Follow the steps below to link your GA4 property with Google Ads:
Step-1: Make sure that you have the ‘edit’ permission on the GA4 property you want to link to your Google Ads account(s).
Step-2: Make sure that you have the ‘admin’ access to the Google Ads account(s) you want to link to your GA4 property.
Note: You can link all your GA4 properties to individual Google Ads account and Google Ads Manager account as well. As far as limits are concerned you can create up to 400 links per property.
Step-3: Navigate to your Google Analytics 4 property.
Step-5: Click on ‘Google Ads Linking’ under the ‘Property’ column:
An overlay will appear like the one below:
Step-6: Click on the ‘Link’ button.
Step-7: Click on ‘Choose Google Ads Account’:
Step-8: Select one or more Google Ads account you want to link to your GA4 property and then click on the ‘Confirm’ button:
Note: You will see only those Google Ads accounts for which you have ‘admin’ access.
Step-9: Click on the ‘Next’ button:
You should now see a screen like the one below:
At this point, you can disable ‘Personalized Advertising’ and ‘Auto-Tagging’.
When you disable ‘Personalized Advertising’, the GA4 audience list and remarketing events/parameters will not be published to the linked Google Ads account.
When you disable ‘Auto-Tagging’, Google Analytics will not automatically associate Google Ads data with customer clicks.
To disable ‘Personalized Advertising’, click the toggle button to ‘OFF’:
To disable auto-tagging, click on the down arrow button:
Select the option ‘Leave my auto-tagging settings as they are“:
I like to keep both ‘Personalized Advertising’ and ‘auto-tagging’ enabled:
Step-10: Click on the ‘Next’ button.
Step-11: Review all of your configuration settings and then click on the ‘Submit’ button:
You should now see a notification like the one below which confirms that your GA4 property is linked to your selected Google Ads account(s):
Note: It may take up to 24 hours for your Google Ads link to begin displaying data.
How to disconnect a Google Ads account from your Google Analytics 4 property
Follow the steps below:
Step-1: Make sure that you have the ‘edit’ permission on the GA4 property you want to unlink from your Google Ads account(s).
Step-2: Make sure that you have the ‘admin’ access to the Google Ads account(s) you want to unlink from your GA4 property.
Step-3: Navigate to the ‘Admin’ section of your GA4 property.
Step-4: Click on ‘Google Ads Linking’ under the ‘Property’ column:
You should now see the list of all the Google Ads accounts linked to your GA4 property:
Step-5: Click on the Google Ads account you want to unlink from your GA4 property.
Step-6: Click on the three dots menu at the top right-hand side of your screen:
Step-7: Click on ‘Delete’:
Step-8: Click on the ‘Delete button:
Why connect your GA4 property with Google Ads?
You might have already configured the legacy version of Google Analytics (also known as Universal Analytics) along with Google Ads and now be thinking why does it matter whether we connect Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads? Well to answer your question in more detail, here are a few key benefits.
Event-based model:
Universal Analytics relied on the traditional session-based goal format that we have known for years. These session-based goals were the only way to import user interactions into the Google Ads data. With the limitation of 20 goals per reporting view, it was rather tough to define and configure the audience for best campaign performance.
This problem is now solved. Google Analytics 4 uses an event-based model which means that you can configure more key user interaction into your Google Ads account without firing a conversion tag for individual actions. Now you can define your audience in a more detailed manner based on events like a scroll, file download, video play, and custom events.
Custom-parameter reporting in events:
In Google Analytics 4 you can specify up to 25 custom parameters per event. This feature has brought a new way to define your audience using custom parameters and event conversion data. When you connect your Google Analytics property with your Google Ads account, you can import all of these custom parameters and then define your target audience accordingly.
Measure app conversions from Google Analytics 4 properties:
If you have an Android or iOS app, you can measure how your campaigns drive app installs and in-app actions, including those collected via the Firebase SDK.
Excluding specific events and user properties from ads personalization:
With the Google Analytics 4 user properties and permission feature, you can now exclude a specific event or particular user property from being used in personalized ads and hence keep it just for reporting purposes.
Frequently Asked Questions About How to link GA4 (Google Analytics 4) with Google Ads
How may Google Ads account be linked in Google Analytics 4?
You can link all your GA4 properties to individual Google Ads account and Google Ads Manager account as well. As far as limits are concerned you can create up to 400 links per property.
What are the benefits of linking Google Ads and Google Analytics 4?
Following are few benefits of linking Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 1. You can check your Google Ads campaign performance in Google Analytics 4 property in Acquisition reports. 2. You also get access to Google Ads dimensions like (Cost, clicks, impression, etc) in user acquisition reports. 3. You can import your analytics conversion events in Google Ads account and accordingly run a campaign for a specific user only. 4. You can check your Google Ads performance in the attribution reports.
What are the next steps after linking Google Ads and Google Analytics 4?
Once you have successfully linked your Google Ads with Google Analytics 4 property you automatically see your Google Ads data in GA4 reports. However, if you want to send data from GA4 to Google Ads for remarketing purposes or new campaigns as well, then you need to login to your Google Ads account and do the following things: • Import Conversions to Google Ads • Add Audience from GA4 to Campaign or Ad Group • For enhanced remarketing, you need to activate Google Signals.
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