Link the correct GA4 property to the correct Google Ads account and confirm auto tagging is on. Then decide deliberately which actions become Google Ads conversions, because linking doesn't decide that.
Use GA4 for site activity across channels, Google Ads for cost and bidding, the CRM for customers. When the two platforms disagree, compare the same action, dates and settings before you call it an error.
What GA4, Google Ads and Tag Manager each do
Four tools, four jobs. Mixing them up is where reporting arguments start.
Tool | What it does | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
Google Ads | Buys the advertising and measures it against its own conversion actions | Know what happened on the site beyond the actions it was given |
GA4 | Measures observed behaviour on the website or app across every channel | Know who became a customer, or see impressions on other platforms |
Google Tag Manager | Deploys measurement instructions without editing site code | Measure anything on its own, and it is optional for a valid setup |
CRM or order system | Records enquiries, qualification, sales and value | Attribute anything until the campaign data is joined to it |
GA4 isn't mandatory to run Google Ads. Installing it connects nothing to later sales. Our guide to GA4 for small business covers installing GA4, choosing key events and reading standard reports. This page is about the join between GA4 and Google Ads. It's also about what to make of the numbers once they're joined.
- Shows what paid visitors did on the site, next to every other channel
- Can't see calls made straight from an ad, or sales that stay in your CRM
Bottom line No. Ads measures and bids without it, but link it for the website view.
How key events relate to Google Ads conversions
A conversion is created from an Analytics event, according to Google's page on conversions vs key events. Conversions measure important actions the same way in GA4 and Google Ads. Creating a Google Ads conversion from a key event also creates a conversion in Analytics. That conversion is shared between the two platforms. It's reported in the Advertising section, not in the standard reports.
Both terms exist. Key events describe behaviour for improving the site. Conversions measure advertising and inform bidding. A page visit can matter to the organisation without being a sensible bidding goal. So a key event label isn't a decision to bid on it.
Not every conversion starts as a GA4 event. A phone call made from an ad, with no website visit, never touches GA4. A sale recorded in the CRM is neither a key event nor a conversion until it's imported.
How to link GA4 to Google Ads
Check access and ownership
To connect Google Ads to Google Analytics, the person doing the link needs access on both sides. On the GA4 property, that's the Administrator or Editor role. In Google Ads, it's administrative access, with the Admin role on each Ads account they select.
Confirm which property and web stream carry the site's data. Confirm which Ads customer ID is paying for the clicks. Agencies and past contractors can leave duplicates behind.
Linking a manager account makes imported Analytics data available to every client account under it. Turning on auto tagging during that link applies it to every Ads account directly linked to the manager. Check that scope is what the business intends.
Our audit figures here come from 180 Google Ads account audits from August 2021 to September 2026. Some accounts we took over had a GA4 property. Of those, about 1 in 3 accounts came to us with a problem. Nobody at the business held administrator access to the property. That's why ownership comes before linking.
Link and verify the data
The route starts in GA4 Admin:
Under Product links, open Google Ads links and click Link.
Choose the Ads accounts and confirm.
Review personalised advertising. It's on by default.
Expand the auto tagging option to turn it on or leave existing settings. Then submit.
Personalised advertising is a data use choice, not a default to accept unread. With it on, GA4 also marks extra events as key events. They include view_item, begin_checkout, add_to_cart and even session_start. Personalised advertising is the switch that lets Analytics audiences be used in Google Ads. Remarketing also needs Google Signals or user provided data collection.
Auto tagging adds a gclid parameter to the landing URL. Traffic from an unlinked Ads account can still appear as google / cpc. But Google paid channels attribution ignores those clicks.
Ads data should reach the Analytics reports within 48 hours. So don't judge the link in the first hour. The campaign build around this is in our guide to setting up Google Ads for a small business.
Verify with a real journey, not by clicking your own ads. Send a test enquiry through the site, then find it in GA4 and the inbox or CRM. That's the week one check in our guide to the first 30 days of Google Ads. If Ads data is still missing, turn to Google's guide to missing Google Ads data in Analytics. Run its four checks in order.
