[GA4] Link Optimize to Analytics

This article describes how to link your Optimize container with a Google Analytics 4 property. For information about linking to a Universal Analytics property, see this article instead.

Google Analytics is the measurement platform for Optimize inferences so you must link your Optimize container to an Analytics property to use Google Optimize.

Once you link your Optimize container to an Analytics property, you can start to create experiences and use Analytics metrics as experiment objectives. Linking to an Analytics property also lets you segment your experiment data and combine your data with other Analytics data.

Prerequisites

To link an Optimize container to a Google Analytics property, you must have:

• A Google Analytics 4 account, property, and web data stream
• An Optimize account and container

You also need to install the Optimize snippet on each page you want to optimize. You can't use the Firebase JavaScript SDK to tag your site for Optimize.

The minimum permissions to link Optimize to Analytics are:

• Publish (or higher) permission to the Optimize container
• Edit (or higher) permission to the Analytics property

Link to an Analytics property

To link your Optimize container to an Analytics property:

1. Open your Optimize Accounts page.
2. Wait for running experiments to end or end them manually. Optimize retains data when experiments end.
3. End running personalizations manually. Once you link to a Google Analytics 4 property, you can copy over and start the personalizations.
4. Click Settings to open the container settings.
   
5. If you already link to an Analytics property, click in the Measurement and objectives section.
   
6. If you don't link to an Analytics property, click Link to Analytics in the Measurement and objectives section.
   
7. Choose the Google Analytics 4 property that corresponds to the web domain where you’ll run experiences.
8. Save the new link.

Results

All draft experiences update with a link to the property. Ended experiences that used a Universal Analytics property retain a weak link to the original property. A weak link is a link between Optimize and Analytics for historical or auditing purposes.

You can still access reporting on ended experiences that retain a weak link to a Universal Analytics property as long as the property still exists and you have view (or higher) permissions on the property.

Impression counts start populating up to 12 hours after an experiment starts.

If you decide to upgrade your Optimize account after you link to a Google Analytics 4 property, please allow up to an hour for the upgrade to complete.

Limitations

• When you upgrade your account, the Optimize container unlinks from your Google Analytics 4 property.
• You can't currently select experiment dimensions in Analytics reports.
• You can link a Google Analytics 4 property to up to 25 Optimize containers.
• You can run an experiment for up to 35 days.

Relinking your property and container

If you move a property or container to a new organization, add a property or container to an organization, or remove a property or container from an organization, any running experiments are ended automatically and your property and container are unlinked. You must relink the container and property to start new experiences.

Linking outside of an organization

You can link an Optimize container to a Google Analytics 4 property when both the container and property are in the same organization or neither the container nor the property are in an organization. However, you can't link a property in an organization to a container that's not in an organization, and the other way around.

If you're an organization admin, you can move an Optimize account into an organization by doing the following:

1. Go to https://marketingplatform.google.com/home.
2. Click Administration.
3. Make sure that the Organization tab is selected at the top.
4. Click Link accounts.
5. Choose the target organization.
6. Choose the desired Optimize account.
7. Click Link on the top right.
8. Check your email for a confirmation once the changes are complete.