If you are already using Google Analytics and Google Ads but haven’t linked them yet, then you are missing out on a tremendous amount of valuable information. While both Google tools have their individual strengths – it is only once you have linked both of them together, that you can see their real power.
The two platforms have similar information to the types of reporting data that can be found in Google Ads. However, when you combine and link your Google Ads data with all the data available in Analytics you are able to find deeper insights and potentially make better decisions when it comes to your PPC marketing. Linking Google Ads and Analytics can provide benefits within both channels.
Benefits of Linking Google Ads with Google Analytics
- View User Acquisition-Behavior-Conversion: How you acquire users, their behavior on your site, and conversion patterns.
- Determine Google Ads performance compared with other marketing channels and how those Ads contribute to revenue.
- Determine if Google Ads led to a sale or conversion.
- Receive more granular data in your reporting.
- Valuable insights and metrics from both Google Ads and Analytics.
To make the most of your Ad campaigns, you need to be able to track your campaigns in terms of cost vs. conversions. Google Ads tracking shows you where the best traffic is coming from, and who is most likely to be a customer.
Greater Insights Into User Aquisition and Behavior
Linking these two platforms will provide improved reporting and make it much easier to retarget ads to users that have abandoned their carts after showing intent to purchase a particular product or service. It will also give answers to questions like, “What happens on your website when someone clicks on your ad?”
Acquisition: This section gives you data related to your Google Ads account. It allows you to view how many clicks each ad campaign has, the cost of each ad, and the cost per click for each keyword.
Behavior: This section shows you the bounce rate for each ad campaign and the number of pages (sessions) that users viewed before leaving your website. This data tells you how well your keywords and overall campaigns are working. As well as the number of pages your site visitors view. It can also provide insight into if visitors are engaged with your content or not. The more pages viewed, the more engaged your visitors are.
Retargeting: A major benefit of linking Analytics with Ads is retargeting. Retargeting is the practice of targeting those who have already shown an interest in your products or services or have visited your website. By showing ads to users who have previously visited your website, they’re more likely to click on your ads, making the entire campaign cost-effective.
Retargeting can be extremely helpful, especially for an e-commerce site. Google allows you to retarget based on checkout steps in e-commerce. The most effective way to grab these customers is to target them based on where they left off. With the right analytics, you can set up retargeting campaigns based on checkout behavior.
How to Link Google Ads with Google Analytics
Linking Google Ads and Analytics provides benefits within both channels and doesn’t take very long to set up. Unfortunately, a full connection doesn’t happen automatically. Even though they are both Google products – you still need to do some work on your end to connect the two platforms. You cannot obtain Google Ads performance metrics in your analytics unless you have manually linked your Google Ads and Analytics accounts.
The good news is that Google makes it pretty easy with this linking wizard.
Connect Google Ads with Analytics and See how Effective your Advertising Efforts Are!
After you link your google ads to your analytics you will be able to use your analytics to evaluate the performance of your Ad campaigns. This will give you insight into which Google ad campaigns are working and which ones you can omit. There are endless amounts of data you can view to help optimize your Google Ads by using the insights from Google Analytics!
Now that you know how and why to link your Google Analytics with your Google Ads, you can start to maximize your advertising efforts. So what are you waiting for? Get those accounts linked and start sharing your ads and analytics data today. And if you need some extra help, Idea Marketing Group is here for you!