The redirect test is quick. In Google Ads, copy a URL from the Landing pages view. Add ?gclid=TesTER-123 and load it. If the URL already has a ?, use &gclid=TesTER-123 instead. Either one goes before any #. If the parameter is still in the address bar exactly as typed, the redirect keeps it.
If a booking or checkout happens on another domain, linking does nothing for it. Measuring that journey takes cross domain measurement, with conditions attached.
The tag on every page must use the same tag ID from the same web data stream. Each domain must be configured in the web stream. The _gl parameter carries the visit across when someone follows a link or form to the other domain. That parameter must survive redirects. Self referrals arise when subdomains use different cookie domains.
A third party booking platform that won't carry your tag can't be measured as one journey. A referral exclusion hides the symptom without installing anything.
GA4 imports or native Google Ads tracking?
A native Google Ads conversion action can measure a form. So can an imported GA4 key event. The trap is doing both as primary actions for the same form.
Choice | Useful fit | Caveat |
|---|---|---|
GA4 event based conversion | Reuse a verified Analytics event and keep website and cross channel context | A separate action to configure, no backfill of data before the import, processing time |
Native Google Ads conversion | Direct Ads measurement and Ads only capabilities | Still needs a correct trigger, values and consent handling |
Both measuring one outcome | Temporary validation or an observation source | Never two primary actions for one lead, and inspect the campaign goal |
The import starts in GA4. Go to Advertising, then Conversion management under Tools, then New conversion. Choose the Ads account and the events or key events, then save. That's the current route on Google's page to create Google Ads conversions from key events. It comes with five conditions.
The feature may not be available to every property.
At least Marketer access is needed to import.
Events selected from the Events section are marked as key events.
Conversions created this way are set as secondary in Google Ads, to prevent double counting for bidding.
View through conversions are not available for imports, because native Google Ads measurement is required.
On the Ads side, the import needs linked accounts, auto tagging and admin access to the Ads account. Google's page to create conversions from Google Analytics events sets this out. Historical data from before the import isn't included. New data can take up to 24 hours to appear.
Primary actions fill the Conversions column. They drive bidding in campaigns that use their goal. Secondary actions show only in All conversions. They're for observation, unless a custom goal includes them.
One form is counted by two primary conversion actions
One verified bidding source, with a separate observation source if needed
After creating the import, open the action and inspect:
the optimisation setting
counting
value
windows
the campaign goals that include it
Actions inside a custom goal are used for bidding, whether they're primary or secondary. That comes from Google's page on primary and secondary conversion actions. So "it's secondary, it only observes" is incomplete.
Universal Analytics stopped processing data in July 2023. In the same audits since then, about 1 in 5 accounts counted one form twice. The two counts came from a native action and a GA4 import, both primary. Tags, enhanced conversions and offline imports belong to our guide to Google Ads conversion tracking setup.
Which attribution settings should you check?
Three scopes, three legitimately different totals. A session report asks what brought the visit. A key event report asks which touchpoints along the path earned credit for the action. A shared conversion report asks how one selected Ads action looks under one platform's settings. Changing a setting to make two of them agree changes the question, not the answer.
Key event reporting
The controls sit under Admin, Data display, Events, Attribution settings. Changing them needs at least the Marketer role, according to Google's page to select attribution settings. The reporting attribution model applies to historical and future data. It applies to event scoped dimensions only. That leaves user and session scoped dimensions such as Session source unaffected.
The first click, linear, time decay and position based models have been gone since November 2023. The channels setting decides which channels can receive credit for Google Ads conversions. The options are Google paid channels alone, or paid and organic channels.
Lookback window changes apply going forward. Changing the channels setting applies to all linked Ads accounts and can affect bidding and reporting there.
