Information on the general differences when comparing the Analytics transaction and goal tracking with the Adwords conversion tracking.
Adwords
- Cookie tiemframe 30 days
- Assignment of the conversion to the click date, the date and time, the user clicked on the corresponding Ad. Therefore conversion statistics for the past 30 days may change due to the cookie lifetime. Keep in mind that a final reporting for a day is available 30 days later.
- Tracking of all conversions happening after a click on an Adwords ad – even if the user doesn't directly convert during the corresponding session, but instead later on after returning through another campaign or channel to the website.
Analytics
- Cookie timeframe of 30 days for standard reports
- Assignment of the conversion to the sale date, the exact time when the transaction has taken place. Optimal for reporting purpose, as the statistics are final on the next day.
- Global view of all traffic channels and campaigns. For the standard views, the conversion will be assigned to the last-click channel. Campaigns will override „direct traffic“ for a standard period of 6 months. If a user is coming through an Adwords campaign for a first non-converting visit, then later on returns using natural search before converting, the conversion will be assigned to natural search in standard views.
- In addition to the standard views, Analytics offers several attribution views, where you can get insights on other assignment models (first clic, distribution, ...). Besides this you can have a look at the channel or campaign touchpoint path for the conversion (not including impressions in the free Analytics version)
For both tracking systems you should keep in mind that only data is tracked which is passed to the tracking tags. If larger discrepancies appear, you should first check which parameters and values are passed to both of the tracking tags (i.e. revenue including vat or not). Analytics also offers the possibility to track tax and shipping cost in a separate field. Adwords in contrast only stores one overall conversion value withouth additional information.