Create conversions from Google Analytics events in Google Ads

When it comes to analyzing 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 2 at the same time. Expand the section below for a quick comparison.

Compare Google Analytics conversions and Google Ads conversion measurement

Google Analytics properties conversion measurement

Ideal if you're interested in measurement and conversions across your app or website. Learn more about Google Analytics 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 then import these into Google Ads. This offers a streamlined approach to managing your conversions across platforms. Here are some key things to keep in mind:

Google Analytics as the source of truth: Google Analytics serves as the primary location for defining and managing your key events, which can then be imported as conversions into Google Ads. Ensure your event names match exactly between Google Analytics when marking as a key event and your Google Ads conversion action setup if you’re creating them separately or troubleshooting.
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 and imported from Google Analytics.
Mark events as key events in Google Analytics: To import a Google Analytics event into Google Ads as a conversion, it must first be marked as a “key event” in your Google Analytics property. To do this in Google Analytics, go to Adminand select Events within the Data displaymenu. Find your event in the list and click the toggle next to “Mark as key event”. If an event is newly created, it might need to trigger and appear in the “Events” list, under the Recent eventstab, before it can be marked as a key event. You can also mark an event as a key event during its initial creation 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 optimize 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 and admin access to the Google Ads account to import conversions. If Google Analytics events aren’t flowing to Google Ads after linking, double-check that the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are correctly linked and consider refreshing the connection, if necessary. You also need to ensure that the Google Click Identifier (GCLID) isn’t being altered or dropped by your website (for example, because of redirects), as this is crucial for attributing conversions back to 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 centralized interface.
Use categorized 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.

Create conversions through Google Ads

Go to Summary within the Goalsmenu.
Click + Create conversion action.
Select the Google Analytics property you’d like to use.
On the next page, select the Google Analytics event that you’d like to use to measure your conversions, then click Select events.
Click Save and continue.

Create conversions through Google Analytics

In your Google Analytics property, go to Advertisingand select Conversion managementunder "Tools".
Select the Google Ads account where you want to import conversions in the Showing conversions fordropdown.
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 Nextto 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 optimization settings in Google Ads.

Keep in mind

It can take up to 24 hours before conversion data is available in Google Ads after importing a Google Analytics key event. When it is available, your imported conversion data will appear alongside your existing conversion data in the Summary page under the Conversionsdrop-down within the Goalsmenu, and you'll be able to customize columns on the Campaigns tab to include this data. Reports based on your imported conversions data may include modeled 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

Go to Summary within the Goalsmenu.
Select the Conversionsdrop down in the section menu, then select Summary.
Select the name of the imported conversion that you want to edit.
In the bottom right corner, select Edit Settings.
Make any changes and click the Savebutton.

Edit conversion settings through Google Analytics

In your Google Analytics property, go to Advertisingand select Conversion managementunder "Tools".
Select the Google Ads account where you've imported Google Analytics conversions in the Showing conversions fordropdown.
Locate the Google Analytics-imported conversion action that you want to edit.
Click the three-dot iconbeside the conversion action, then select Settings.
Make the necessary changes, then click Save.

Notes:

You can't edit the goal category and action optimization 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 Primaryin 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 between Google Analytics and Google Ads

You might see discrepancies in the conversion statistics when comparing data between your Google Analytics property and Google Ads conversion reporting. This is common and can occur for several reasons, even with a correct setup.

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 someone saw your ad and clicked it on July 19, but did not make a purchase on your site until the next day, July 20. In Google Ads, the conversion would be attributed to July 19, the day of the click. In Google Analytics, however, the conversion is attributed to July 20, the day the conversion actually occurred.

Counting method and using conversion columns

In Google Ads, you can choose to count conversions conversion action as “Every” , which counts all conversions after an interaction, or “One”, which counts only one conversion per click or interaction. This setting applies to imported Google Analytics conversions as well. The "Conversions" column in Google Ads will display conversions according to your selected counting method and only for actions set as “Primary”.

The ”All conversions” column in Google Ads includes conversions from actions set to ”Secondary”, view-through conversions, if your model includes them, and other less common conversion sources. This is a frequent reason for discrepancies if you are comparing the 'Conversions' column to “All conversions” or to Google Analytics data which might be counting all instances of an event.

Example

In your Google Analytics property, you've defined a key event for filling out a lead form. Someone fills out 2 lead forms (in different sessions) after an ad click, and Analytics shows them as 2 key event counts. You import this key event in Google Ads as a conversion and set your counting method to "One", Google Ads will report one conversion. If set to "Every", it may report 2, assuming they meet other criteria.

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 expiration dates

Google Ads cookies expire 90 days after a customer's click, while Analytics uses a cookie that lasts for up to 2 years. Google Ads conversions can have a conversion window between 1 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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