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This is important because conversions are not de-duplicated for a single visitor in AdWords if you are using AdWords conversion tracking. For example, assume you have 2 AdWords accounts (account A and account B) and you have identified the same action as a conversion for each account by adding the appropriate AdWords conversion tracking snippet for both accounts to the page and designating it as a Goal in Google Analytics. Next, assume a single visitor clicks on an ad from the first account (A), then clicks on an ad from the second account (B) and finally converts. Each AdWords account would report a conversion, even though it was a single visitor. In Google Analytics, this would only be counted as 1 conversion and it would be attributed to the campaign from the second account (B) since that was the last interaction before the conversion.

AdWords Conversion Tracking works at the account level, i.e AdWords only counts a conversion if the click originated from the same AdWords account that the conversion tracking snippet was generated from. Google Analytics, on the other hand, tracks visitor behavior at the property level.

7. Account Level Tracking You may be sending clicks from ads in multiple AdWords accounts to a single website, which is tracked by one Google Analytics property. If this is the case, then you may see more conversions in AdWords than in Google Analytics, depending on whether you are using AdWords Conversion Tracking or importing Google Analytics Goals into AdWords.

Unlike Goals, Transactions in Google Analytics can be counted multiple times in a visit provided each transaction has a unique transaction ID. This means that visitors who completed multiple transactions in a given visit will register multiple transactions in Google Analytics. This is similar to the many-per-click metric in AdWords Conversion Tracking, but given the other differences between products mentioned in this article, these numbers are not likely to match exactly.

4. Cookie Expiration AdWords has a 30 day look back window. Said another way, imported Goals or Transactions will only be imported to AdWords if they occur within 30 days of the click. The Multi-Channel Funnel reports in Google Analytics have a 30 day look back window, while the rest of the Google Analytics reports adhere to 6 month _utmz cookie expiration date. Google Analytics uses a campaign cookie (_utmz), which is set with a 6 month expiry. This is important to remember in reference to Google Analytics and AdWords because it means that if visitors arrive at your website via AdWords and return directly to the site, i.e by typing the URL into the browser or visiting via a bookmark in their browser, then that returning visit is attributed back to the original campaign, eg: AdWords for up to 6 months after the initial click.

2. Date of Transaction AdWords reports conversions against the date/time of the click that led to the successful action, not against the date of the successful action itself. For example, let?s say a visitor makes a purchase on July 20th, but clicked on the creative 1 day ago on July 19th. In AdWords, the conversion would be attributed to July 19th, the day of the click. Conversely, in Google Analytics, the conversion is attributed to July 20th, the day the conversion actually occurred

1. Attribution differences AdWords will attribute a conversion to the last AdWords click only. On the other hand, for all reports except the Multi-Channel Funnel reports, Google Analytics uses a last click attribution model regardless of whether or not it was AdWords. For example, let?s say a visitor clicks on a creative from your AdWords account then returns the next day via a Google organic search result and reaches your Goal page or triggers a transaction. Google Analytics will attribute the Goal or Transaction to google/organic. AdWords will attribute the Goal to the AdWords campaign.