9 Reasons to Link Google Ads to Google Analytics

As I dropped into the armchair, I cracked open the first can of the day. The smell of the barbeque wafted in from the garden, and I watched Mike stroll back from the kitchen with a glass for me.

Suddenly, I sensed there was an ulterior motive in play.

Following his gaze to the laptop on the table, I saw that it was conveniently open on Google Analytics. I looked at him with an elaborate eye-roll.

“Just two minutes”, he pleads.

Having done this dance before, I knew our barbeque plans were going to be postponed for a little more than two minutes. But hey, I didn’t mind…

Mike was struggling on Google Ads, and it didn’t take me long to see why his cash flow was going in a one-way direction.

He didn’t have any Google Ads data showing up in his Google Analytics account.

A quick check on his Ads account showed that there was some action in there – over 20 sales leads in fact, plus some email subscriptions.

So, what was the problem?

Well, it’s a common one – he hadn’t linked his Google Ads account with his Google Analytics account.

Many people make this mistake.

If only they knew what they were missing out on…

9 Benefits of Linking Google Ads and Google Analytics

When you link Google Ads and Google Analytics, the two platforms can exchange valuable data, which allows you to utilize both to their full potential.

Here are nine reasons to hook them up today.

1. Get the Big Picture

By using Google Ads, you will drive more traffic to your website, but unless you’re analyzing that traffic and monitoring your ad results, you won’t learn much. Sticking with this system offers you just a partial view of everything that is going on.

Linking it with Google Analytics enables performance measuring, so you can compare your paid advertising efforts to your other marketing channels.

Moreover, you can learn more about your keywords, user behaviors, and ad performance, which will help you attain a better understanding of your customers.

2. Simple Access to Engagement Metrics and Reports

There is a lot of useful metrics for audience engagement in Google Analytics, such as:

• Bounce Rate
• Average Pageviews
• Average Time On Site

 
Once you link to Analytics, you can access these metrics in your Google Ads user interface. This will keep you in the loop on whether people find your landing pages or ads engaging enough.

Furthermore, you’ll be able to import goals data over to Google Ads, which should give you a clearer overall view of the conversion process.

In addition to that, you can find a sitelinks report in the Google Ads section of Google Analytics, where you can see which links are driving traffic to your site.

3. Unified Platform for Performance Analysis

With linked accounts, you can perform a thorough performance analysis in Google Analytics. Better yet, it will be easy to do, as you don’t need to jump back to Google Ads to gather key data, such as:

• Cost of your Google Ads campaign, ad group, keyword, etc.
• Clicks you’re getting on your ads, keywords, etc.
• Keyword performance

4. Improved Google Ads Reporting

Google Ads can only tell you so much about visitor behavior. If you really want to see what people are doing when they arrive on your site and discover just why they are bouncing away, then you need to hook up Google Analytics.

With this in place, you can directly compare traffic quality, and find out what it stopping people from converting.

To take your reporting a step further, try the Multi-Channel Funnel reports to get a holistic view of the customer journey. This includes insights on:

5. Increased Visual Analysis of Key Data

Visualizations are rising in popularity. They make it much easier to glean key insights from data at a glance. One of the best benefits of Linking Google Ads with Google Analytics is the greater access to visualizations, such as TreeMaps and Sankey.

This allows marketers to explore trends in keywords and user behaviors, and the clear, color-coded diagrams simplify even the most complex data sets.

6. Identify Conversion-Drivers

When you’re tracking several different conversions in Google Ads, it can get a little confusing. Once you have Google Ads linked to your Ads account, it’s much easier to see which keywords and ads are generating your conversions.

While Ads offers reports, Analytics allows you to filter data at various levels, be it by campaign, goal, or keyword.

7. Understand the Customer Journey

It’s easy to get fixated on conversions. However, they are not the be-all and end-all. In opening the doors of your Google Ads campaigns to deeper analysis, you can harness the wealth of data on other important advertising metrics to identify opportunities for optimization. This will help you maximize your return on investment (ROI).

Google Analytics provides valuable insights about the customer journey, focusing on key moments that help you tweak your advertising campaigns to create an enhanced user experience.

8. Target Prospects Who Are Already Interested

You’ve probably seen an ad on a website that is related to another website you had visited a few days previous. This tactic is known as retargeting, and it’s a compelling method of encouraging people to revisit your website.

Marketers who link their Ads and Analytics accounts will be able to pass data on their target audience so that they can generate tailored retargeting ads. This helps you narrow your focus to users who are already interested.

9. Easy Integration With Other Tools and Platforms

Google Analytics has a clear and easy-to-use interface, which works well on desktop and mobile. It is also easily integrated with other Google services, including:

• Google Ads
• Google Search Console
• Multi-channel funnel (MCF)

 
As digital marketing continues to advance, chances are Google will release more integrations to make your data analysis more flexible and far-reaching.

How to Link Your Google Ads and Google Analytics Accounts

So, now that you can see there is plenty to gain from linking Google Ads and Google Analytics, let’s see how it’s done.

1. In Google Analytics, go to the top navigation menu and click Admin.
2. Three columns open. In the middle column, navigate to Product Linking, then click Google Ads Linking.
3. Choose the Google Analytics view you wish to link with, and then click Save.

Your two accounts will be connected almost immediately, putting you on the path to making better advertising and marketing decisions about your business.

Go a Step Further With PPCexpo

Perhaps you want to really mine your data to reveal more about:

• Your market
• Your customer interests and behaviors
• Your Ads account performance

 
And much more…

If so, check out the extensive PPCexpo Reports Library to use our free reporting tools. After all, data is only of use when you know how to get the most from it.

With PPCexpo in your corner, you can turn Google Ads and Google Analytics into a deadly duo.