I've always wondered why. Thanks for wading through the buckets of *stuff* to come out with the goodies.

@Zack:

Thanks! We do our best. I think I've ruined about three pairs of wading boots this week :)

Heh. You definitely get the award for best image in an ROI blog post this year, man.

Hi Shawn, if you consider day-by-day analysis - is it correct to quote that Google Analytics generally measures the day of conversion, Google Adwords Conversion Tracking instead measures the day of the click which lead to a conversion up to 30 days later?

@Christoph:,

I'd say generally that's true due to the way both systems work, but again I strongly caution against comparing the two sets of data.

Hi there Shawn,

Nice work showing the differences. Just for the sake of completedness, I would add 2 little elements:

1. If the second visit is from a "direct" source (typing the URL in directly or through a bookmark) rather than another organic source, then any conversion during that visit will be attributed to the previous AdWords visit within a 6-month period (hence the _utmz cookie having a 6-month expiration date) and therefore would count for the AW click in both CT and GA.

2. Another potential source of difference between conversion rates, is the fact that Conversion Tracking uses a 3rd-party cookie whereas GA uses a 1st-party one.

Just my two cents' worth.

Seeing as this is my first post, I would like to seize the opportunity to thank you for the incredible quality of your blog. This is a great resource for GA.

Alan

Oops...

Sorry, I read the post too fast. I hadn't seen you'd mentioned the direct visit scenario.
:)

@Alan:

First of all, thanks for your kind words.

Second, thanks for pointing out two things that are absolutely true. I touched on the first one, but your comment really spells it out nicely.

And #2 is really what makes this whole tracking process different. Thanks for pointing it out directly.

Thanks for reading!

Shawn,

I'm a newbee. I did not set up the champain, but now I am responsible for the reports and recomendations. This issue has been driving me nuts!! Thank you, thank you for clearing things up. I understand it now.

@Kim:

I'm glad I could help! Don't feel bad about being confused about this issue - we've been getting a ton of questions about this and I thought I might try and help clear things up. Thanks for reading!

GREAT info, I might also add that this is also why other marketing, like shopping engines, show different conversions and info than are reported in GA.

@Everything Furniture:

This sort of thing is exactly why comparing different tracking systems (including shopping engines and big expensive solutions) is a risky business. You're better off comparing one system to itself (unless you know they are supposed to track in the same fashion).

It's also the reason why it's helpful to have different kinds of tracking, because one system may catch something another misses.

Hi guys, quick technical question, I understand that for Conversion Tracking you only need to put the code on your conversion / receipt pages but would you put the code above or below the GA script if that already exists on those pages?

Thanks!

@Jesse:

The answer is the order doesn't matter. The two scripts are completely independent, so just make sure they are both there, and you're all set!

Question,

I have a situation where i have 4 websites all with analytics and adwords campaigns. These sites link to another url inorder to complete a purchase. On the other site i also have analytics and a conversion tracking script on the thank you page after successful credit card transaction. I just set this up and am wondering if my adword accounts are going to register the conversions since the conversion script is located on a different url.

for example:
google adword click > domain1.com > complete purchase at domain2.com

Any one know about this?

Thanks

@Jeremy:

AdWords uses a third-party cookie, which basically means you can track conversions across several different domains without a problem, as long as the conversion occurs within 30 days of the AdWords click.

For Analytics, you will get conversion numbers and rate, but these conversions will not be attributed to the correct source unless you've implemented cross-domain tracking, which you can read about Here.