Powerful pair: Google Analytics and Google Ads
Google AdWords and Google Analytics can be two very powerful tools for your online marketing efforts.
Each has a robust amount of information available and allows you to really get your hands dirty in data.
On top of that, they’re also made by the same company, which means they can communicate with each other pretty darn well.
In fact, we’re able to tie these two accounts together to maximize a return on our data.
How to Link Google AdWords and Google Analytics
Linking your AdWords and Google Analytics accounts is a pretty painless process. You can initiate the linking process either from the Google Analytics or Ads side.
I personally find it easiest to do this from the Google Analytics side, but it’s important to remember that you’ll need to have Edit access for the Google Analytics account with the same email you use for Google AdWords login.
Benefits of Linking AdWords and Analytics
Improved AdWords Reporting in Google Analytics
With the two platforms tied together, they’re able to communicate much more efficiently and provide more granular data in our reporting.
Google Analytics has an entire section within the Acquisition reports dedicated solely to AdWords performance which you cannot get unless you’ve linked your AdWords and Analytics accounts and are utilizing auto-tagging in AdWords.
Include Some Analytics Data in the AdWords Interface
In the same vein as seeing AdWords data in Analytics, linking accounts also lets us see some Analytics data in AdWords.
Once you’ve linked accounts, there will be a new set of columns available in the AdWords interface. On the Campaigns, Ad Groups, Ads, or Keywords tab, you can modify your columns to include the following Analytics metrics:
- Bounce Rate
- Pages / Session
- Avg Session Duration (seconds)
- % New Sessions
Importing Goals from Analytics to AdWords
In addition to getting engagement data from Analytics to AdWords, you can now import Analytics goals into AdWords as your conversion tracking.
This can be used as a replacement for AdWords Conversion Tracking or as a compliment to it depending on the goals you’re trying to track.
With Google Analytics goals, you’ll be able to import your performance directly into the AdWords interface with an average of a 3-hour delay in stats.
So real-time, same day data might not be great to optimize on, but the performance from the day prior will be just fine.
Short conclusion
Today’s customer journey doesn’t follow a standard path—it’s diverse, non-linear, and always evolving.
Consumers conduct research about products across a variety of devices—and marketers are looking for ways to deliver experiences that meet consumers’ rising expectations.
For many marketers, the solution lies in gaining a deeper understanding of the customer journey. The integration between Google Analytics and Google Ads helps you accomplish this.