Ep. 91 - How To Link Google Ads to Google Analytics and Why You Need To: Data Driven Daily Tip 213

You may be frustrated by past Google Adwords Campaigns not working. It could be because you were missing a tiny yet critical element - linking your Google Adwords Campaigns with Google Analytics. Now that Adwords has changed to Google Ads, it's become even more critical that this step get done for any business running Google Ads. When you link the two platforms, you can optimize Google Ads campaigns for conversions, not clicks. This is preferred, because you can define a "conversion" as whatever you want it to be in Google Analytics. It could be an eCommerce transaction, an "add to cart," or a lead generation form submission, email opt-in, or even something like a button click or a specific amount of time on a page (let's say 2x the average, for example). With Ads/Analytics account linking, Google's algorithm will then show your ads to people more likely to not just "click your ad," but go to your website and actually do what you want them to do. Reason #1 to link Google Ads and Google Analytics is to spend your money wisely. Reason #2 to link accounts is so that you can see Bounce Rate, Average Session Duration, % of New Visits, and Pages per Visit from Analytics directly in your Google Ads views. This is helpful when making data driven marketing decisions within Google Ads. Reason #3 to link accounts is to get a full Business Intelligence Dashboard right within Google Analytics. Account linking sends Google Ads data to Google Analytics, so that you can compare your Google Ads campaigns against other marketing efforts like Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, SEO efforts, Email Marketing and more. Additional reasons to link accounts can be found here, and the above video walks you through exactly how to get this done.