Google Ads issue results in missing conversions from data-driven attribution

Google Ads suffered from a reporting delay for a portion of conversions using data-driven attribution. The issue occurred between 7:54 p.m. and 12:34 p.m. PST on February 9.

The issue has been resolved and the company is working on recovering the attribution data. Once resolved, the data will be reflected in reporting. Bidding was not affected, Ginny Marvin, Google’s ads product liaison, has confirmed.

Why we care. If you’re missing conversion data in Google Ads from February 9, this could be why. Any time data goes missing, it can impact your ability to assess campaign performance (and make decisions based on those assessments) as well as reporting for stakeholders.

The issue has been fixed, so we shouldn’t have to worry about it moving forward, but it’s a good idea to make note of when the issue occurred and to let stakeholders know.

About data-driven attribution. Data-driven attribution uses machine learning to understand how each marketing touchpoint contributed to a conversion, which may result in reporting that more accurately reflects your users’ full marketing journey. In September 2021, Google announced that this model would become the default attribution model for all new Google Ads conversion actions.

This is a move away from last-click attribution, the previous default model, in which only the final interaction is counted toward the attribution.

About The Author

George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land, covering organic search, podcasting and e-commerce. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.