Google Ads overreported conversions due to bug — working on a fix

Conversion reporting is affected between November 11 and November 20.

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Update 11/25: Google said it has fixed most of the reporting issues that resulted from this bug.

If it looks like your Google campaigns have been more successful than usual since November 11th, that may not be the case. Google Ads experienced a conversion reporting issue that caused overreporting of conversions for some advertisers, Google said Thursday.

Current status. Google said it is working on fixing the bug and correcting the conversion data.

What happened? A bug caused Google Ads Search and Shopping campaign conversions to be overreported.

What is the timeframe? Conversion reporting between November 11, 12:01 AM PST and November 20, 11:59 AM PST is affected. The bug occurred on November 20 at approximately 9:00 PM EST, Google said.

Who does it affect? For once, it’s a good thing to be using last click, it seems. The issue affects advertisers using non-last click attribution models, Google said.

It impacts reporting in all Google Ads interfaces, including reports downloaded using the AdWords API, Google Ads API and Google Ads Scripts.

Smart bidding strategies are not impacted, Google said.

What fields are affected? If you’re pulling reports from the AdWords or Google Ads APIs, see the list of affected fields below. Google said Google Ads Scripts that reference the fields and any custom fields based on them may also be affected.

Google Adwords Conversion Columns
Click to enlarge. Source: Google

Why we should care. Overreported conversions, of course, makes it appear as though campaigns are performing better than they actually are. This can have an impact on your budget allocations, bidding decisions and more. It’s not clear by how much conversions are being overreported, but the best you may be able to do is benchmark against recent performance. Coming into the busy holiday shopping season makes this issue that much more urgent for Google to fix, as the engineers are certainly aware.


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About the author

Ginny Marvin
Contributor
Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

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