As a standalone platform, GA4 is a robust data analysis and measurement tool. But what makes it even more powerful is its ability to integrate and connect to your business tools and technology stack.
In this chapter, we will take a look at some of these tools, the benefits of their integration with GA4, and the steps required to link the products together.
GOOGLE MARKETING PLATFORM: SEARCH ADS 360
ABOUT SEARCH ADS 360
Search Ads 360 is Google’s paid search optimization tool for businesses to manage, automate and optimize their search engine marketing campaigns in real-time and at scale. With this enterprise level marketing product, marketers can fully attribute conversions and remarket to audiences across paid media channels, measure all consumer touchpoints with a single tracking tag, and view all search performance and conversion data in a single interface.
INTEGRATION BENEFITS
This newly free-to-all integration of SA360 and GA4 enables you to analyze and measure your SA360 campaign performance in GA4, as well as export valuable GA4 data to be used for targeting and bidding in SA360.
Audience Exports
One of the most valuable integration benefits on SA360 and GA4 is audience export. Once an audience is created in GA4, it is automatically exported to SA360. You can create audience lists within a GA4 property, and share them with an SA360 account for audience targeting. This allows you to leverage Analytics data to create unique audience list types, and then target users in SA360.
You can even import predictive audiences into SA360, which is a GA4 audience that includes at least one condition based on a predictive metric. For example, you could export an audience to SA360 comprised of users who are likely to make a purchase within the next seven days.
Advanced Reporting
The SA360 campaigns report in GA4 unites key performance metrics like clicks, users, sessions, and conversions with SA360 specific dimensions like campaign, ad group, creative type, and engine account. This allows for measuring how cross-search-engine campaigns drive site traffic, and ultimately you can compare performance and optimize with visibility across all media channels tracked in Google Analytics 4 Properties.
Conversion Export
In GA4, you can export conversion to SA360, enabling you to take action for use in bid strategies and reporting. The data share provides more insight into cross-platform conversions, making it more valuable as the basis for bidding strategies.
- Audience export only available in the new SA360 experience.
- Audiences that contain demographics or interests data will not be exported.
- If you have not upgraded to the new Search Ads 360, you must create a link from Analytics to Search Ads 360 and create a link from your Search Ads 360 Advertiser to your Analytics property in order to export conversions.
INTEGRATION PERMISSIONS REQUIRED
“Edit” permissions in a GA4 property and “Admin” permissions in an SA360 advertiser.
INTEGRATION STEPS:
Link from Search Ads 360
In the new Search Ads 360:
- Navigate to Tools and settings > Setup > Linked accounts.
- Under Google Analytics (GA4) & Firebase, click Details.
- Click New link.
- Click Choose property and select the properties you want to link.
- Click Apply.
- Click Next and configure your settings.
- Click Review and submit your link request.
In the existing Search Ads 360:
- Navigate to an advertiser.
- In the left menu navigate to Advertiser Settings > Integrations > GA 4 Integration.
- Click the switch On, and choose a Google Analytics 4 property.
- Click Save.
GOOGLE MARKETING PLATFORM: DISPLAY AND VIDEO 360
ABOUT DISPLAY AND VIDEO 360
The integration between Google Analytics 4 and DV360 enables you to take action in DV360 utilizing the valuable data available in GA4. For the first time ever,
INTEGRATION BENEFITS
Now available for free!
Previously available only to 360 users, the DV360 integration is open to both Standard and Enterprise Google Analytics customers.
Audiences
Audiences created in GA4 can be exported to DV360 for advanced targeting and remarketing. In DV360, these audiences will be available as seed audiences through the DV360 Audience Profile tool and will be available for combination with other DV360 audiences via the “Combined audience” tool.
Bidding
The DV360 / GA4 integration allows for the export of GA4 last-click attributed conversions to DV360. You can use those conversions for custom bidding in DV360.
- Out-of-the-box DV360 specific reporting is not yet available in GA4.
- Conversion export is only for use in custom bidding at this time.
- Audiences created in GA4 will be automatically exported to DV360 as long as personalized advertising and Google Signals are enabled.
INTEGRATION PERMISSIONS REQUIRED
“Editor” permission in a GA4 property and “Admin” permission in an DV360 advertiser
INTEGRATION STEPS
To link from DV360
- Choose an advertiser
- In the left navigation, select Advertiser settings > Linked Accounts.
- Click Manage & link for the Google Analytics product.
- Click New link.
- Click Choose Property and select the Google Analytics 4 property.
- Click Link to finalize the request.
GOOGLE AD MANAGER
ABOUT AD MANAGER
Ad Manager is a powerful ad management platform built for large publishers who have significant direct sales. Ad Manager provides granular controls and supports multiple ad exchanges and networks, including AdSense, Ad Exchange, third-party networks, and third-party exchanges.
