How to See Google Ads Keywords in Google Analytics 4

Spending money on Google Ads without seeing the full picture in Google Analytics 4 is like flying a plane without a navigation system. You can see you're moving, but you don't know if you're heading toward your destination. You need to know which keywords aren't just getting clicks but are driving actual conversions and engagement on your website. This guide will walk you through exactly how to link Google Ads to GA4 and, most importantly, where to find those valuable keyword performance reports.

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Why You Can't Afford to Skip This Step

You might be wondering if it's really worth the effort. After all, Google Ads already shows you clicks, impressions, and conversions. But that’s only half the story. Connecting your accounts unlocks a much deeper level of analysis that you can't get from either platform alone.

• Go Beyond Clicks: Google Ads tells you how many people clicked your ad. GA4 tells you what they did next. Did they browse other pages? Did they fill out a form? Did they bounce immediately? Linking the two connects the ad click to the on-site behavior, giving you a complete view of a keyword's true value.
• Measure True ROI: Your ultimate goal isn't clicks, it's revenue, leads, or sign-ups. By seeing GA4 conversion data alongside your Google Ads keywords, you can finally calculate a real return on investment. You'll discover which high-cost keywords are actually generating sales and which ones are just wasting your budget on low-quality traffic.
• Understand the Full Customer Journey: This connection allows you to see how your paid search efforts fit into the broader marketing mix. You can analyze how your top-performing keywords contribute to multi-channel funnels and understand the role they play in converting users who may have first discovered you through social media or organic search.

The Most Important Step: Linking Your Google Ads and GA4 Accounts

Before you can find any keyword reports, you need to make sure your two accounts are properly connected. This is a one-time setup that tells Google to start sharing data between Ads and Analytics. It's painless, but it's not optional.

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Before You Begin: A Quick Checklist

To make this process seamless, ensure you have the right permissions. You will need:

• Administrator access to your Google Ads account.
• Editor role for the specific Google Analytics 4 property you want to link.

Having these permissions ready will prevent any frustrating access-denied roadblocks.

Linking Your Accounts: The Step-by-Step Guide

Ready? Here’s exactly how to create the link from within your Google Analytics 4 property.

1. Navigate to the Admin section of your GA4 property by clicking the cogwheel icon in the bottom-left corner.
2. In the Property column, scroll down to the "Product Links" section and click on Google Ads Links.
3. Click the blue Link button at the top of the table.
4. Click Choose Google Ads accounts. You will see a list of all Ads accounts that your Google account has access to. Select the correct account(s) by checking the box next to them and click Confirm.
5. Review the settings. This is a critical step. Make sure "Enable Auto-Tagging" is turned ON. Auto-tagging automatically appends a parameter called the "gclid" (Google Click Identifier) to your ad URLs. This is the magic key that allows GA4 to perfectly match an on-site session with the exact ad, campaign, and keyword that generated it. Without auto-tagging, this will not work correctly.
6. Click next, double-check your configurations, and then click Submit.

That's it! Your accounts are now linked. It can take up to 24-48 hours for the Google Ads data to begin populating in your GA4 reports, so don't panic if you don't see it immediately.

Where to Find Your Keyword Data in GA4

Once your accounts are linked and data has had time to flow in, you can start digging for insights. GA4’s interface is different from Universal Analytics, and finding the keyword report isn't immediately obvious. There are two primary ways to get to this data.

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Method 1: Using the Built-in Advertising Reports

This is the quickest way to get a pre-built overview of your campaign performance. The data lives within the "Traffic acquisition" report.

1. On the left-hand navigation menu in GA4, go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
2. This report initially shows you traffic grouped by "Session default channel group" (e.g., Organic Search, Paid Search, Direct). To see keyword-level data, you need to change the primary dimension.
3. Click the dropdown arrow next to "Session default channel group".
4. In the search box that appears, type "keyword" and select Session Google Ads keyword text from the list.

The report will now repopulate to show you a table listing each individual search keyword from your Google Ads campaigns. You can now see metrics like users, sessions, engaged sessions, and most importantly, conversions, all tied to specific keywords.

To go one level deeper, you can add a secondary dimension. Click the small "+" sign next to the primary dimension dropdown and search for "Session Google Ads ad group name" to see which keywords belong to which ad groups.

Method 2: Building a Custom Report in Explorations

If you want more control and flexibility than the standard reports offer, the "Explore" section is your best friend. This lets you build custom reports from scratch, choosing the exact dimensions and metrics you care about.

Here’s how to build a simple keyword performance table:

1. On the left-hand menu, click on Explore and select Free form to start a new exploration.
2. In the "Variables" column on the far left, you'll see sections for Dimensions and Metrics. You need to import the data fields you want to use.
3. Click the "+" next to Dimensions. Search for and check the boxes next to Session Google Ads keyword text and Session Google Ads ad group name. Click Import.
4. Next, click the "+" next to Metrics. Search for and import the metrics you want to analyze, such as Sessions, Engaged sessions, Conversions, and Total users. Click Import.
5. Now it's time to build your report. Under the "Tab Settings" column, drag Session Google Ads keyword text from "Dimensions" into the Rows box.
6. Drag the metrics you imported (Sessions, Conversions, etc.) from the "Metrics" section into the Values box.

Instantly, a fully interactive custom table will appear on the right, showing you a clean report of your keywords and their associated performance metrics. You can save this exploration to revisit anytime without having to rebuild it.

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From Data to Decisions: Analyzing Your Keyword Performance

Finding the report is just the first step. The real value comes from interpreting the data to make smarter marketing decisions. As you look at your new keyword reports, keep an eye out for these common patterns:

• High Sessions, Low Conversions: These keywords are great at driving traffic, but the traffic isn't converting. Is there a mismatch between the ad copy and the landing page? Is the user intent purely informational rather than transactional? This could be an opportunity to optimize your landing page or pause an irrelevant, budget-draining keyword.
• Low Sessions, High Conversions: You've discovered a "money" keyword. These are highly-motivated buyers, but you aren't getting enough of them. Can you increase your bid for this keyword? Can you create a dedicated ad group and new ads targeting variations of this term?
• High Cost, No Conversions: These are the easiest wins. If a keyword is spending a significant portion of your budget and has generated zero conversions over a reasonable period, it's likely safe to pause it and reallocate that budget to a better-performing campaign.
• Comparing Branded vs. Non-Branded Keywords: Use the filter functionality in your report to isolate branded search terms (your company name) versus non-branded terms. This will help you understand how much of your success is driven by existing brand recognition versus how effective you are at capturing new customers.

Final Thoughts

Connecting your Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 accounts is no longer a "nice-to-have" - it's an essential step for any marketer serious about performance. By linking these platforms and learning where to find the keyword reports, you transform raw click data into actionable business intelligence that can improve your ROI and grow your business.

At Graphed, we believe getting these kinds of insights shouldn't require clicking through confusing menus or building reports manually. Manually pulling data from different places, a common scenario for many marketing teams, just takes too long. We built our platform so you can combine data from Google Ads, GA4, Shopify, and all your marketing sources in one place. Instead of building these reports, you can just ask a question like, "Show me my top 10 keywords from Google Ads ranked by Shopify revenue last month," and get an answer instantly. This approach means you can spend your time acting on data, not just looking for it.