A WebmasterWorld thread has complaints from a few advertisers that the Google Analytics conversion data is not importing properly into the Google AdWords screen. This has been happening since about January 6th.
Google is aware of the issue but it is an issue that advertisers need to take notice of.
Since Google is not properly importing the data, and since Google may use that data for rank and ad pricing, it can have a negative impact on your campaigns costs structure and ranking.
eWhisper from WebmasterWorld explained in greater detail:
If the data is not being imported right now; switch from CPA bidding to another type until the issue is fixed.I've run into a lot of cases where the data wasn't imported for whatever reason, and it creates what Googlers call a 'death spiral' for CPAs.
Since Google is working off of bad data, the bid decisions get worse and worse and I've seen accounts take 2-3 months to recover from these issues if its not taken care of immediately.
If you switch from CPA bidding to any other bid type. Then after the data is fixed, if Google imports all the old conversions, you can usually switch back to CPA bidding immediately. If the data is not imported, then its usually best to wait 2-3 weeks of data being imported before turning CPA bidding back on.
In these cases, the larger the account, usually the worse the problem gets. Small accounts can usually recover very quickly; but large ones can take a while.
A Google AdWords representative supposedly told his customer the same thing.
So be warned and take action.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Update: A Google spokesperson sent us a comment:
We've recently been experiencing a technical issue affecting a small number of advertisers who are importing engagement-based Google Analytics goals into AdWords, such as page depth and time on site. Advertisers who are importing URL-based goals into AdWords, like a visit to an order confirmation page, have not been affected. Our engineering teams are working on a fix and we'll provide an update when it's available.
Update 2: On January 23rd, Google informed me a fix began rolling out.
