How to Track AdWords in Google Analytics

Connecting your Google Ads to Google Analytics transforms your reporting from basic numbers into a powerful story about your customer’s journey. By linking these two platforms, you can see exactly what happens after a user clicks your ad - which keywords drive sales, which campaigns attract engaged visitors, and how your ads contribute to your overall marketing goals. This guide provides a straightforward, step-by-step process for linking your accounts and finding valuable insights.

Why Connect Google Ads to Google Analytics?

Before jumping into the setup, it’s worth understanding what you gain from this connection. It’s about more than just having data in a different place, it’s about getting a richer, more complete view of your ad performance.

• See the Full Customer Journey: Google Ads tells you who clicked your ad. Google Analytics tells you what they did next. Did they browse three pages? Did they immediately bounce? Did they add an item to their cart but abandon it? This post-click data is critical for understanding ad quality and optimizing landing pages.
• Understand Cross-Channel Impact: See how your Google Ads campaigns perform in comparison to your other marketing channels, like organic search, email, and social media. This allows you to evaluate your marketing mix and allocate your budget more effectively.
• Import Conversions to Google Ads: You can import your important GA4 events - like purchases, form submissions, or newsletter sign-ups - directly into Google Ads as conversions. This lets you optimize your ad campaigns for actions that have real business value, not just cheap clicks.
• Build Smarter Remarketing Audiences: The data in Google Analytics allows you to create highly specific audiences for remarketing campaigns. For example, you can target users who visited a specific pricing page, spent more than three minutes on your site, but didn’t convert. This level of detail isn’t possible using Google Ads data alone.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Linking Google Ads and GA4

Connecting your accounts is a quick process. Before you start, make sure you have the right permissions: you’ll need an Admin role in your Google Ads account and an Editor role in your Google Analytics 4 property.

Step 1: Go to the Admin Panel in Google Analytics

Log in to your Google Analytics 4 account. In the bottom-left corner of the screen, you'll see a small gear icon labeled "Admin." Click on it to open the administration settings.

Step 2: Navigate to Product Links

You will now see two columns: 'Account' and 'Property'. Look under the 'Property' column for a section called 'Product Links'. Within this section, click on "Google Ads Links."

Step 3: Start 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-right corner.

Step 4: Choose the Correct Google Ads Account

A new window will slide out from the right. Click on "Choose Google Ads accounts." This will show you a list of all the Google Ads accounts that your email has access to. Select the check box next to the account(s) you want to link, then click the blue "Confirm" button. After confirming, click "Next."

Step 5: Configure Your Link Settings

This is the most important step in the process. You'll be presented with a couple of configuration options.

• Enable Personalized Advertising: This setting allows you to use your Google Analytics audiences in your Google Ads campaigns for remarketing. If you plan on running retargeting campaigns (and you probably should), leave this slider turned on. It gives you the power to build more targeted and effective ad campaigns.
• Enable Auto-Tagging: This one is non-negotiable. Leave it enabled. Auto-tagging is what allows Google Analytics to understand where your traffic is coming from. It automatically adds a unique parameter (the gclid, or Google Click Identifier) to the end of your URLs. This parameter passes rich, detailed information from your ads into analytics, including the campaign, ad group, keyword, and more. Without it, your paid traffic would just show up as 'google / organic' and you'd lose all performance data.

Once you've confirmed your settings, click "Next."

Step 6: Review and Submit Your Link

The final screen gives you a chance to review all your settings one last time. Ensure you've selected the correct Google Ads account and that auto-tagging is enabled. If everything looks good, click "Submit" to finish. That's it! Your accounts are now linked. It can take up to 24-48 hours for data to start flowing between the platforms, so check back the next day to see your new reports.

Where to Find Your Google Ads Data in Google Analytics

Now that everything is connected, you can start digging into the data. Here's where to find valuable insights within your GA4 property.

The Acquisition Reports

The most common place to view channel performance is in the Acquisition reports. On the left sidebar, navigate to Reports > Acquisition. You'll see two key reports:

• Traffic acquisition: This report is session-based and shows you how users arrived at your site for each session. It's great for understanding the immediate source of a visit.
• User acquisition: This report is user-based and shows you how a new user first discovered your site. It helps you understand which channels bring new, first-time visitors to your business.

In either report, you will see a table with 'Session default channel group' as the primary dimension. Look for the row named "Paid Search." This line aggregates all of your paid search data, primarily including Google Ads.

To see data only from your Google Ads campaigns, change the primary dimension from 'Session default channel group' to "Session source / medium." Look for the google / cpc row. This line item represents all traffic from your Google Ads clicks.

Drilling Down into Campaign Performance

To get more granular, you can add a secondary dimension to your reports. While viewing the google / cpc data, click the small blue "+" icon next to the primary dimension dropdown.

From here, you can choose from dozens of Google Ads-specific dimensions, including:

• Session Google Ads campaign
• Session Google Ads ad group name
• Session Google Ads keyword text

Adding one of these will allow you to see metrics like sessions, engaged sessions, engagement rate, and conversions for each individual campaign, ad group, or even keyword. This helps you identify what’s truly working. You might discover a campaign that gets lots of clicks but has a very low engagement rate, signaling an issue with your ad copy or landing page.

Common Questions and Troubleshooting

Why doesn't my data match perfectly between Google Ads and Google Analytics?

This is the most common question users have, and it's perfectly normal for your numbers to be slightly different. Here’s why:

• Attribution Models: Google Ads and Google Analytics may use different models to assign credit for a conversion. GA4's default is a data-driven model that looks at all touchpoints, while Google Ads has historically focused more on a last-click model, though it's moving toward data-driven as well.
• Conversion Timing: Google Ads typically reports a conversion on the date of the click, whereas GA4 reports it on the date the conversion actually happened. For a long sales cycle, this can create noticeable discrepancies.
• Tracking Methods: Your Google Ads account might track things that GA4 doesn’t, like phone calls from call extensions.

Don't be alarmed by small differences. The goal isn’t to have identical numbers, but to use both platforms to get directional insights into what’s driving performance.

What if my data isn't showing up at all?

First, give it at least 48 hours after linking. If there’s still nothing, the culprit is almost always auto-tagging. Go to your Google Ads account, navigate to Admin > Account Settings, and ensure the "Auto-tagging" box is checked. If it was off, enable it, and your data should begin to populate for all future clicks.

Final Thoughts

Unlocking the full potential of your ad spend requires looking beyond simple click-through rates. By connecting Google Ads with Google Analytics, you can follow the entire customer journey, optimize your campaigns for real business outcomes, and make smarter, data-driven marketing decisions.

As you connect more platforms, keeping track of everything can get complicated. At Graphed, we simplify this process by bringing all your marketing and sales data - from Ads and Analytics to Shopify or Salesforce - into one place. You can use simple, natural language to ask questions like, "Show me my top-performing ad campaigns by revenue last month," and get back a real-time dashboard instantly. If you want to streamline your analytics and get from data to decision faster, you might enjoy trying out Graphed.