This must be “death to good Google ideas” week. Yesterday they announced that Pay-Per-Action will be removed from AdWords in August. Today I received an email from Google telling me that Cross Channel Tracking is being removed, too!
Cross Channel Tracking was a relatively simple way for advertisers to track conversions from 3rd party sources within AdWords. With the implementation of a javascript code on your landing page (that’s right, NOT the confirmation page), you could track conversions from Yahoo!, MSN, Business.com, email campaigns, banner ad campaigns and beyond.
When Cross Channel Tracking was first released, I initially used it as a reporting-simplifier. For one of my accounts I was running a campaign in Business.com – which doesn’t have conversion tracking at all. By utilizing the Cross Channel product, I was able to quickly report on Business.com leads through the AdWords interface.
Since then, I’ve switched over all multi-channel campaign tracking to Google Analytics. Funny thing is, Google’s email announcement directly suggests that advertisers switch over their tracking to Analytics as a substitute. If you’re currently using the Cross Channel Tracking product, you should be aware that when Google removes it from AdWords on August 25th, all associated data (i.e. historical reports) will be removed too!
I must say, this has been an interesting week for Google products/announcements. Makes me wonder what awaits us for tomorrow!?!?
