The supported data sources in this article are only available for cost data import.
You can establish a connection between Google Analytics and supported data sources. To make the most of these data source connections, you need to consider data preparation and setup requirements, including data source types, the fields to be imported, and access permissions.
General requirements
- You must be an Editor or above at the property level.
- You must update your data before each import.
- For file-based data sources like HTTP, Google Sheets, Google Cloud Storage, and Amazon S3, data should be in a .csv or .tsv format.
- The first row of data from the data source must consist of column headers or names, for example, the column header is "cost" and each row contains a number as the cost associated with the row.
- The name of the data source must be identical each time its data is updated. If the data source name is changed each time, integration will be broken and data won’t be updated.
- You may update data from data sources as often as you’d like. Updates may include adding or removing users or new conversions.
- Data import supports daily data import and scheduling of daily import refreshes.
Create a data source connection
- In Admin, under Data collection and modification, click Data import.
Note: The previous link opens to the last Analytics property you accessed. You can change the property using the property selector. You must be an Editor or above at the property level to successfully start the import process.
- Create a new data source or select an existing data source. Check the following sections.
Create a new data source
- Click Create data source.
- Enter a name for your data source.
- Select Cost data (query-time import only).
- Click Review terms if prompted. This prompt is displayed if you are importing device or user data.
- Select a data connection from the dropdown menu. Learn more about connecting a data source.
- Click Next.
- Select a data type.
- Upload the data source you want to use.
- (Optional) You can apply filters or encryption keys to configure the data that you’ll import.
- Click Next.
- To map fields, select the data source fields from the dropdown lists that match the destination fields.
- (Optional) Apply transformations to your data.
- Click Next.
- Review data source connection details, such as connection name, data type, update schedule, selected data, mapped fields, and update method.
- Click Finish.
Supported data sources
The following data sources are supported in Google Analytics. Expand a section for requirements and troubleshooting information for each data source.
Amazon Redshift
This data source is part of an open beta and is subject to change.
Requirements
- The Redshift database that you want to use must be accessible over the internet.
- You must provide a username or password for an account in the database with access to the table containing the data you would like to use.
- You need to have credentials for a user with permissions (including read) to access the data in Redshift.
- Your Redshift server must either be publicly accessible, or you can allowlist using the IP ranges for us-central1, us-east1, or us-west1 from this list of ranges.
Troubleshoot errors
Setup errors
- Ensure that you are entering the correct database location URL and credentials.
- Ensure that the credentials you’re using have the appropriate permissions to access the table you need.
- Ensure that your conversion action has successfully connected to the chosen connection. Otherwise, no data will come in.
Scheduled run errors
- The most common cause of scheduled run failures is updated permissions in Redshift. Check that the role or account that corresponds to your account has permissions to read the data.
- Ensure that the data still exists and that the names of the schema and table haven’t changed.
Amazon S3
This data source is part of an open beta and is subject to change.
Requirements
- You must have access to an Amazon Web Services Identity Access Management principal with permissions to:
- Upload objects to an S3 bucket
- Generate a Secret Key and API Key for a role with read access to an S3 bucket
- You may also wish to have permissions to create roles with access to specific buckets or to delegate their access.
Troubleshoot errors
Setup errors
- Ensure that you are entering the correct account identifier URL.
- Ensure that the first line of your object contains the headers—for example, email address and first name.
- Double-check your access key ID and secret access key. They should be different.
- Ensure that the object in S3 has a file extension. Files without a file extension are rejected.
- Ensure that your conversion action has successfully connected to the chosen connection. Otherwise, no data will come in.
Scheduled run errors
- The most common cause of scheduled run failures is updated permissions in AWS. Check that the role or account that corresponds to the access key has permissions to read the object.
- Ensure that the object still exists and that the name hasn’t changed.
BigQuery
This data source is part of an open beta and is subject to change.
Requirements
- You must have GCP owner access on the BQ project and Google Ads admin access to establish an initial connection between your BigQuery table and Google Ads.
- Note: The Google Ads admin access can be revoked once the connection is established.