INTEGRATION BENEFITS
Like many other platforms in this chapter, Ad Manager integration is now available in the free version of Google Analytics. The Ad Manager integration in GA4 is also inclusive of both app and web data, allowing publishers the opportunity to assess cross channel performance.
Once your Ad Manager and Analytics accounts are linked, Ad Manager metrics such as impressions, clicks and revenue will be available in Analytics. Combining revenue data with behavioral information and traffic source data offers deeper insights for publishers on how to further optimize review streams.
AD MANAGER METRICS AND DIMENSIONS AVAILABLE IN ANALYTICS:
Dimensions
- Ad format
- Ad source
- Ad unit
- Page path + query string and screen class
Metrics
- Ad unit exposure
- Publisher ad clicks
- Publisher ad impressions
- Total ad revenue
INTEGRATION PERMISSIONS REQUIRED
“Editor” permissions in a GA4 and “Administrator” permissions in Ad Manager.
INTEGRATION STEPS
1. Enable GA4 reporting in Google Ad Manager
- In Ad Manager, click Admin.
- Then select Global settings, then Network settings. In the “Report settings” section, enable Google Analytics 4 property Reports in Ad Manager reporting.
- Review the terms and conditions and click
- Confirm.
Click Save.
2. Link your Ad Manager network to a GA4 property
- Sign in to Google Ad Manager.
- Click Admin and then linked accounts and then Google Analytics 4.
- Click New Google Analytics 4 property link.
- Use the search bar to find the GA4 property you want to link to your Ad Manager network.
- Click Save.
You can now run an Ad Manager Analytics report to view data for the GA4 property you linked. Learn more about this integration.
SEARCH CONSOLE
ABOUT SEARCH CONSOLE
Search Console is a platform that helps you monitor, measure, and troubleshoot your site’s performance in Google Search results. You can verify that your site is being crawled, identify and fix indexing issues, and view traffic data for your site, including search queries and traffic volume.
INTEGRATION BENEFITS
When linked to GA4, Search Console data can be combined with Google Analytics data to amplify your reporting. Once they’re integrated, you’ll have access to two new reports:
- Google Organic Search Queries: Displays search queries and associated Search Console metrics for the linked Search Console property.
- Google Organic Search Traffic: Displays landing pages with associated Search Console and Analytics metrics. You can drill into the data by the Country and Device dimensions.
These reports are accessible in Reports > Acquisition > Acquisition overview. Or, you can add the Search Console collection of reports to the left sidebar for easier access by publishing the collection from the Library. These reports are Unpublished by default.
INTEGRATION PERMISSIONS REQUIRED
To link Search Console to GA4, you must be a verified owner of the Search Console property and an Editor in GA4.
- You can drill deeper into the data by Search Console dimensions, but you are not able to break down by Analytics dimensions except for Landing page, Device & Country.
- You can only connect one Search Console property with one GA4 web stream.
- Time-series charts are not available for Search Console Data.
- Data will take 24 hours to appear after linking
INTEGRATION STEPS
- Under Admin, select the appropriate property.
In the Property column, click Search Console Links under Product Links. - Click Link
- Click Choose accounts and select the account you want to link to your property.
- Click Confirm.
- Click Next.
- Click the web data stream.
- Click Next, review your selections, and click Submit.
You can verify that the platforms are successfully linked when you see LINK CREATED in green text. Learn more about this integration.
GOOGLE ADS
ABOUT GOOGLE ADS
Through Google Ads, you can create online ads to reach people exactly when they’re interested in the products and services that you offer. You choose where your ad appears, set a budget that’s comfortable for you, and easily measure the impact of your ad.
- You can link Google Analytics 4 properties to individual Google Ads accounts and to Google Ads manager accounts.
- There is a maximum of 400 links per property
INTEGRATION BENEFITS
When you link Google Analytics 4 to Google Ads, you automatically start seeing Google Ads data in Google Analytics 4. This link also makes data from your linked Google Analytics 4 property available to use in Google Ads. Once linked, you can then use Google Analytics 4 audiences and conversion-event data (app and web) for bid optimization.
When you link your Google Analytics 4 property to your Google Ads account, you can:
- See your Google Ads campaigns in the Acquisition overview report
- Access new Google Ads dimensions in the User acquisition report
- Import Analytics conversions into your Google Ads account
- Enhance your Google Ads remarketing with Analytics audience data
- See your Google Ads campaigns in the Advertising workspace, including the Attribution reports
INTEGRATION PERMISSIONS REQUIRED
“Editor” permission in a GA4 property and “Admin” permission in Google Ads
INTEGRATION STEPS
- In Analytics, click Admin.
