Create conversions from Google Analytics events in Google Ads

When it comes to analysing customer activity on your website, you can import your Google Analytics conversions into Google Ads and use Google Ads conversion measurement to measure the conversions. You can use any combination of these two at the same time. Expand the section below for a quick comparison.

Compare Google Analytics conversions and Google Ads conversion measurement

Google Analytics 4 properties conversion measurement

Ideal if you're interested in measurement and conversions across your app or website. Learn more about Google Analytics 4 properties.
Can include conversions from non-Google Ads sources, so it's recommended for tracking all customer traffic on your website.

Google Ads conversion measurement

Ideal if you're interested only in conversions.
Measure conversions only from Google Ads sources.

You can create conversions directly from your Google Analytics events and key events, and also share with Google Ads. This offers a streamlined approach to managing your conversions across platforms. Here are some key things to bear in mind:

Google Analytics as the source of truth: Google Analytics serves as the primary location for creating and managing your conversions based on Google Analytics events.
Consistent settings: While settings are generally consistent across platforms, some settings may be managed differently depending on whether the conversion's attribution is set to Google paid channels or paid and organic channels. Certain settings may not be editable in Google Ads if created in Google Analytics.

Benefits

Importing your Google Analytics conversions into Google Ads offers a few benefits:

Access your Google Analytics conversions and data related to your Google Ads clicks.
View Google Analytics conversion data in Google Ads.
Give Smart Bidding access to data that helps optimise bids, potentially increasing conversions and lowering costs.

Before you begin

To start importing data, you'll need to link your Google Ads account to a Google Analytics account and turn on auto-tagging in your Google Ads account. You need at least a Marketer role in Google Analytics to import conversions into Google Ads.

Google Analytics and Google Ads conversions

This feature may not be available to your Google Analytics property. The Google Analytics team is actively working to expand this feature to more properties. Please reach out to your support team if you have questions about the eligibility of your property.

Conversion management is streamlined across Google Ads and Google Analytics for a unified cross-channel experience. This enables you to:

Create conversions directly from your Google Analytics events and seamlessly share them with Google Ads. Some settings, like conversion window and counting method, might not be editable in Google Ads.
Manage conversion settings for both Google Analytics and Google Ads from a centralised interface.
Use categorised lists, improved search and filtering, and detailed settings review to manage your conversions effectively. Tools will also be available to identify and address diverging conversion settings between Google Analytics and Google Ads.
Track all conversion changes within Google Analytics change history, including detailed 'before and after' views and shareable deep links.

How to create conversions

You can create conversions through the Google Ads or Google Analytics interface.

Import conversions through Google Ads

From your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon .
Click the Conversions drop-down in the section menu, then click Summary.
Select + New conversion action.
Select Import and then click Google Analytics (GA4).
Click Continue.
On the next page, select the features that you’d like to import, then click Import and continue.
Click Done.

Import conversions through Google Analytics

In your Google Analytics property, go to Advertising and select Conversion management under 'Tools'.
Select the Google Ads account where you want to import conversions in the Showing conversions for drop-down.
Click New conversion, then Next.
Select the events or key events you want to import as conversions into Google Ads.
- Note: Events selected from the 'Events' section will be marked as key events in Google Analytics.
If prompted, select the 'Conversion' category for your selected events and key events.
Click Next to review your selected conversions, then Save.

Google Ads will begin importing the data from your Analytics property. Historical data from before the import won't be included.

Note: Conversion actions created through the Google Analytics interface will be set as secondary. To use them for bidding, change their action optimisation settings in Google Ads.

Bear in mind

It can take up to 24 hours before conversion data is available in Google Ads. When it is available, your imported conversions data will appear alongside your existing conversion data on the Conversions page, and you'll be able to customise columns on the Campaigns tab to include this data. Reports based on your imported conversions data may include modelled conversions as estimates in cases where Google can’t observe all conversions.

After Analytics data has been imported to Google Ads, it is subject to the Google Ads Terms of Service.

How to edit conversion settings

After you've imported your Analytics conversions, you can edit them through the Google Ads and Google Analytics interface.

Edit conversion settings through Google Ads

From your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon .
Click the Conversions drop-down in the section menu, then click Summary.
Click the name of the imported conversion that you want to edit.
In the bottom right corner, click Edit Settings.
Make any changes and click the Save button.

Edit conversion settings through Google Analytics

In your Google Analytics property, go to Advertising and select Conversion management under 'Tools'.
Select the Google Ads account where you've imported Google Analytics conversions in the Showing conversions for drop-down.
Locate the Google Analytics-imported conversion action that you want to edit.
Click the three-dot icon beside the conversion action, then select Settings.
Make the necessary changes, then click Save.

Notes:

You can't edit the goal category and action optimisation of conversion actions from Google Analytics. These settings can only be updated from Google Ads. Conversion-related updates made through the Google Analytics interface will only appear in the 'Change history' page of Google Ads.
In Google Analytics, conversion settings can be adjusted for some conversion actions, but not all. Specifically, if a conversion action is set to Primary in Google Ads, its settings will be read-only in Google Analytics. However, if it's set to Secondary, these settings can be edited within Google Analytics.

Data discrepancies

You might see discrepancies in the conversion statistics between Google Analytics and Google Ads conversion measurement.

Learn how to fix your conversion discrepancies. If you've double-checked that your setup is correct, here are some possible reasons for why you might see this:

Date of transaction

Google Ads reports conversions from the date and time of the click that led to the successful action, not from the date of the successful action itself.

For example, let's say that someone saw your ad and clicked on it on 19 July but didn't make a purchase on your website until the next day. In Google Ads, the conversion would be attributed to 19 July, the day of the click. In Google Analytics, however, the conversion is attributed to 20 July, the day that the conversion actually happened.

Counting method

In Google Ads, you can choose to count either all or unique conversions by setting the counting method for each conversion action, including Google Analytics conversions. The 'Conversions' column in Google Ads will display conversions that happened within your chosen conversion window, according to your selected counting method.

Example

In your Google Analytics property, you've defined a key event for filling in a lead form. Someone fills in two lead forms (in different sessions) after an ad click and Analytics shows them as two key event counts. You import this key event in Google Ads as a conversion and set your counting method to 'Unique', so you only see one conversion.

Invalid clicks

Some conversion events that are reported in Analytics might be filtered out when they're imported into your Google Ads account because of our invalid clicks technology, which doesn't record what seems like suspicious or invalid click activity.

Cookie expiry dates

Google Ads cookies expire 90 days after a customer's click, while Analytics uses a cookie that lasts for up to two years. Google Ads conversions can have a conversion window between one and 90 days. That means if a customer completed a conversion after the specified conversion window, the conversion wouldn't be recorded in Google Ads but it would still be recorded in Analytics if it occurred within 2 years of the click date.

Imported Analytics conversion delays

Analytics conversion data is imported into conversion measurement up to 24 hours after they occurred.

Key event or property name changes in Google Analytics

If you change the name of a Google Analytics key event or property containing your Google Analytics conversions, these new names will be reflected in Google Ads after the key event was completed by a customer. The changes can take up to 24 hours to be reflected in your Google Ads account.

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