- BigQuery views must be fully authorized and the source of the view cannot include external tables. Learn more about authorized views and external data sources.
Troubleshoot errors
Setup errors
- Ensure that your conversion action has successfully connected to the chosen connection. Otherwise, no data will come in.
Google Cloud Storage
This data source is part of an open beta and is subject to change.
Requirements
- Access to a GCP Role with write permissions on a GCS bucket.
- Google Ads Administrative access to set up the initial connection between your GCS bucket and Google Ads.
Understand permissions
Why am I asked to share access to an entire bucket when I only want to share a single file?
Google Ads only supports access controls at the object level if Uniform Bucket Access is enabled, and the IAM policy governing access to the bucket is v3 or higher. If you’d like to grant permission only to a single object in a bucket, please enable Uniform Bucket Access and add the condition for your service account. For more information, see Uniform bucket-level access.
Note: To ingest your data, only read permission is required. Learn more about IAM permissions for Cloud Storage.
Troubleshoot errors
Error - Failed to load the list of imported fields
- The object you selected may be an unsupported format, or may contain data that is not readable. Please review and update the object.
- Ensure that your conversion action has successfully connected to the chosen connection. Otherwise, no data will come in.
Google Sheets
This data source is part of an open beta and is subject to change.
Requirements
- You must have Editor access to the Google Sheets file.
- Your Google Ads account needs to have administrative access.
Troubleshoot errors
File format issues
Here are some tips to avoid issues while importing data from Google Sheets
- Make sure you have Editor access to the Google Sheet, and that it contains data.
- The file must be a native Google Sheets spreadsheet, or a file with a file extension such as .tsv, or .csv.
- The first row in the spreadsheet, or the first line in the file must consist of valid headers, which could be details such as email address or first name.
- Only data from the first sheet in a Google Sheets spreadsheet can be read. If your spreadsheet has multiple sheets, make sure that the first sheet contains the data you're trying to import.
Setup errors
Ensure that your conversion action has successfully connected to the chosen connection. Otherwise, no data will come in.
HTTPS
This data source is part of an open beta and is subject to change.
Requirements
- You must have access to the following credentials: a URL to the data that you want to import, a username, and a password.
- The URL should use the following pattern:
https://[ip|domain]/path/filename.[csv|tsv].
Troubleshoot errors
Setup errors
- Ensure that you are entering the correct file URL and credentials.
- Ensure that the credentials you’re using have the appropriate permissions to access the data you need.
- Ensure that your conversion action has successfully connected to the chosen connection. Otherwise, no data will come in.
MySQL
This data source is part of an open beta and is subject to change.
Requirements
- The MySQL database you want to use must be accessible over the internet. You may restrict access to the IP address ranges used by Google Cloud.
- You must provide a username and password for an account in the database with access to the table containing the data you’d like to use.
Troubleshoot errors
Setup errors
Ensure that your conversion action has successfully connected to the chosen connection. Otherwise, no data will come in.
PostgreSQL
This data source is part of an open beta and is subject to change.
Requirements
- The Postgres database that you want to use must be accessible over the internet.
- You must provide a username or password for an account in the database with access to the table containing the data you would like to use.
Troubleshoot errors
Setup errors
- Ensure that you are entering the correct database location URL and credentials.
- Ensure that the credentials you’re using have the appropriate permissions to access the data you need.
- Ensure that your conversion action has successfully connected to the chosen connection. Otherwise, no data will come in.
Scheduled run errors
- The most common cause of scheduled run failures is updated permissions in PostgreSQL. Check that the role or user account that corresponds to your database has permissions to read the data.
- Ensure that the data still exists and that the names of the schema and table haven’t changed.
Snowflake
This data source is part of an open beta and is subject to change.
Requirements
- You must have a Snowflake account credentials (username and password). You can restrict access to the IP address ranges used by Google Cloud.
- You must have a Snowflake account with access to the table containing the data you would like to use. You can create an account that only has access to the data needed for your use-case.
Troubleshoot errors
Ensure that your conversion goal has successfully connected to the chosen connection. Otherwise, no data will come in.