When it comes to analysing customer activity on your website, you can import your Google Analytics conversions into Google Ads and use Google Ads conversion tracking to measure the conversions. You can use any combination of these two at the same time. Expand the section below for a quick comparison.
Compare Google Analytics conversions and Google Ads conversion trackingGoogle Analytics 4 properties conversion tracking
- Ideal if you're interested in measurement and conversions across your app or website. Learn more about Google Analytics 4 properties.
- Can include conversions from non-Google Ads sources, so it's recommended for tracking all customer traffic on your website.
Google Ads conversion tracking
- Ideal if you're interested only in conversions.
- Measure conversions only from Google Ads sources.
Benefits
Importing your Google Analytics conversions into Google Ads offers a few benefits:
- Access your Google Analytics conversions and data related to your Google Ads clicks.
- See Google Analytics conversion data in Google Ads.
- Give Smart Bidding access to data that helps optimise bids, potentially increasing conversions and lowering costs.
Before you begin
To start importing data, you'll need to link your Google Ads account to a Google Analytics account and turn on auto-tagging in your Google Ads account.
Instructions
- From your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon
.
- Click the Conversions drop-down in the section menu, then click Summary.
- Select + New conversion action.
- Select Import and then click Google Analytics (UA) (for Universal Analytics properties) or Google Analytics (GA4) (for Google Analytics 4 properties).
- Click Continue.
- On the next page, select the features that you’d like to import, then click Import and continue.
- Click Done.
.Google Ads will begin importing the data from your Analytics property. Historical data from before the import won't be included.
Bear in mind
It can take up to 24 hours before conversion data is available in Google Ads. When it is available, your imported conversions data will appear alongside your existing conversion data on the Conversions page, and you'll be able to customise columns on the Campaigns tab to include this data. Reports based on your imported conversions data may include modelled conversions as estimates in cases where Google can’t observe all conversions.
After Analytics data (for example, goals) has been imported to Google Ads, it is subject to the Google Ads terms of service.
Edit conversion settings for imported conversions
After you've imported your Analytics conversions, you can edit them in the same way that you edit conversion actions created in Google Ads.
- From your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon
- Click the Conversions drop-down in the section menu, then click Summary.
- Click the name of the imported conversion that you want to edit.
- In the bottom right corner, click Edit Settings.
- Make any changes and click the Save button.
Data discrepancies
You might see discrepancies in the conversion statistics between Google Analytics and Google Ads conversion tracking.
Learn how to fix your conversion discrepancies. If you've double-checked that your setup is correct, here are some possible reasons for why you might see this:
Date of transactionGoogle Ads reports conversions from the date and time of the click that led to the successful action, not from the date of the successful action itself.
For example, let's say that someone saw your ad and clicked on it on 19 July but didn't make a purchase on your website until the next day. In Google Ads, the conversion would be attributed to 19 July, the day of the click. In Google Analytics, however, the conversion is attributed to 20 July, the day that the conversion actually happened.
In Google Ads, you can choose to count either all or unique conversions by setting the counting method for each conversion action, including Analytics goals and transactions imported into Google Ads. The 'Conversions' column in Google Ads will display conversions that happened within your chosen conversion window, according to your selected counting method.
Example
In your GA4 property, you've defined a goal for filling in a lead form. Someone fills in two lead forms (in different sessions) after an ad click, and Analytics shows them as two goal completions. You import this goal in Google Ads and set your counting method to 'Unique', so you only see one conversion.
Need help?
Having trouble?
If you need more help with Google Analytics in Google Ads, contact us.
