How to See Google Ads Data in Google Analytics

Seeing your Google Ads data inside Google Analytics is one of the most powerful ways to understand if your ad spend is actually working. Instead of just knowing how many people clicked your ads, you can see what they did after they landed on your site. This article will walk you through exactly how to link Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 and show you where to find the key reports that connect your ad costs to real user behavior.

Why You Absolutely Should Connect Google Ads to GA4

Running Google Ads without linking it to GA4 is like only reading the first chapter of a book. You get the introduction - the click - but you have no idea how the story ends. The real value isn't in the click itself, but in the action that follows. By default, Google Ads tells you about impressions, clicks, and cost. GA4 tells you about engagement, conversions, and what users value on your website. Linking them brings both sides of the story together.

Here are the biggest benefits of making this connection:

• See the Full Customer Journey: GA4 is built to track the entire user path. By piping your Ads data directly into GA4, you can see how paid traffic interacts with your other marketing channels like organic search, social media, or email. You might find that a customer first discovers you through a Google Ad, leaves, and then comes back a week later through an organic search to finally make a purchase. Without the link, that connection is lost.
• Understand True Ad Performance: Is a campaign with a high click-through rate (CTR) actually valuable? Maybe not. It might bring tons of traffic that bounces immediately. By blending Ads metrics (like Clicks and Cost) with GA4 metrics (like Engagement Rate, Conversions, and Revenue), you can answer VITAL questions: "Which ad campaign is driving the most engaged users?" or "What's the actual return on ad spend (ROAS) for my 'Summer Sale' campaign?"
• Build Smarter Audiences for Remarketing: This is a game-changer. Once linked, you can build audiences in GA4 based on hyper-specific user behaviors and import them directly into Google Ads. For example, you could create an audience of users who watched more than 50% of an embedded video, visited your pricing page three times, but didn't convert. You can't get that level of behavioral detail from Google Ads alone.
• Get Deeper Insights in a Single Interface: Logging into Google Ads for ad performance and GA4 for site performance is inefficient. Linking the two gives you dedicated reports inside GA4 that put all the information you need in one place, saving you time and helping you spot trends much faster.

Getting Ready: What You Need to Link Your Accounts

Connecting the accounts is straightforward, but you need to have the right permissions in place first to avoid any frustrating roadblocks. Here’s a quick checklist to run through before you start:

• The Right Permissions: You’ll need Administrator access to your Google Ads account and at least an Editor role for the Google Analytics 4 property you're linking to.
• Use the Same Google Login: This is the most common reason for failure. Make sure the Google account (email address) you're using has the required permissions for both Google Ads and GA4 at the same time. This is what allows the two platforms to "see" each other during the linking setup.
• Auto-tagging Must Be Enabled: Auto-tagging is a feature in Google Ads that automatically adds a unique parameter - the Google Click ID or gclid - to the end of your URLs. This is the "tag" that GA4 uses to identify and properly attribute traffic coming from your ads. If it's turned off, GA4 will likely misattribute your ad traffic as organic or direct. Don't worry, if you do forget this step, GA4 will offer to enable it for you during the linking process.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Link Google Ads and GA4

You can start the linking process from either Google Analytics 4 or Google Ads. The end result is exactly the same, so choose whichever platform you feel more comfortable in. We'll cover both methods below.

Method 1: Linking from Inside Google Analytics 4 (Recommended)

Starting inside GA4 gives you a bit more control and visibility over the configuration settings as you go. This is the preferred method for most users.

1. Navigate to the Admin Panel: Log in to your GA4 property. In the bottom-left corner of the screen, click on the gear icon labeled Admin.
2. Find Product Links: In the 'Admin' screen, you'll see two columns: 'Account' and 'Property'. Look in the Property column for the heading "Product Links" and click on Google Ads Links.
3. Start the Linking Process: On the next screen, you’ll see any existing links or a prompt to create a new one. Click the blue Link button in the top right.
4. Choose Your Google Ads Account: Click on Choose Google Ads accounts. GA4 will show you a list of all the Google Ads accounts that your current login has Administrator access to. Check the box next to the account(s) you wish to link, and then click Confirm.
5. Configure Your Settings:
6. Review and Submit: The final screen gives you a summary of the accounts you're linking and the settings you've chosen. If everything looks correct, click Submit.

That’s it! Your accounts are now linked. You should see a "Link created" confirmation message. Keep in mind it can take 24-48 hours for data to start populating in your new GA4 reports.

