SEM - Google Analytics 4 - Ads Linking

Owned by Gabriel Reyes
Last updated: Oct 30, 2024 by Grant Gooch
4 min read

This SOP is a work in progress. If you notice anything that is out of date, could be more clear or could be more efficient please update the SOP or add a comment to start a conversation.

Purpose

SOP was created for giving clear instructions on linking GA4 properties to Google Ads campaigns.

Procedure

Inputs:

Digital marketing fulfillment should only use this account to do new Search Console and Ads connections to GA4. Do not edit any settings in GA4 properties.

  • Access the new GA4 editor profile with the credentials provided in PasswordState.

If you do not have this profile ask your lead for credentials/access.

  • Go to the bottom-left corner of the Analytics page and click on Admin.

  • And as in GA3, use the two columns to search for the property you’ll be configuring. In the first column search for the account where the property is (in this example I’ll be using a Dealer Spike client but this process should remain the same for every BU).

  • Navigate to the bottom of the second column ‘Property’, there you’ll find various products to link to the property. Click on Google Ads Links.

  • Now this will take you to the current Google Ads campaigns currently connected, if this is the first one the table of links will be empty.

  • Click on the blue Link button in the top right to start this process. Immediately after you’ll be asked to choose a Google Ads account, click on the “Choose Google Ads accounts” link.

  • In this next step use the search bar at the top to look for the name of the account you will connect. Mark the check box in the left for the correct one and then click on Confirm in the top right.

  • After confirming your selection click on Next.

  • This will take you to the settings, do not change anything here and just click on Next again.

  • And finally, click on Submit to create the link.

  • As a result, you should get a green “Link Created” text.

When searching for a Google Ads account from other BU’s some campaigns might hide under some folders.

  • Once you created the link between GA4 and Ads you can start importing conversions on Ads. Log in to Google Ads and use the search function in the top left to look for the campaign you will import conversions to.

  • Under the Tool and Settings>Measurement options in the top-left click on Conversions.

  • This will take you to the summary of current conversions for this campaign, click on the blue +New conversion action button to add the conversions from your GA4 property.

  • Select the Import option. Then select the Google Analytics 4 properties source and inside it click on the web option. Click on continue.

  • And as the final step, Google Ads will show you the 3 conversions setup for the GA4 property, enable all of them and click on Import and continue.

  • The final message confirming the import should look something like this:

Outputs:

  • Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 properties connected with new conversions are ready for tracking.

FAQs

Answer…