Use the Advertising section in your Google Analytics 4 property to get more insight into your most important user journeys. The reports in this section help you better understand the ROI of your media spend across all channels, make informed decisions about budget allocation, and evaluate attribution models.
In this article:Before you begin
To view the reports in the Advertising section, you must link your Google Analytics 4 property to a Google advertising product.
To view advertiser reports, link your property to any of the following:
To view the Publisher ads report, link your property to any of the following:
About attribution and attribution models
Attribution is the act of assigning credit for conversions to different ads, clicks, and factors along a user's path to completing a conversion. An attribution model can be a rule, a set of rules, or a data-driven algorithm that determines how credit for conversions is assigned to touchpoints on conversion paths.
The Attribution reports within the Advertising section give you a better understanding of how your advertising efforts work together to drive conversions. These reports allow you to explore different rules-based attribution models and determine which one might work best for your business. Learn more About attribution and attribution modeling.
About the reports
All users of your Google Analytics 4 property can access the Advertising section. Reports within the section look and function slightly differently than other Google Analytics 4 reports. The following reports are available in the Advertising section:
- Advertising snapshot: Get a quick overview of business metrics, and then dig deeper into the areas you want to explore. Learn more about the Advertising snapshot report.
- Performance: Understand which channels and campaigns received conversion credit. Learn more about the Performance report. In addition to the All channels report, view reports for the Google advertising products your property is linked to:
- Model comparison: Compare how different attribution models impact the valuation of your marketing channels. Learn more about the Model comparison report.
- Conversion paths: See your customers’ paths to conversion, and learn how different attribution models distribute credit on those paths. Learn more about the Conversion paths report.
- Publisher ads: Get insights into the engagement and revenue associated with your website and app advertisements. Learn more about the Publisher ads report.
Use these reports to answer questions like:
- What roles did referrals, searches, and ads play in conversions?
- How much time passed between a customer's initial interest and their purchase?
- What are the most common paths customers take leading up to conversions?
Select attribution settings
To select an attribution model and conversion window for a Google Analytics 4 property, you must have the Editor or Administrator role for the property.
- In Admin, under Data display, click Attribution settings.
- Under Reporting attribution model, select an attribution model from the drop down. Learn more About the report attribution models.
- Under Conversion window, select the conversion windows for acquisition conversion events and all other conversion events. The All other conversion events option also controls the session attribution settings.
- Click Save.
These attribution settings don’t impact the attribution models selected in the reports in the Advertising section. Anyone can select attribution models for their personal use within the reports in the Advertising section. When you select an attribution model in the Advertising section, it doesn't affect how other users see data, or how data is calculated in reports outside of the Advertising section.