Attribution is the act of assigning credit for important user actions to different ads, clicks and factors. That's how Google's guide to getting started with attribution puts it. The data driven and last click models that remain allocate credit among touches that were observed. Neither model proves a sale wouldn't have happened without the ad. Write the selected model and channels into every report in one line.
Shared Ads conversions
Conversion reports in the Advertising section can apply the Analytics property and attribution settings. Or they can apply the Google Ads account and attribution settings. Google's page on cross channel conversion reporting sets out both. The reports can be based on conversion time or on interaction time. The feature may not be available to every property yet.
That's the closest GA4 has come to a like for like view of one Ads action. It still doesn't make an all channel key event total equivalent to one Google Ads conversion action. Check whether the property has it. If not, say so in the reporting note.
Five GA4 views for your Google Ads traffic
Each view answers one question. But each has a limit that stops it answering the next one.
View | Question and useful action | Important limit |
|---|---|---|
Google Ads performance | Which campaigns produced key events at what cost. Advertising, Key event performance, then Google Ads | Not the session scoped Google Ads campaigns report under Reports |
Traffic acquisition | Which sources and campaigns brought sessions and the session key event rate | Paid Search is one channel. Use the Google Ads session source platform |
Landing pages | Which entry pages the paid traffic reached and what they produced, by device | A short visit with low engagement can still produce a phone enquiry |
Events and key events | Whether the intended completion fires, against test evidence and volume changes | An event appearing proves neither unique leads nor correct credit |
Ecommerce or lead outcomes | Purchases and revenue against orders, or lead events against the CRM | GA4 only knows the refunds and lead stages you send it. Revenue is not profit |
The first view is the Google Ads campaigns performance report. It sits in the Advertising section. That section only exists on the desktop version of GA4. So don't hunt for it in the app.
The traffic acquisition report splits sessions by channel group, source and medium, campaign and session source platform. Google Ads is one of the session source platform values.
Session key event rate is the share of sessions with a key event. It isn't events divided by sessions. Our guide to a good conversion rate shows how to judge it. A report missing from the left navigation may have been removed from the default view.
User acquisition is the first touch contrast. It is worth one glance to see what first brought a person.
Add Session source / medium as a secondary dimension to the landing page report. It then shows which pages paid clicks reached.
Compare mature periods with enough data. Investigate (not set) rows before concluding anything. Treat engagement as context. A qualified enquiry or a paid order is closer to the business than time on page. Our guide to Google Ads landing page vs homepage covers where the ads should send people.
Why GA4 and Google Ads numbers differ
Reconcile in order. Stop when the remaining gap is small enough to live with.
Same account, property and outcome
Name the one conversion action and the one GA4 event or shared conversion you are comparing. Take them from the linked property and the paying Ads account. Two reports about different actions can never agree.
Same dates and time zone
Align the date range. Then check the property time zone against the Ads account time zone. That matters because reports can disagree when the two differ, as Google's attribution settings page warns.
Same column and scope
Decide whether the Ads side is Conversions or All conversions. For GA4, pick a session scoped report, event scoped key event report or shared conversion view. These are different questions.
Same date basis
Google Ads' standard conversion columns report each conversion against the click time, not the conversion time. Google's page to understand your conversion tracking data explains this. GA4's event reports count an action on the day it happens.
Take a case: an ad click on 30 September followed by a form on 2 October. It sits in September in the standard Ads column and in October in an event date report. Both are right. The Conversions (by conv. time) columns in Google Ads count it on the conversion date instead. The shared report's conversion time and interaction time options ask the same question from the GA4 side.
Counting, windows, modelling and the rest
Check each of these:
counting (One or Every)
the lookback and conversion windows
import timing
consent gaps
modelled conversions
duplicates
Also check actions that never touched the website, such as calls from the ad. GA4 can't see those. View through conversions sit outside the Conversions column as well. They're counted only in their own column and in All conversions, according to the same Google page.
