Google Ads AI Essentials: Google Analytics Best Practices

A guide on using Google Analytics to gain deeper insights across your websites and apps.

Gear icon

About Google Analytics

Using Google AI, Google Analytics surfaces relevant insights, predicts future purchasing behaviors, and solves for unknowns in the consumer journey.

Take these steps to get the most out of Google AI with Google Analytics:

Conversion tracking icon

Share conversions with Google Ads

You can select which key events you want to use as conversions in Google Ads or in the Google Analytics property you intend to link for integrated analysis. When someone exposed to a campaign triggers an event, that event is recorded in Google Analytics. If that same event is marked as a key event, it will be surfaced as an event that is important to your business across reporting surfaces, like Google Analytics Data API and BigQuery export display data. Finally, if that same event is also marked as a conversion, it will be reported in the conversion performance report in the Advertising section. Here’s how to set this up:
- First, you’ll need to link your Google Analytics property to Google Ads.
- Then, enable auto-tagging in your Ads account.
- Finally, label key events as conversions into your Google Ads account by following these steps.

Bar chart

Measure campaign performance

Use Google Analytics conversion data to measure campaign performance and make adjustments as needed.
- For example, you can use Google Analytics’s imported conversions to inform your automated bidding strategies, and use Google AI to drive more of the results you care about.
Build audience lists (including predictive audiences) in Google Analytics to create custom segments and apply them to your Google Ads campaigns.

Mobile phone icon

Evaluate your iOS campaign performance with the SKAdNetwork

Set up your SKAdNetwork conversion value schema to better measure install and post-install events.
- You can use Google Analytics to help register your app with the SKAdNetwork for better cross-network install measurement. Once you have set up your schema, you can integrate it with Google Ads for better event and value-oriented bidding optimization.

Tip

If you have an app and are running App campaigns, Google Analytics can help you measure and optimize your iOS campaigns.

Star icon

Get tips for your vertical

Retail

Build audience lists (including predictive audiences) in Google Analytics to create custom segments and apply them to your Google Ads campaigns.
- Predictive audiences allow you to reach people who are most likely to be interested in your product or service.
- Add ecommerce reporting to get a detailed report on the products or services you sell on your ecommerce store.

General

Select your business objective to get tailored reporting for your company.
Enable benchmarking to see how you rank compared to competitors.

Customer Success story

BAUR logo

German online retailer, BAUR turned to Google Analytics for a recent Google Ads campaign. By using an audience of likely purchasers, their sales increased by 56%. In fact, BAUR calculated that 70% of these customers could only be reached using these predictive audiences in Google Ads.

Video Resources

1.0 Get started using Google Analytics with Skillshop's NEW Analytics Academy course for GA4

Tip

Review all of our AI Essentials.

Want advanced Google Ads tips and updates sent right to your inbox? Sign up for the Best Practices newsletter.

Was this helpful?

How can we improve it?