How to Give Agency Access to Google Analytics

Hiring a marketing agency is a huge step, and one of their first requests will almost always be for access to your Google Analytics account. Delegating this task correctly is crucial for empowering them to do great work while ensuring your data remains secure. This guide provides a clear, step-by-step walkthrough for giving agency access to both Google Analytics 4 and the older Universal Analytics (UA).

First, Why Does Your Agency Need Google Analytics Access?

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." Handing over access isn't just a formality, it's the foundation of a data-driven marketing partnership. With direct access, your agency can:

• Establish a Baseline: They can't measure growth if they don't know where you're starting from. Access lets them analyze your current website traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates.
• Track Performance Accurately: They can directly see how their campaigns are performing, which landing pages are converting, and what traffic sources are driving the most valuable visitors. This moves reporting from guesswork to concrete facts.
• Identify Growth Opportunities: Your analytics data is full of clues. An agency can spot underperforming pages that need SEO work, identify user drop-off points in your conversion funnel, and discover which content resonates most with your audience.
• Run Smarter Campaigns: By understanding who your best customers are, where they come from, and what they do on your site, agencies can build remarketing lists, create lookalike audiences, and tailor their campaign messaging for much better results.

Understanding User Roles and Permission Levels

Google Analytics doesn't use an "all or nothing" approach. You have granular control over what your agency can and cannot do inside your account. Choosing the right permission level is the most important part of this process.

Permissions can be set at three different levels:

• Account: The highest level. Access here applies to all properties and views within the account.
• Property: The middle level. Access applies just to that specific website or app property and its data streams. This is the most common level to grant access.
• View (Universal Analytics Only): The lowest level. Access is restricted to a specific filtered view of the data.

Within those levels, you assign a role. Here’s a simple breakdown of the main roles your agency might need:

The Main User Roles Explained

• Administrator: This role has full control. They can add and remove other users, change settings, and manage all aspects of the account or property. Only grant this level of access if you have a deep, long-standing relationship of trust with the agency. They need this to do things like link Google Ads or create new GA4 properties.
• Editor: This is the most common and practical role for an agency partner. Editors can see all the data and make changes to settings - like creating goals, setting up events, or defining conversions. They cannot, however, manage user access. For most agencies, this is the perfect balance of capability and security.
• Analyst: An analyst can see and analyze all the data. They can create, edit, and share their own reports and dashboards within the workspace, but they cannot change any administrative settings. It's a "read and analyze" permission.
• Viewer: This is a read-only role. Users with viewer access can see reports and data, but they can't change any settings or create and edit shared assets. If you're particularly cautious, you can start with this level and upgrade it as needed.
• No access: Just what it sounds like. They have no permissions at that level.

How to Give Agency Access in Google Analytics 4

GA4 is Google's current analytics platform, and its interface is where all future work will happen. Luckily, granting access is simple. Follow these steps precisely.

1. Sign In to Google Analytics: Go to the Google Analytics homepage and sign in with the Google account that has administrative access.
2. Navigate to Admin: In the bottom-left corner of your screen, click on the gear icon labeled Admin.
3. Select the Correct Account and Property: The Admin page has two main columns: "Account" and "Property." Ensure you've selected the correct account and the specific GA4 property you want to grant access to.
4. Open Access Management: In the "Account" or "Property" column (whichever level you want to grant access to - Property is most common), click on Access Management.
5. Add a New User: In the top-right corner of the Access Management screen, click the blue "+" button and then select Add users.
6. Enter the Agency's Email Address: In the "Enter email addresses" field, type or paste the Google account email address provided by your agency.
7. Assign the Role: Below the email field, you will see "Predefined roles." Select the appropriate role from the list (usually Editor). You can also choose if you want to notify them by email.
8. Click Add: Review your settings and then click the blue Add button in the top-right corner.

That's it! The agency representative will now have access to your GA4 property with the permissions you've assigned.

How to Give Agency Access in Universal Analytics (UA)

While UA is no longer processing new data, your agency will likely need access to your historical data for year-over-year comparisons and trend analysis. The process is very similar to GA4's.

1. Sign In and Go to Admin: Log in to Google Analytics and click the Admin icon in the bottom-left.
2. Select the Account, Property, and View: Universal Analytics has three columns: "Account," "Property," and "View." Ensure you have the correct ones selected from the dropdowns.
3. Open User Management: You can grant access at either the Account, Property, or View level. For most agency needs, assigning access at the Property level is best. Click User Management in that column.
4. Add a New User: Just like in GA4, click the blue "+" button in the top-right corner, then select Add users.
5. Enter Email and Set Permissions: Enter the agency's email address. Check the box next to the permissions you want to grant. The UA roles are slightly different: "Edit," "Collaborate," "Read & Analyze." The Edit permission is most comparable to GA4's Editor role.
6. Notify the User and Add: Make sure the "Notify new users by email" box is checked. Then, click the blue Add button in the top-right corner.

Best Practices for Agency Access Management

Giving access is easy, but managing it smartly is what protects your business. Here are a few final tips:

• Use a Principle of Least Privilege: If you're unsure, start with a lower access level like "Viewer" or "Analyst." The agency can always request higher permissions later if they need them for a specific task.
• Use Professional Email Addresses: Always add the agency using a corporate email address (e.g., jane_doe@agencyname.com), not a personal Gmail account. This maintains professionalism and security.
• Set Up a Review Cadence: Every 6-12 months, review who has access to your analytics account. Remove any old employees, past partners, or freelancers who no longer work with you.
• Have a Clear Offboarding Process: If you ever part ways with an agency, make removing their GA access a standard step in your offboarding checklist.

Final Thoughts

Granting your agency access to Google Analytics is a foundational step for a successful, transparent, and results-oriented partnership. By following these steps and understanding the different permission levels, you can empower your agency to deliver better results while keeping your valuable business data secure and under your control.

Of course, giving access is just the first step. The real challenge is often the hours your agency (and your own team) then sink into manually navigating reports, exporting CSVs, and wrangling spreadsheets to answer simple questions. At Graphed, we built our tool to solve exactly this problem. We connect directly to your Google Analytics - along with your Shopify, Salesforce, and digital ad accounts - so anyone on your team can get real-time dashboards and data insights instantly just by asking questions in plain English, turning your newly-shared data into better strategy without the busywork.