarketing), not just your data volume.
Hope that helps you think more clearly about DDA in smaller accounts.
Conclusion
In smaller ecommerce accounts or ones that don’t meet Google’s DDA thresholds, the decision to switch attribution models should be taken carefully. While DDA can provide slightly better attribution — especially for top-of-funnel activity — it’s not worth gaming the system just to activate it. Padding your numbers with secondary conversions will likely backfire. Instead, focus on optimising for purchases only and use the Model Comparison Tool to make data-backed decisions. If your account is close to the threshold and DDA aligns with your goals, go ahead and test it — just don’t expect miracles.