Linking Google Analytics and Google Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide for Marketers

by | Dec 31, 2023 | Digital Marketing | 0 comments

Learn How to connect your Google Analytics and Google Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide for Marketers

Connecting your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts together can provide tremendous value for analyzing the performance of your marketing campaigns. By linking these platforms, you gain the ability to:

  • View Google Ads campaign metrics like clicks, costs, and conversions directly in your Google Analytics reports. This eliminates having to switch between interfaces.
  • Build remarketing lists and custom audiences in Google Analytics based on your website traffic and analytics data. These audiences can then be activated across your Google Ads accounts for more targeted ad campaigns.
  • Attribute website conversions to the assisting Google Ads clicks that led to those conversions. This provides a full-funnel analysis of your ads and how they impact your analytics goals.
  • Allow users from your Google Ads account to access your Google Analytics reports. This enables collaboration between ad managers and analytics users.

To enable these capabilities, proper linking between Google Analytics and Google Ads is essential. Here is a step-by-step guide to connecting your accounts:

Step 1: Check Account Permissions

In order to link Google Analytics and Google Ads, you need the proper permissions in each account. Specifically:

Google Analytics: You’ll need Marketer, Editor, or Admin permissions at the property level.

Google Ads: You’ll need Admin permissions at the manager account or individual account level.

Take a moment to verify you have the right permissions before attempting to link accounts. If not, you’ll need to request upgraded access from the account administrator.

Step 2: Link Your Accounts in Google Analytics

Let’s connect the two platforms starting with Google Analytics:

  1. Navigate to Admin and select the property you want to link.
  2. Under Product Links, choose Google Ads Links.
  3. Click + Link.
  4. Select the Google Ads account(s) you want to connect. This can be the manager account or individual accounts.
  5. Click Confirm to proceed.
  6. On the next screen, enable Auto-Tagging and any other preferences. Auto-tagging automatically pulls cost, click, impression, and other data from Google Ads into your reports.
  7. Click Submit to finalize the link.

Once completed, you’ll see your connected Google Ads accounts listed under Product Links. The link is now active.

Step 3: Enable Google Signals (Optional)

If you want to build audiences in Google Analytics and activate them in your linked Google Ads account, enable Google Signals:

  1. Under Admin, go to Data Collection and choose Data Collection Settings.
  2. Locate Google Signals and click Enable.
  3. Walk through the setup prompts to activate.

With Google Signals enabled, you can now create remarketing lists and custom combinations directly in Google Analytics and easily locate them later within your Google Ads account.

Step 4: Link Accounts in Google Ads

As an alternative method, you can also initiate the link from within Google Ads:

  1. Under Admin, choose Linked Accounts.
  2. Next to Google Analytics GA4, select Details.
  3. Click the Link next to the property you want to connect.

Once linked, the two accounts will share data automatically moving forward.

Step 5: Adjust User Permissions (Optional)

With your accounts now linked, Google Ads users may automatically get access to your Google Analytics reports. You can control their permissions:

  1. In Google Analytics, go to Admin and choose the linked account.
  2. Adjust user permissions as needed.

For example, you may want Google Ads administrators to also be admins in Google Analytics. Or you may want to restrict permissions, keeping the two tools separated.

Audience Targeting Tips

Now that your accounts are integrated, a few tips for building audiences:

  • Consider creating both remarketing lists (for recent site visitors) and custom combinations (complex rules-based segments) to target various audience pools in your ads account.
  • Utilize your Google Analytics behavior reports to locate your high-value website visitors based on pages visited, buttons clicked, duration on site, etc. Turn these into remarketing lists.
  • Build custom combinations around your analytics goals and conversion funnel steps to target visitors who have shown intent but haven’t yet converted.
  • Take advantage of your Google Analytics segments to immediately turn them into audiences for Google Ads.

Conclusion:-

Google Analytics and Google Ads work better together when properly linked. Follow this tutorial to connect your accounts and unlock the many benefits, from campaign analysis to audience targeting and beyond.

Ashish Tiwari
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