If you’re using AdWords, you really need to link it to your Analytics, otherwise you can’t really track your paid visitors properly. AdWords conversion tracking is good, but it only takes you so far. If you want to know how your paid visitors are behaving once they click on your ads and get to your site, you need Analytics.
Linking your AdWords and Analytics is relatively straightforward, if you have the same login for both. But what if you don’t?
If you don’t have the same login for your AdWords and Analytics, and many people don’t – don’t worry. Linking them is possible. However, you do need to make sure that both logins are linked to Google accounts.
To link your AdWords and your Analytics from different accounts, first log into your Analytics. You need to make the email address you use for your AdWords an administrator on BOTH accounts.
To do this, click on the admin tab at the top right of the page immediately after login. Then click on the Analytics profile you wish to link to your AdWords.
Click on “Users” and “+ New User”. Enter your AdWords login email address, and make sure you click the radio button next to “Administrator”.
Click “Create User”, and you’re done. Log out of Analytics.
Next, log into your AdWords account using your regular login email. Click on the “Tools and Analysis” tab, then “Google Analytics”.
Once again, click on the “Admin” tab at the top right. You’ll see a table. Click on the Analytics account you wish to link to your AdWords, the one you just added your AdWords email as an admin to…
…then go to the “Data Sources” tab. Make sure the AdWords (not AdSense) tab is selected, and click “Link Accounts”.
Decide which tagging option you’re using for URLs – this will most likely be autotagging – and click “continue”.
Voilà! You’re linked! You should now see something that looks like this:
And you should now start seeing data for your AdWords campaigns in Analytics. You can then use this data to find out how your paid search visitors behave on your site, which could help you make important decisions with regard to landing pages, ad copy and keywords.
Further reading:
Team Hallam Top Tips: Google Analytics
How to Set Up a Non-Branded Traffic Report in Google Analytics
