March 5 deadline for linking Analytics and AdWords Accounts?

If you do not link your account by march 5

[cocacolafun]

I got this message from google to an email address I only use with google and it's not phishing because I checked the source of the email.

But I don't understand as my adwords account is link with analytics.

Paraphrased e-mail

Google understands your AdWords account has not been properly linked with your Google Analytics account. Without this, we cannot ensure that your AdWords data will continue to populate in your Analytics account.

[edited by: engine at 1:55 pm (utc) on Feb. 14, 2008]
[edit reason] See TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[Windslide]

I got the same message, but I think is scam....

Regards

[sharewarepro]

I don't think it's a scam. It seems quite clear to me?

[netmeg]

Yea I would like to know what is up with this. I got a whole slew of these today, for all my client accounts, and they are all linked into my MCC and the ones who are using AdWords are all linked to their individual Analytics accounts (except for one client who is about to launch a new site) so is this a mistake or what? And what's so special about March 5th?

[MadeWillis]

I got the same email.

[sharewarepro]

3rd of the 5th of the 8th.

Maybe it's connected to the quality score algorythm :-)

[en.wikipedia.org...]

[WiseWebDude]

I got the same e-mail as well.

[smallcompany]

If those emails gave a clue which accounts was it about, that would help.

[cocacolafun]

I am happy I am not the only one. As I said in my post, the email I was contacted under is unique and only google has it. The URLs in the email are also valid.

It sounds to me like a mistake. Someone created a script using a wrong sql query and called it test.pl and ran it (perl test.pl).

[King_Fisher]

Ditto on the email...KF

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Hi all,

Although I don't really have the details on this, I wanted to jump in and confirm that the email is in fact legit. I do apologize for the confusion.

GAnalyticsAdvisor will stop by later in the day and answer your questions about this. To set reasonable expectations, I've seen his calendar and it'll probably be late afternoon.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

AWA

[netmeg]

Hunh. My partner got one one of these email notifications for his account, and he only has Analytics, not AdWords. Weird.

[GAnalyticsAdvisor]

Hi Everyone,

As AWA said, this email was indeed sent by Google, and is not a scam. We do realize that it's quite cryptic in nature, and I will be posting clarification on this messaging tomorrow.

I do apologize for the confusion.

GAA

[GAnalyticsAdvisor]

Hello Again,

The Google Analytics team sent this email as more of a precaution than anything else. We wanted to ensure that users will continue to receive AdWords cost data in their Analytics reports after future system updates.

It is very possible that many users will, in fact, not be affected in any relevant way. However, we wanted to give users an ample warning to double check their accounts, just in case. In the very near future, AdWords data will only appear in a user's Analytics reports if the "Apply Cost Data" box is checked within the AdWords interface.

The Analytics team did meet again to discuss the effectiveness of this email, and do sincerely apologize for the lack of clarity in the original communication. The message did not come across as clearly as it could have.

GAA

[kanetrain]

The wording was very confusing, but the biggest problem is that there was no "from" set in the email.

Someone needs to be proofing those emails over there :)

[rebelde]

To save everybody the search time, here are the directions to find that "Apply cost data" checkbox.

[adwords.google.com...]

[jlara]

There are some larger issues here. Currently if you select auto tagging urls at the account level, the code passed in the GCLID can be parsed by any Google Analytics account. It seems like a future upgrade is going to get more restrictive on that GCLID stream.

We have seen a bit of foreshadowing on this. There was a technique with Google Analytics to use a custom filter to show the Adwords Keywords + the real keyword searched. This was an easy solution for online marketers to see the actual keywords searched. This was awesome data for examining the "broadness" of broad match. That functionality was removed early Jan 08. It had something to do with a system upgrade and that GCLID code.

Right now Analytics accounts can be moved (unlinked) upon request by Google from one Adwords account to another. The email notification said that in the near future that function would no longer be available. If the changes go through as the email stated, they will provide more privacy and security for the Analytics users. That could also cause some painful problems for Web design companies and SEMs who just setup Google Analytics profiles under their own accounts.