My Step-By-Step Blueprint For Learning and Mastering Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

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Last Updated: May 24, 2022

Linking your Google Ads account to your Google Analytics property lets you see the Google Ads performance data in your Google Analytics reports. It lets you import your Google Analytics goals, cross-device conversions, Analytics metrics and ecommerce data into your Google Ads account.

You can improve your Google Ads remarketing and get richer data in the Google Analytics Multi-Channel Funnels reports through Google Ads linking.

Follow the steps below to link your Google Ads account to your Google Analytics property:

Step-1: The email address that you use to access your Google Analytics account must have either ‘Admin’ or ‘Editor’ permission at the GA account or property level:

Step-2: Make sure you can log in to the Google Ads account (which you want to link to your GA property) via the same email address you use to access your Google Analytics account.

Step-3: Make sure that your email address has admin access for the Google Ads account you want to link to your GA property.

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Step-4: Login to your Google Analytics account.

Step-5: Navigate to your main GA reporting view.

Step-6: Click on the ‘Admin’ link from the navigation menu on the left-hand side.

Step-7: Now under the ‘Property’ column click on ‘Google Ads Linking’.

Step-8: Now click on the ‘+ New Link Group’ button

Step-9: As soon as you click the button a new overlay will appear like in the image below. Here you will see the list of Google Ads accounts to which you have access. Select the one that you want to link with Google Analytics by clicking on the appropriate checkbox:

Step-10: Click on ‘Continue’:

Step-11: Provide the ‘Link group title’ (i.e. how you want to identify your group of linked Google Ads accounts):

Step-12: Select one or more Google Analytics reporting views from the available list to which you want to link the Google Ads account. You can select a specific view by clicking on the toggle button next to the view or you can click on ‘Select All’ to select all the views in one go:

Step-13: Now click on the ‘Link accounts’ button.

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You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-14: Now scroll down and click on the ‘Done’ button:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Congratulations! You have successfully linked your Google Ads account with your Google Analytics property.

Your Google Ads linking is now complete.

What are the advantages of linking your Google Ads account with Google Analytics?

Following are the key advantages:

1. Retarget Audience based on Google Analytics events or Conversions:

You can use your Google Analytics events or conversions for remarketing campaigns in Google Ads.

For example, you can create a remarketing campaign for the audience who have left your purchase funnel without completing transactions like users who have done add to cart but not purchased.

Another example could be, you can create a remarketing campaign for the users who have recently completed a goal on your website by signing up for your newsletter.

#2. Remove audience who have already completed a goal or transaction: 

If a particular group of users have already completed a goal or purchased a product, then the chances of them completing the same goal or purchasing the same product are pretty low.

You can save money (ad spend) by removing such users from the Google Ad audience list for the time being.

This is possible only when Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together. By importing the conversions in Google Ads you can remove such users from the ad campaigns.

#3. Better Cross-sell or Upsell Campaigns:

Having your Google Analytics data in your Google Ads account gives you the additional benefit of understanding your users. You can use the right kind of audience segment to cross-sell ( for example If you buy an i-phone, get 20% off on air pods) or upsell ( trying to sell i-phone 11 to the users who are interested in purchasing i-phone 10). 

#4. Improved Ad campaigns and Conversions:

Combining your Google Ads data with Google Analytics will provide you with a complete user journey. A series of following questions will give you more ideas:

1. What keywords users have searched that showed them your Ad?
2. How many times your Ad was clicked?
3. How many users have completed a goal on the website after clicking the Ad?
4. How many users left immediately from the website after clicking the Ad and what were the keywords that resulted in such user behavior?
5. Where the users are abandoning the purchase funnel or conversion funnel?
6. How many conversions are driven by a particular Google Ads campaign?
7. What is the revenue generated by each campaign?

Having answers to these questions give you a clear picture of ads performance and website performance. Through such insights, you can improve your Ad campaigns and conversions on the website.

What are the limitations of linking your Google Google Ads account with Google Analytics?

1. Each Google Analytics property can have up to 400 link groups.
2. Each link group in Google Analytics can be linked with 1,000 Google Ads accounts.
3. You cannot link your Google Ads account with Google Analytics if Google Ads (MCC or individual account) is disabled/cancelled.
4. No real-time data flow from Google Ads to Google Analytics or vice versa since both tools take time to process data.

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