When you link your Ad Manager network to a Google Analytics 4 property, your Analytics app and web data from that property becomes available in your Ad Manager reports.
When you link Ad Manager and Google Analytics 4, Analytics starts collecting the following events automatically:
- ad_click
- ad_impression
- ad_query
With the Ad Manager integration, Analytics collects each of these events for each ad on a page, which can cause an increase in the number of billable events for 360 properties.
With the collection of these events for each ad, Google Analytics 4 eliminates the discrepancies in reporting between Analytics and Ad Manager that were previously seen with the integration between Universal Analytics and Ad Manager.
Prerequisites
Check that the following prerequisites have been met before setting up Google Ad Manager Integration for Google Analytics 4.
Permissions
To create or delete Ad Manager links in GA4, you must be an Administrator in Ad Manager, and have the Editor role in Analytics.
Tags
Your website needs to collect data via the Google tag. To see Google Ad Manager reports in Analytics, the majority of your tags need to be Google Publisher Tags.
Other product configurations
To report on app data, your app must include the Google Ad Manager GMA SDK.
Set up Google Ad Manager integration for GA4
Link your Google Analytics 4 property to Ad Manager.
Once you establish the link, then, in Admin, under Product links, click Ad Manager links.
How Google Ad Manager/GA4 reporting integration works
The GA4 integration with Google Ad Manager relies on several key processes, including shared IDs and data joining. Here are the details on how they work.
Shared IDs
For Ad Manager integration to work effectively, GA4 and Ad Manager tags communicate with each other using shared IDs to match each ad impression with its corresponding GA4 event. GA4 and Ad Manager use tags within each app or web page to generate unique IDs for each event or ad impression. In web properties this is called the query_id. In app properties this is called the ad_event_id.
Inter-tag communication ensures that logged IDs are the same between GA4 and Ad Manager for a single event and its corresponding ad impression. Inter-tag communication takes place synchronously as events are sent and ads are served. IDs that are logged when Ad Manager and GA4 are not linked or when either system is unavailable will not be shared in this integration.
Note: In web properties, the <iframe> HTML element can interfere with inter-tag communication and prevent ID sharing. When Ad Manager tags are served inside of an <iframe> they are separated from the rest of the page. Passback tags are usually rendered within an <iframe> and therefore can’t pass data to GA4.
Automatically Collected Events
When Ad Manager integration is enabled, it automatically collects the following events for web and app properties.
- web properties - ad_impression and ad_click.
- app properties - ad_impression, ad_click, ad_query, ad_exposure, adunit_exposure.
These events are assigned their own query_ids and ad_event_ids.
Data joining
GA4 joins its data with Ad Manager log files using the shared IDs that match Ad manager data with Analytics data. This integration uses the information and configuration settings available when each individual event occurs. Making changes to the rate field in Ad Manager, to tagging configurations or to page dimensions in GA4 won’t affect the data displayed in GA4 reporting for past data. Likewise, the Billing and Reconciliation process in Ad Manager will not affect the reported revenue numbers in GA4.
For example, revenue is calculated based on the value that was present in Ad Manager when the event was registered. Changing the value after the ad event occurs will not impact the revenue data shown for the event in GA4.
Note: The value of the “Rate” field in Ad Manager is used to calculate revenue in GA4.
View Google Ad Manager data in GA4
Once you’ve set up the Ad Manager reporting integration, you’ll be able to see your Ad Manager data in GA4. Your Ad Manager revenue data will be available in the Monetization > Publisher ads reports and the Explorations main menu in your Google Analytics 4 property.
Ad Manager dimensions and metrics
After you link your Ad Manager network with your Google Analytics 4 property, Google Ad Manager traffic will be represented in the following dimensions and metrics in your Analytics reports.
Dimensions
- Ad format (uses value of Ad Manager Inventory Format dimension)
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Ad source (uses Ad Manager network name and ID)
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Ad unit (uses value of Ad Manager Ad unit (all levels) dimension)
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Page path + query string, and Page path and screen class
Metrics
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Ad unit exposure (Amount of time a user is exposed to ads)
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Publisher ad clicks (Ad Manager clicks)
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Publisher ad impressions (Ad Manager impressions)
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Total ad revenue (Total of both Programmatic and Non-Programmatic channels)
Audience export
To export audiences from Analytics:
- Activate Google signals in the Analytics property
- Enable Personalized Advertising in the link settings
With Google signals activated and Personalized Advertising enabled in the link settings, audiences are automatically exported to Ad Manager.
Audiences that contain demographics or interests data will not be exported.
When you export audiences via the continuous audience sharing feature, they appear in the linked Ad Manager account. You can use the audiences as-is for targeting, or combine them with other audiences. You can also perform analysis on them.
Data quality and discrepancies
Implementation issues may result in discrepancies between Ad Manager and Google Analytics data. If you are experiencing data discrepancies, here are some things to check.
You can resolve most tagging issues in three steps:
- Use the Google tag.
- Use Google Publisher Tags (GPT).
- Avoid serving Ad Manager tags inside an <iframe>. Remember that passbacks are usually rendered within an <iframe> and therefore won’t be included in the integration.
To ensure matching reports:
- Verify that you are only pulling events for display ads in Ad Manager.
- Ensure that you are only including Ad Manager data for pages/apps measured by the GA4 property that you linked.
This integration will only surface Ad Manager data from events in the GA4 property that is linked to the Ad Manager network.