How to Link AdWords Account to Google Analytics
Stop guessing what happens after someone clicks your ad. Linking your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts is the single best way to see the full story, from the ad that caught their attention to the pages they visited and the actions they took on your site. This article will guide you through the process step-by-step, explain the benefits, and show you where to find the data you need to make smarter marketing decisions.
Why Link Google Ads to Google Analytics?
Connecting these two powerhouse platforms is more than just a box-ticking exercise, it transforms your data from a simple report card into a detailed instruction manual for growing your business. Instead of just seeing clicks and impressions in Google Ads, you unlock a much deeper understanding of your ad spend’s true impact.
See the Full Customer Journey
Without linking, your Google Ads data ends the moment a user clicks your ad. You know you paid for the click, but then what? Did they get confused and leave immediately? Did they browse three products and add one to their cart? Linking lets you follow that user's journey after they land on your site, showing you crucial engagement metrics like bounce rate, pages per session, and average session duration for each specific campaign, ad group, and keyword.
Import Richer Conversion Data
Your Google Ads account might be tracking sales or leads, but what about smaller, equally valuable interactions? Google Analytics lets you set up goals for almost anything: newsletter signups, PDF downloads, video views, or even just visitors who spend more than five minutes on your site. Once your accounts are linked, you can import these Analytics Goals directly into Google Ads as conversions. This gives you a more comprehensive way to measure campaign success and optimize for user actions that lead to a sale down the road.
Build Smarter Audiences for Remarketing
This is one of the most powerful benefits. Analytics allows you to build incredibly specific audience segments. You can create lists of users who...
Came from a specific ad campaign and visited the pricing page but didn't sign up.
Spent more than $100 and viewed your blog.
Abandoned their shopping cart after clicking a specific "brand terms" ad.
By linking the accounts, you can seamlessly push these hyper-targeted audiences to Google Ads and use them for your remarketing campaigns, showing exactly the right ad to the right group of people at the right time.
Unlock Detailed Performance Reports
Once connected, a new set of dedicated "Google Ads" reports appears within your Google Analytics. These reports directly overlay your Ads cost data (Clicks, Cost, CPC) with your Analytics behavior data (Sessions, Bounce Rate, Goal Completions). This lets you quickly spot which campaigns drive a lot of cheap clicks but have zero engagement, or which high-cost keywords are actually generating your most valuable customers.
What You'll Need Before You Link
Before you get started, just make sure you have the right permissions in place to ensure a smooth process. It only takes a minute to check and can save you from hitting a frustrating roadblock later on.
For Google Analytics: You need to have Edit permission for the Google Analytics 4 property you want to link to.
For Google Ads: You need Administrative access for the Google Ads account.
While not strictly required, the process is much simpler if both your Google Ads account and Google Analytics property are under the same Google email address.
How to Link Google Ads to Google Analytics 4 (Step-by-Step)
Ready to connect the dots? The process is straightforward and only takes a few clicks within your Google Analytics account.
Step 1: Sign in to Google Analytics
Head over to https://analytics.google.com and sign in. Make sure you are viewing the correct account and property that you want to link your ads to.
Step 2: Navigate to the Admin Section
In the bottom-left corner of your screen, click on the gear icon labeled Admin. This will take you to the backend settings for your account and property.
Step 3: Go to Google Ads Links
In the Admin panel, you will see two columns: "Account" and "Property." Look at the Property column. Scroll down to the "Product Links" section and click on Google Ads Links. If your platforms are not in the English language, the names might vary slightly, but the location is the same.
Step 4: Create a New Link
In the Google Ads Links screen, you'll see a list of any existing links. To create a new one, click the blue Link button in the top left.
Step 5: Choose Your Google Ads Account
Next, click on Choose Google Ads accounts. A list of all Google Ads accounts that your Google account has administrative access to will appear. Select the checkbox next to the account(s) you want to link and click Confirm.
Pro Tip: Double-check that the Google Ads Customer ID (formatted like xxx-xxx-xxxx) matches the account you intend to link.
