Import Google Analytics Goal Data into Adwords

Google now allows you to import your Google Analytics goals into your Adwords account.

The benefits you get for your Adwords account include:

  • You can correlate your Google Analytics data (e.g. goals, transactions and pageviews) with your Adwords ad clicks.
  • With both Google Analytics data (goals and transactions) and Adwords Conversion Tracking data available for consideration, Adwords Conversion Optimizer will be able to automate your keyword bidding more accurately.

You will not have to separately tag your Adwords destination URLs, but only have to ensure automatic Adwords URL tagging is enabled. The only prerequisite is that you will have to opt into one of the two data sharing options:

  • Share your Google Analytics data with Google products only (recommended)
  • Share your Google Analytics data anonymously with Google and the benchmarking service

To import your Google Analytics goals into your Adwords account:

  • Link your Google Analytics account to your Adwords account, if you have not yet done so
  • Ensure you have previously set up a goal in one of your Google Analytics profiles
  • Select one of the two data sharing options within your Google Analytics account
  • Click the “Link your Analytics goals and transactions” link in Adwords account

Prior linking to your Adwords account, your Google Analytics account is subject to a limit of up to 5 million pageviews per month. By linking your Google Analytics account to your active Adwords account, the pageview limit will be completely removed.

Note that Google Analytics and Adwords record conversions differently, so you tend to see discrepancies.

  • Clicks vs. Visits: Adwords conversions (1-per-click) are usually lower than Google Analytics conversions per visit
  • Invalid clicks can be filtered out by Adwords but not by Google Analytics
  • Cookie expiration: Adwords cookies are set to expire 30 days after the ad click, while Google Analytics cookies by default are only expires in 6 months
  • Data processing delays between Adwords and Google Analytics that cause mis-matched statistics

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