AdWords Cross Channel Data will be Deleted

A few months back I heard that cross channel conversion tracking in AdWords was not going to be made available to new advertisers. Google indicated the decision was made based on user feedback which I completely understand. Of the hundreds of advertisers I have interacted with over the years and the hundreds of accounts I have personally worked on I could count on one hand the number of people that were actively using cross-channel tracking in AdWords.

Last night I noticed a message in an account that has a slightly different message than the help/faq page I linked to above. The message read:

"As of August 25, 2008, the cross-channel conversion tracking feature and all related data will be removed from all accounts. If you'd like to keep a copy of your data, please make a record of it before its removal. AdWords conversion tracking will not be affected."

The key difference being the first message indicated it won't be available to new users and the most recent message states that all cross-channel related data will be removed from all accounts, old or new. If you're using or have used cross channel tracking in AdWords and want to keep your data make sure to log in and get everything downloaded prior to August 25, 2008.