Record the residual
Write down each adjustment with its count and the difference that remains. If the residual can't be explained from available evidence, label it unresolved and name the next diagnostic check. Don't put a guessed count against consent loss or modelling to make the sheet balance. And never add unrelated actions to force a match.
Some gap is normal. Discrepancies of up to 20% against Google Analytics are often expected, says Google's conversion tracking page. Google puts that down to the two using different attribution models. We run this reconciliation for new clients. After these steps, the unexplained residual is usually under 10% of the Google Ads count.
Action and account: [the conversion action, the GA4 event or shared conversion, the property and Ads account]
Period and time zones: [date range, property time zone, Ads account time zone]
Date basis and column: [interaction or conversion date, Conversions or All conversions, GA4 scope]
Attribution and windows: [model, eligible channels, lookback and conversion windows, counting]
Explained adjustments: [each cause with its count]
Unresolved residual: [the remaining difference and the next check]
Captured by and date: [who reconciled it and when]
Sometimes a gap resists this process and the campaign is also underperforming. In that case, our guide for when Google Ads is not working takes over.
Our free audit covers your conversion tracking. It gives you a short, prioritised list of what to fix first. You get it whether you work with us or not.
Connect enquiries to actual customers
Unless you send it more, GA4 stops at the enquiry. The CRM carries it to a customer. The loop closes only when the CRM sends the outcome back.
That is the measurement loop. Linking GA4 performs none of the CRM steps automatically.
Take an example, a Melbourne electrician. The stages below are one deduplicated, mature lead cohort, not a set of conversions added together. The last column shows which system records each one.
Stage | Count | Media cost per unit | Recorded in |
|---|---|---|---|
Media spend | $4,500 | Media only, not fees or creative | Google Ads |
Ad clicks | 260 | $17.31 | Google Ads |
Raw leads reported | 40 | $112.50 | GA4 and Google Ads |
Genuine enquiries | 30 | $150.00 | CRM |
Qualified, in service area | 24 | $187.50 | CRM |
Booked jobs | 16 | $281.25 | CRM |
Paying customers | 12 | $375.00 | CRM or job system |
Every ratio divides the same $4,500 by the count at that stage.
GA4 and Google Ads see the first three rows. Everything after the raw leads lives in the CRM. A booked job isn't a paid customer either. That's why 16 becomes 12.
The figures are media only, not the all in acquisition cost. The twelve paying jobs at $1,200 each bring in $14,400 of revenue, not profit. Our guide to Google Ads ROI adds the management fee, other costs and margin for the same electrician. Whether $187.50 or $375 is acceptable comes down to job value and margin. The answer is in our guide to a good cost per lead for Google Ads.
The feedback step is an offline conversion import through a supported connection. It is built in the conversion tracking guide, not a byproduct of the link.
A click on a phone number isn't a completed call. A duration threshold is a screening proxy that removes wrong numbers. It's not proof that the caller was a qualified customer. Measuring answered and completed calls is covered in our guide to call tracking for Google Ads.
Privacy, consent and business access
Keep personal information out of page URLs, event names and ordinary Analytics parameters. Review what every tag discloses. Set retention and access deliberately. Treat the personalised advertising switch as the data use decision it is.
The Australian Privacy Principles are law for every business the Privacy Act covers. The OAIC's guidance on tracking pixels is regulator guidance on how the principles apply to tracking code. That's code that sends a visitor's activity to a third party provider. That activity includes form inputs, IP address, items viewed and URLs.
The sensitive information rule reaches further than it sounds. Simply visiting a mental health or counselling site can reveal sensitive information, the OAIC notes. It recommends a privacy impact assessment. A consent banner or Consent Mode is a mechanism, not blanket legal permission. Our guide to Australia's new privacy laws for business websites explains who the Act covers and what's changing.
Access is part of ownership. Keep the business's own Google accounts as administrators of the property and the Ads account. Keep recovery access current. Record which manager accounts are linked. Revoke access that belonged to a past agency or employee.
Never send passwords or personal lead exports to anyone to obtain a review. A reviewer with the right access needs neither.
