[GA4] Import conversions into Google Ads

Once you've set up conversions in Google Analytics, you can import the conversions into Google Ads and use them for reporting and bidding.

Google Ads Linking in Google Analytics

Your Google Analytics 4 property may be set to measure Google Paid Channels or Paid and Organic Channels for web conversions shared with Google Ads. 

• Google Paid Channels (formerly known as Ads-preferred): Only Google Ads paid channels are eligible to receive conversion credit.
• Paid and Organic Channels (formerly known as Cross-channel): Paid and organic channels are eligible to receive conversion credit, but only credit assigned to Google Ads channels will appear in your Ads accounts.

You will see which channels are eligible for credit for each conversion in the conversions summary, conversions detail, and campaigns tabs in Google Ads, and in Attribution Settings in Google Analytics. To edit this setting, you will need to do so in the Admin > Attribution Settings page under Data display in Google Analytics, and the change will apply to conversions moving forward. As of June 2023, the default setting for properties creating a link for the first time will be Google Paid Channels.

Learn more about channels eligible to receive conversion credit for conversions shared with Google Ads.

Benefits

Importing your conversions to Google Ads offers a few benefits:

• Access your Analytics conversions and data related to your Google Ads clicks
• See Analytics conversion data in Google Ads
• Give Google Ads Smart Bidding access to data that helps optimize bids

Before you begin

To import your Analytics conversions into Google Ads, you must:

• Link Analytics and Google Ads
• Enable auto-tagging in your Google Ads account

Note: If you use a Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 property on the same website, avoid duplicate conversions by either removing your existing UA conversions or marking them as "secondary" conversions in Google Ads before importing GA4 conversions. Learn how to migrate UA goals

Import conversions

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. In the top right, click Tools and Settings .
3. Go to Measurement > Conversions.
4. In the top left, click + New conversion action.
5. Click Import, select Google Analytics 4 properties, then click Continue.
6. Select each conversion event you want to import, then click Import and continue.
7. Click Done.

Migrate conversions to Google Analytics 4

As of October 3, 2022, if you recently imported Google Analytics 4 conversion actions, and Google Ads detects that you already have a Universal Analytics conversion action in your account, the GA4 conversion actions will be set as "secondary" conversion actions by default.

Google Analytics 4 conversion actions are set to "secondary" conversion actions to prevent counting the same event twice for bidding. You must set the Google Analytics 4 conversion action as your "primary" source before Universal Analytics goes away. However, you can decide yourself when you move away from Universal Analytics goals or ecommerce transactions.

Set as "primary" conversions in Google Ads

To start bidding on your GA4 conversions, you need to change them to "primary" as follows:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
2. In the top right of Google Ads, click Tools and Settings .
3. Go to Measurement > Conversions.
4. Find the goal that includes the conversion action you'd like to edit.
5. Click Edit goal.
6. Next to the conversion action that you'd like to update, click the drop-down.
7. Select Primary action.
8. Click Save changes.

Results

If there are no "primary" Universal Analytics conversions already in your account, then the default setting for your imported Google Analytics 4 conversions is "primary", and you don't need to take further action to start bidding.

Google Ads imports the data from Analytics starting from the day you click Import. Historical data from before this date is not added in Google Ads.

Google Ads uses your chosen conversion window(s) (7-90 days, default: 30 days) to determine which conversion events to import from Analytics. For example, if you use the 30-day default window for a conversion event named Registrations, Google Ads only imports conversions that occurred within 30 days of the click.

Frequently asked questions

How are conversion credits imported to Google Ads from Google Analytics 4?

Web conversions: You can choose which channels are eligible to receive conversion credit for web conversions shared with Ads — Google Paid Channels or Paid and Organic Channels. To edit this setting, you will need to do so in the Admin > Attribution Settings page under Data display in Google Analytics, and the change will apply to conversions moving forward. As of June 2023, the default setting for properties creating a link for the first time will be Google Paid Channels. Learn more

App conversions: When app conversions are imported from Google Analytics 4 to Google Ads, they are imported on a Google Paid Channels basis. Learn more about importing app conversions to Google Ads

Why don't I see view-through conversions or cross-device conversions in Google Ads?

To see cross-device conversions in Google Ads, you need to turn on Google signals for your Google Analytics 4 property. Learn more

You won't see view-through conversions if you are importing conversions from Analytics because native Google Ads conversion tracking is required for this feature.

Why is my imported conversion data in Google Ads different from the data in Analytics?

You may be trying to compare conversions from ALL traffic sources, rather than those from google/cpc. Additionally, the Analytics Conversions metric is calculated differently from the conversion tracking metrics in Google Ads.

If you see data for this metric in your Analytics account that differs from your conversion metrics in your Google Ads account, it doesn't necessarily mean that your measurement implementation is wrong; it could simply be a result of the different measurement methods. Learn more about why you may see some discrepancies.

Why did Google Ads mark my Analytics conversions as "secondary" conversion actions?

Google Ads marks an Analytics conversion as "secondary" when your Ads account already has goals from a Universal Analytics property. Google Analytics 4 conversion actions are set to "secondary" conversion actions to prevent counting the same event twice for bidding.

What's next

To learn more about how Google Ads conversion tracking works with Analytics and why you may see some discrepancies in the conversion statistics between Google Ads conversion tracking and Analytics, visit the Google Ads help center.