How to Link Google Analytics

Connecting your Google Analytics account to your other marketing tools transforms it from a simple website traffic report into the central hub of your digital strategy. This guide will walk you through, step-by-step, how to link Google Analytics 4 with essential platforms like Google Ads, Google Search Console, BigQuery, and more, so you can get a complete picture of your performance.

Why Link Your Google Analytics 4 Account?

While GA4 is powerful on its own, its true value is unlocked when it shares data with other tools in your stack. Linking your accounts allows you to move beyond siloed data and start understanding the full customer journey.

• See the Full Funnel: Connect what happens before someone visits your site (like seeing an ad on Google) with what happens during their visit (pages viewed, events triggered) and after (making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter).
• Get Richer Audience Data: By linking with Google Ads, you can import GA4 audiences for targeted remarketing campaigns and see which ad campaigns are driving the most engaged users, not just clicks.
• Tie SEO to On-Site Behavior: Linking with Search Console lets you see which search queries drive traffic and analyze what those users do once they land on your page. You can finally answer questions like, "Do people searching for 'X' convert better than those searching for 'Y'?"
• Perform Deeper Analysis: Sending your data to a tool like BigQuery opens the door to advanced, unsampled analysis far beyond the standard reports available in the GA4 interface.

The Prerequisites: What You Need First

Before you begin, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches by making sure you have two things in order. Most linking issues come from one of these two requirements not being met.

• 1. The Right Permissions: You need to be an Administrator on the Google Analytics property you want to link. For linking with other Google products, you'll also need administrator-level access on those accounts, too (like Google Ads or Search Console). Editor- or Viewer-level permissions are not sufficient to create or manage these links.
• 2. The Same Google Account: The easiest way to link everything is to ensure the same Google email address has administrator access to all the accounts you intend to connect. If your Google Ads account is under ads@company.com and your GA4 is under analytics@company.com, the process can get complicated. Grant admin access to one user for all platforms to make it a smooth, one-click process.

How to Link Google Analytics 4 with Google Ads

This is arguably the most important connection for any business running paid search campaigns. Linking these two platforms enables you to import GA4 conversion data directly into Google Ads for better bidding and to see detailed website engagement metrics within your ad reports.

Here's how to do it step-by-step:

1. Navigate to the Admin Section: Log in to your Google Analytics account and click the Admin gear icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
2. Find Product Links: In the Property column (the middle one), scroll down until you see the "Product Links" section. Click on Google Ads Links.
3. Create a New Link: On the next screen, click the blue Link button at the top right.
4. Choose Your Ad Account: A new panel will slide out showing all the Google Ads accounts managed by your Google user. Select the checkbox next to the account(s) you want to link to this GA4 property, then click Confirm.
5. Configure Your Settings: This next step is crucial.
6. Review and Submit: Click Next, review your choices on the final screen, and click Submit. Your link is now created!

It can take up to 24-48 hours for data to start flowing between the two platforms. Once linked, you can begin importing GA4 conversions into Google Ads and see your GA4 engagement metrics populate in new columns inside your Google Ads reports.

How to Link Google Analytics 4 with Google Search Console

Connecting GA4 to Search Console helps you bridge the gap between your SEO efforts and your website's performance. You'll gain access to new reports showing which search queries are driving traffic and how those users engage differently.

1. Go to Admin in GA4: Just like with Google Ads, start by clicking the Admin gear icon.
2. Select Search Console Links: In the Property column, scroll down to "Product Links" and click on Search Console Links.
3. Create the Link: Click the blue Link button. A new screen will appear where you can select a Search Console property to associate with your GA4 property.
4. Choose the Search Console Property: Click Choose accounts. You will see a list of Search Console properties that you manage with the same Google account. Find and select the correct one, then click Confirm.
5. Select Your Web Stream: On the next step, you need to tell GA4 which of your data streams this link applies to. Since Search Console tracks organic web traffic, you'll choose your web stream. Click Select, find your website's stream, and click Next.
6. Submit to Finalize: Review your configuration and click Submit to create the connection.

After a day or two, you will see a new "Search Console" card appear in your GA4 Reports > Acquisition > Overview report. You will also see two new dedicated reports under Acquisition: Queries and Google Organic Search Traffic.

How to Link Google Analytics 4 with BigQuery

For more advanced users, connecting GA4 to BigQuery is a game-changer. It allows you to export your raw, event-level Google Analytics data to a cloud data warehouse for deeper SQL-based analysis without any of the data sampling limitations found in the standard GA4 reports.

1. Back to Admin: Again, journey over to the Admin section of GA4.
2. Find the BigQuery Link: In the Property column under "Product Links," select BigQuery Links.
3. Start Linking: Click the blue Link button.
4. Choose a BigQuery Project: Click Choose a BigQuery project to link. A new window will show you all the Google Cloud projects associated with your account. Select the project you want your GA4 data sent to and click Confirm.
5. Configure Data Settings: You'll now need to configure how and what data is exported.
6. Select Data Streams: Choose which web or app data streams you want to export. You can also configure a list of event names to exclude from the export if there's high-volume data you don't need in BigQuery.
7. Submit the Connection: Review the settings and click Submit. Your connection is now set up and the first daily export will typically occur within 24 hours.

Connecting Hubspot, Shopify, and Other Platforms

Beyond Google's own ecosystem, you'll often want to connect third-party platforms. The process here is a little different, as the "linking" is usually initiated from the other platform's settings, not from inside GA4.

Example: Shopify

Shopify has a native integration with Google Analytics. You don't create a "Product Link," but rather enable it from your Shopify admin:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.
2. In the "Google Analytics" section, click Manage pixel here. This will take you to your "Google & YouTube" app sales channel.
3. Click the Connect button next to your Google account and follow the prompts to authorize access and select the correct GA4 Measurement ID for Shopify to send data to.

Example: HubSpot

The process is similar for CRMs like HubSpot. You typically add a tracking code or your GA4 Measurement ID in your HubSpot portal's settings:

1. In HubSpot, navigate to Settings > Website > Pages.
2. Select the domain you want to track and scroll to the "Integrations" tab.
3. Check the box to 'Integrate with Google Analytics 4', then paste your GA4 Measurement ID into the field.

For most third-party SaaS tools, you should look for their own help documentation or integration settings. The key piece of information you'll always need from GA4 is your Measurement ID, which you can find under Admin > Data Streams > [Your Web Stream].

Final Thoughts

Connecting your Google Analytics account to other tools is the first — and most critical — step in building a comprehensive view of your marketing performance. These links turn isolated metrics into a connected story, showing you how efforts in one area, like paid ads or SEO, directly influence user behavior and conversions on your website.

Once everything is connected, though, the real work of analysis begins. Instead of spending hours jumping between platforms and manually building spreadsheets to connect the dots, we built Graphed to simplify this entire process. We allow you to connect all your data sources — like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Shopify, and Salesforce — in one place and create dashboards just by describing what you want in plain English. For us, having connected data is great, but getting fast, actionable answers from it without the "report building" agony is the real goal.