Step 6: Configure Your Settings
This next step is the most important part of the configuration. You have two primary settings:
Enable Personalized Advertising: This is the switch that allows you to use those powerful Analytics remarketing audiences you build inside your Google Ads campaigns. For most businesses, you'll absolutely want to keep this enabled. It's the key to running effective remarketing.
Enable Auto-Tagging: When you're prompted, you should enable auto-tagging. When this is on, Google automatically adds a parameter (called a ‘gclid’) to the end of your destination URLs. This little code snippet is how Analytics knows that a visitor came from a specific Google ad. Without it, Analytics will show the traffic as generic "google / organic" or "google / cpc" without any of the rich detail from your campaigns. Keeping auto-tagging enabled is essential for the link to work correctly.
After you’ve configured these settings, click Next.
Step 7: Review and Submit
The final screen gives you one last look at your selected settings and accounts. If everything looks correct, click the Submit button. That's it! Your accounts are now linked.
Keep in mind that it can take up to 24 hours for Google Ads data to start populating in your Analytics reports, so don't worry if you don't see it immediately.
Finding and Using Your Google Ads Data in Analytics
Now for the fun part: using the data. After you’ve waited 24-48 hours, you can start digging into the newly populated reports within Google Analytics.
Explore Standard Acquisition Reports
Go to your GA4 reports by clicking Reports on the left-hand navigation. In the Acquisition section, check out the User acquisition and Traffic acquisition reports.
In the Traffic acquisition report, for instance, you can use the dropdown menu above the table to view the data by "Session source/medium" or "Session campaign." You’ll now see detailed performance data for "google / cpc" broken down by the campaign, ad group, and keyword, alongside user engagement metrics like engaged sessions, conversions, and average engagement time.
Analyze the Dedicated Google Ads Reports
GA4 also provides a dedicated workspace for your Ads data. In the main navigation, you can often find an "Advertising" section. Within it, check under Performance > Google Ads Campaigns. Here, you can analyze performance from multiple angles:
Google Ads Campaigns Report: This is your primary view. Compare Clicks, Costs, and Conversions for each of your campaigns side-by-side with on-site behavior.
Google Ads Keywords Report: Dig deeper to see which keywords are truly working. Are your most expensive keywords driving the most engaged users, or just empty clicks? This report gives you the answer.
Common Troubleshooting Tips
It's not uncommon to run into a little snag. If things don't look right, here are a few common issues and how to fix them.
Data Isn't Showing Up in Reports
If it's been over 48 hours and you still don't see Google Ads data, the number one culprit is auto-tagging. Go to your Google Ads account, click on Admin > Account Settings, and make sure the "Auto-tagging" section is checked and says "Yes."
Traffic is Categorized as "(not set)" or Google / Organic
This issue often happens if the 'gclid' parameter is getting stripped from your URL. This can be caused by a website redirect. Click on one of your own ads and look at the URL in your browser once your landing page loads. If you don't see &gclid=... in the URL, that's your problem. Check your website's redirect rules with your developer to ensure this parameter is being passed through properly.
Accounts Show as Linked, but Data is Inconsistent
It's normal to see slight discrepancies between conversion numbers in Ads and Analytics. A small variance is due to differences in attribution models. Google Ads, by default, gives conversion credit to the last Google ad a user clicked. Analytics, on the other hand, might use a data-driven model or last-click model that considers all channels. The goal isn't a perfect 1:1 match but to see directional trends and understand user behavior.
Final Thoughts
Linking Google Ads to Google Analytics should be an essential part of any digital marketer's setup. It moves you from simply counting clicks to genuinely understanding user behavior, enabling you to optimize campaigns for true business impact rather than just superficial vanity metrics.
Of course, this is just a single link. Your full marketing picture is likely scattered across a dozen platforms - from Salesforce and HubSpot to Shopify and your email marketing tool. Instead of spending hours jumping between tabs and manually stitching together reports in spreadsheets, we built Graphed to connect all your data sources in one place. You can use simple, natural language to instantly build real-time dashboards that show Google Ads performance, Analytics behavior, and Shopify revenue all in a single view, turning a day's worth of reporting into a 30-second conversation.