Method 2: Linking from Inside Google Ads

If you spend more of your time in the Google Ads platform, you might find this method a bit quicker.

1. Go to Tools & Settings: Sign in to your Google Ads account. In the top right corner, click on Tools and Settings (the wrench icon).
2. Find Linked Accounts: Under the "Setup" column, click on Linked accounts.
3. Connect to Google Analytics: You'll see cards for many different Google products. Find the one for "Google Analytics & Firebase" and click on the Manage and link button.
4. Link Your Property: Google Ads will show you a list of the GA4 properties you have Editor permissions for. Find the correct property in the list, and in the "Action" column, click Link.
5. Confirm and Import Audiences: A small panel will open. Confirm the property is correct. You’ll see a toggle for "Import Google Analytics audiences." Make sure this is turned on - it's one of the primary benefits of linking your accounts! - and then click Link.

You'll see the status change to "Linked," and you're all set. The process is complete, and just like with the other method, data will begin to appear in GA4 within a day or two.

Where to Find Your Google Ads Data in GA4

Once the data starts flowing, where do you actually go to see it? Your newly integrated Google Ads data shows up in two main places inside GA4: the Advertising workspace and your standard Acquisition reports.

1. The Advertising Workspace

This is the central command center for all your paid media performance. It's designed specifically for advertisers.

• Navigate to it by clicking on Reports in the left-hand navigation, then selecting Advertising.

Within this workspace, the most valuable report is the Google Ads Campaigns report. You can find this under the "Performance" section. This report breaks down performance by campaign and marries your Google Ads data (Clicks, Cost) with GA4 behavior data (Engaged sessions, Conversions, Revenue).

2. Traffic Acquisition Reports

Your Ads data also adds depth to the standard acquisition reports you’re already familiar with.

• Navigate here by clicking on Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.

This report shows you performance across all of your traffic channels. Your Google Ads traffic will appear with the Session source / medium of 'google / cpc'. You can click to filter this report to see metrics specifically for users who arrived via your ads and compare them against other channels like 'google / organic' or 'direct / (none)'.

Analyzing Key Google Ads Metrics in Your GA4 Reports

Now that you know where the reports are, let's explore what to look for.

The Google Ads Campaigns Report

This is arguably the most important report for Ads managers using GA4. In a single table, you can see columns for:

• Ad-specific metrics: Google Ads clicks, Google Ads cost, cost per click.
• Behavioral metrics: Users, Sessions, Engaged sessions.
• Outcome metrics: Conversions, Total revenue, Google Ads cost per conversion.

Here you can get immediate answers to questions like:

• "My top-spending campaign has a ton of clicks, but why is its engagement rate so low compared to other campaigns?" This could signal an issue with ad creative, landing page relevance, or audience targeting.
• "Which campaign is delivering conversions at the lowest cost?" This helps you know where to allocate more budget.
• "How does my cost per click relate to the actual revenue generated?" You can instantly calculate return on ad spend (ROAS) in this view.

Using Secondary Dimensions for Deeper Analysis

The real power of GA4's reporting comes from secondary dimensions. You can add another layer of data to any standard report to get much more granular.

Let's say you're looking at the Google Ads Campaigns report and you see one campaign outperforming all the others. To find out why, you can add a secondary dimension.

1. Click the small "+" button next to the primary dimension (in this case, "Session campaign").
2. From the dropdown, search for and select "Google Ads ad group name". Now the report will break down each campaign by its individual ad groups, showing you which specific group of ads is responsible for the strong performance.
3. Take it another step further. Change the secondary dimension to "Google Ads keyword text". Now you can see exactly which keywords are not only driving clicks but are also leading to high-value user behavior and conversions on your site. This is data you can’t fully stitch together by looking at Google Ads alone.

Final Thoughts

Connecting Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 is a non-negotiable step for any marketer serious about data-driven decision-making. It shifts your perspective from simply measuring ad clicks to truly understanding user behavior, optimizing your budget, and maximizing your return on investment.

Once you’ve got those connections made, the next step is turning that flood of data into easy-to-understand insights. Instead of manually building reports across different platforms or digging through GA4 menus every day, we built Graphed to automate the entire process. Just connect your data sources like Google Ads and Google Analytics, and then ask questions in simple English like, "show me a dashboard of my best performing google ads campaigns and their conversion rates from last month". Graphed instantly builds the exact reports and dashboards you need, updated in real time, so you can spend less time wrangling data and more time acting on it.