- In the Property column, use the menu to select the property you want to link.
- Under PRODUCT LINKS, click Google Ads Links.
- Click Link.
- Click Choose Google Ads accounts, then select the Google Ads accounts you want to link.
- Click Confirm.
- Click Next.
- Expand the Enable Auto-Tagging option to enable auto-tagging
- Click Next, then review your settings.
- Click Submit to link your accounts with the current settings.
FIREBASE
ABOUT FIREBASE
Firebase is a backed as a service (BaaS) platform that helps developers build and run successful apps. It provides developers with a variety of tools and services, including authentication, real-time databases, cloud storage, hosting, and messaging. Firebase allows developers to build, run, and manage their applications on a cloud-based infrastructure without having to manage the underlying infrastructure themselves.
INTEGRATION BENEFITS
Developing a successful app isn’t easy. To reach a broad audience you’ll need to consider your iOS, Android, and mobile web users, and to build for these platforms, you’ll need a backend server to store data and support the apps.
Of course, you want to get your users logged in. Hopefully lots of users, which means your backend will have to scale. Then after you’ve solved your scaling problems, you have to find more ways to spread the word to get new users, AND must find a way to measure all this activity.
Firebase aims to make this whole process easier. It has all the tools you need to build a successful app. It helps you reach new users, keep them engaged, and scale up to meet that demand in addition to getting paid.
Firebase can handle the details of your apps’ backend infrastructure, user engagement, and monetization while you spend more time building the apps your user’s will love.
To manage and monitor your apps connected to Firebase, there’s a web console to view crashes, set up experiments, track analytics and more.
INTEGRATION STEPS
Currently, you can only link a Firebase project with Google Analytics 4, and not the other way around, so you’ll need to start by creating the Firebase project. Then, open your Firebase Project, click the settings gear icon at the top of the left navigation panel, then click Project Settings > Integrations > Google Analytics, and click Manage. The Google Analytics account and property currently linked will be shown here.
- In Firebase, select your project.
- Click the settings gear icon at the top of the left navigation panel, then click Project Settings > Integrations.
- On the Google Analytics card, click Link.
- Select an Analytics Account to link
- Select an existing Google Analytics 4 property in that account or to create a new property.
- Configure your Analytics settings.
BIGQUERY
ABOUT BIGQUERY
BigQuery is a cloud data warehouse that enables users to run complex queries on large datasets. It is fully managed by Google, and surprisingly inexpensive (with a very generous free tier). When you link a Google Analytics 4 property to BigQuery you will receive your raw GA4 data in a table that can be queried with SQL in the Google Cloud console.
INTEGRATION BENEFITS
Data Integration
GA4 data can be easily exported to BigQuery, enabling you to integrate data from different sources and gain deeper insights.
Custom Analysis
By linking BigQuery with GA4, you can run custom queries to generate custom reports, build custom dashboards and perform advanced analysis.
Data Retention
Data in BigQuery can be retained for much longer periods than in GA4, allowing you to conduct historical analysis and compare results over time.
Machine Learning
BigQuery provides an excellent platform for building machine learning models, enabling you to perform predictive analysis and generate insights from large datasets.
Keep in mind that there are some limitations when exporting GA4 data to BigQuery:
- Limit is 1 million events per day for free GA4 properties.
- Seven day grace period if you go above that limit.
- You can either upgrade to GA4 360 or exclude some events from the export.
- Only 1P data for now. No Google Ads related data. Schema.
- Future backfill feature for GA4 360 will allow you to be able to retrieve the last 14 months of data.
INTEGRATION STEPS
In order to export GA4 data to BigQuery, you must already have created a BigQuery Sandbox or have an enterprise Google Cloud account. Click this link to learn more about the BigQuery Sandbox and how to get started.
Once you have your first BigQuery enabled project created in Google Cloud, follow the instructions below to export GA4 data to BigQuery:
- In Google Analytics, navigate to the specific account and property you wish to link to BigQuery.
- Under properties, click BigQuery Links which is located under the Product Links header
- Click the blue Link button at the top right of the table.
- Click Choose a BigQuery project next to Link to a BigQuery project I manage, select the checkbox next to the correct project, and click Confirm in the top right corner.
- Ensure the correct data location is selected from the drop-down and click Next.
- Configure data streams and events to select which data streams to include with the export and specific events to exclude from the export, and click Done.
- Select the frequency of the export and click Next.
- Review your selections and click Submit.
It is important to note that you must add the newly created service account as a BigQuery User in the project you’ve linked in BigQuery. That service account is: firebase-measurement@system.gserviceaccount.com