A weekly check and setup checklist
Fifteen minutes a week is an owner's triage, not a technical audit. Check tracking health, campaign outcomes, the paid landing pages, Ads spend against plan and CRM lead quality. End with one documented finding. Give it an owner and a date for the next check.
The campaign side of that routine is in our guide to Google Ads metrics that matter. If an agency runs the account, its update should cover the same ground. Our own Google Ads management reports lead with enquiries, cost per lead and jobs won.
Period and maturity: [dates and expected sales lag]
Tracking health: [tested outcome and issue]
Media spend: [AUD]
Selected Ads action: [name and count]
GA4 view: [scope, outcome and count]
Qualified leads and customers: [CRM cohort counts]
Unexplained difference: [evidence still needed]
Next action: [owner and review date]
Before launch, or before trusting an inherited account, the checks are shorter.
Link
The paying Ads account is linked to the right property, auto tagging is on, Ads data appears within 48 hours
One tested outcome
A real test enquiry recorded once in GA4, Ads and the CRM, with the gclid surviving every redirect
One bidding source
One primary action per outcome, the other source secondary and absent from the campaign goal
Selected goals
The campaign goal holds the intended actions and nothing else, including inside custom goals
Settings noted
Property and account time zones, attribution model, channels and windows written into the reporting note
Joined report
One report that puts spend, the selected action, the GA4 view and the CRM cohort side by side
What we recommend at Elev8d
Start with ownership, then link. The business's own Google account should be an Administrator on the GA4 property and the Ads account. Set that up before anyone connects them. If a contractor holds the only admin access, they control the link, not you.
On a lead generation account, we'd bid on a native Google Ads conversion for the main enquiry. Any GA4 import of the same form stays secondary, as a cross check. We'd flip that only when GA4 holds the one reliable record of the outcome. One case is a booking platform that accepts the GA4 tag but not the Google Ads one.
Either way, one action bids per outcome. The campaign goal is where we check it, along with the other Google Ads settings that waste budget.
When the platforms disagree, we reconcile one action for one month before anyone touches attribution settings. Changing the model until the totals match just hides the question.
Then we judge the account on the CRM. Qualified leads and paying jobs, set against spend every month, are the numbers we'd defend across the table. GA4 and Google Ads are evidence. The CRM is the verdict.
FAQ: GA4 and Google Ads questions
Can GA4 show my Google Ads keywords?
Yes, for a linked account. The Google Ads campaigns performance report in the Advertising section breaks results down by keyword text and query. Negative keywords and match types are still managed in Google Ads, next to the full search terms report.
What happens if someone deletes the link?
Data stops flowing between the two, according to Google's page on connecting Google Ads to Analytics. Ads dimensions collected earlier, such as campaign names, stay in GA4. But Google says new Ads data shows as (not set). So do Ads metrics such as cost and clicks, for every date range. Remarketing audiences stop adding people, and imported key events stop reaching the Ads account.
Only a Google Ads admin or a GA4 user with the Editor role can remove the link. That's one more reason to know who holds those roles. Export any reports you need before anyone removes the link.
Why does Google Ads traffic show as (not set) in GA4?
(not set) is the placeholder GA4 uses when it received no value for a dimension. Google's page on what the value (not set) means explains it.
For Google Ads traffic, the page's list starts with two causes. The first is an Ads account that isn't linked. Its clicks show as (not set) in the Google Ads reports. The second is auto tagging switched off. Consent settings can cause (not set) too.
Next steps
Confirm ownership and the link
Business administrators on both sides, the right property, auto tagging on, 48 hours allowed.
Pick one bidding source per outcome
Open the campaign goal, find every action in it, and demote or remove the duplicate.
Reconcile one month and write down the residual
The six steps above, one action, one period, with the unexplained difference labelled rather than explained away.
Sources
- Google Ads campaigns reportsupport.google.com
Google Analytics Help. The session scoped report under Reports, built on each user's most recent session.
