DISQUS

Greg Moore · 7 months ago

For AdWords, the web analytics applications usually report last click data, but AdWords is reporting equal click, right?

Greg Moore · 7 months ago

In other words, Google Analytics resets cookies with each visit, so only if the current visit is from AdWords will a conversion be reported as an AdWords conversion. Even if someone visits every day for a week, each time via AdWords, if the eighth visit is by an organic click and that's when they conversion, Google Analytics reports that as a conversion for an organic visit, not AdWords.

But in the AdWords interface and reports, if a person visits seven times, and only the third visit was via AdWords, then if they visit an eighth time via an organic click, AdWords will still report that as a conversion, because the AdWords cookies last 30 days and are not updated.

So in this sense Google Analytics is showing last click data. AdWords is showing equal click data, giving attribution to the AdWords click no matter whether it was the first click, a middle click or the last click, so long as it happened within the last 30 days.

Or am I missing how it really works? Thanks!

Craig Danuloff · 7 months ago

Greg: In this second comment you're confusing 'last click' of the entire string of visits with 'last click' of the paid search visits. Both GA and Adwords are 'last click' within the set of ppc visits. Actually this raises a whole new set of questions I'll have to go investigate about how GA really handles allocation across different visit types - not entirely sure - but I know who to ask!

Craig Danuloff · 7 months ago

Adwords is last click. Most web analytics (including GA) is last click too. The difference between Adwords and GA is the date the revenue is assigned to - on Adwords it's the date of the click, in GA it's the date of the sale.

Marc Adelman · 7 months ago

Craig,

Great post - and series of posts on this subject. I believe that the subject of credit allocation needs to be separated into two realms of conversation, reporting and bid rule logic.

For reporting and analysis purposes, the change in allocation scheme from last click to any of the other schemes you mentioned, (Linear or Weighted Allocation) might not alter the data per keyword enough to alter the short term analysis of the raw data. Therefore, the conclusions from the RKG's study,make perfect sense.

On the other hand if credit allocation is kept in the world of logic for algorithmic bid rules, it may have more of a noticeable impact. Many times even the slightest change in the details of a weight or variable in a formula within bid rule logic can provide a significant change in performance results.

Therefore if these two ways of viewing credit allocation are kept as separate conversations, studies, and tests, we may see more clear conclusions on both sides.