Google has announced the release of an integration tying Search Ads 360 (SA360) to Google Analytics 4 (GA), moving us one step closer to enterprise feature parity within the new Google Analytics version. With the recent announcement of Universal Analytics deprecation in 2023, having these features in place is a crucial step in platform readiness.
In the two-way integration available for SA360 and GA4, advertisers will continue to enjoy benefits similar to what was available in GA360 with a few new features. Once linked, you should expect to have access to behavioral metrics from GA4 within your Search Ads 360 account, as well as conversions to use for optimization. In Universal Analytics, it was conversion goals and ecommerce transactions (and revenue) that were available in SA360. With the GA4 integration, it is the events you have selected as ‘conversions’ within your GA4 configuration that are available.
As a bonus, advertisers with both web and app data streams in GA4 will have configured conversions from both data stream types available as metrics in SA360. Just remember to use the cross-channel last click attribution model and select the Enable Campaign Attribution setting when enabling the link to export your GA4 conversions to SA360.
Search data from SA360 leverages the auto-tagging feature (gclid parameter), similar to Universal Analytics. Search acquisition data will show up in your acquisitions reporting for dimensions such as source, medium, campaign, and default channel automatically. SA360 data also populates the cross-channel data in the Model Comparison and Conversion Path reporting available in GA4.
Continue to look for new GA4 features and integrations in the near future, and be sure to check out the new Search Ads 360 experience featuring a totally revamped user interface. For now, you can toggle back and forth between the legacy and new user experience, so take the opportunity to explore both.
To learn more about the move to Google Analytics 4, check out our Beginner’s Guide to GA4.
