Product Linking: Link Optimize and Google Ads

This article shows you how to link your Google Optimize and Google Ads accounts.

About Google Optimize

Every user is unique and your website should address their individual tastes. Google Optimize enables you to run website experiments to determine the optimal experience for each group of users.

Integrating Google Ads with Optimize

Integrating Google Ads with Google Optimize allows you to easily target experiments and personalized experiences to specific ads and keywords. You can personalize your existing web pages to match each of your users' intents based on the campaign they clicked on or the keywords that triggered the ad.

Permissions

To link Google Ads and Optimize, you need a Google Account with administrative access to Google Ads.

Instructions

Step 1: Link Google Ads to Analytics

The first step is to link Google Ads to Analytics. Follow the directions for either Google Ads or Analytics.

Step 2: Enable Optimize sharing

After Google Ads and Analytics are linked, you can enable Google Ads for Optimize. Choose an option below based on your Google Ads account type.

Option 1 – Google Ads individual account

To turn on Optimize sharing from a Google Ads individual account, follow these steps:

Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Click the tools icon in the upper right corner of your account.
Under "Setup," click Linked accounts.
Under "From Google", find "Google Analytics (UA)" or "Google Analytics (GA4) and Firebase", then click Details.
Click the toggle next to "Google Optimize sharing turned off".

Option 2 – Google Ads manager account

To turn on Optimize sharing from a Google Ads manager account, follow these steps:

Sign in to your Google Ads manager account.
Click the tools icon in the upper right corner of your account.
Under "Setup," click Linked accounts.
Under "From Google", find "Google Analytics (UA)" or "Google Analytics (GA4) and Firebase", then click Details.
Click the toggle next to "Google Optimize sharing turned off".

Turning on Optimize sharing for a Google Ads manager account enables it for all of its managed accounts. Control over Optimize sharing remains at the individual account level and can be adjusted there.

When an individual Google Ads account is added to a manager hierarchy, it retains its individual Optimize sharing setting. You can turn on Google Optimize sharing for the new Google Ads accounts by returning to the Analytics linked accounts page above.

Step 3: Link Optimize to Analytics

The final step is to verify that your Optimize container is linked to the same Analytics property that you linked to from Google Ads in Step 1. This is usually done when setting up an Optimize container. Learn more about linking Optimize to Analytics.

Disabling Optimize sharing

To disable Optimize sharing, you must have administrative access to a Google Ads account.

Sign in to your Google Ads account.
Click the tools icon in the upper right corner of your account.
Under "Setup," click Linked accounts.
Under "From Google", find "Google Analytics (UA)" or "Google Analytics (GA4) and Firebase", then click Manage and link.
Click the toggle next to "Google Optimize sharing turned on".

When you turn off Optimize sharing, Optimize experiments targeting ads or keywords from the affected Google Ads account stop including new users. While an affected experiment continues to run, experiment sessions will still be counted for users who were first included in the experiment when the sharing was turned on. An affected experiment's targeting configuration in Optimize will no longer display the names or statuses of the targeted Google Ads entities.