Google Analytics is not showing up in my AdWords

Why it is important to link Analytics to AdWords

It is important to link your Google Analytics to your AdWords account in order to collect valuable data. Most people evaluate the effectiveness of their ads and keywords based on conversion data. However, not all potential clients/customers will “convert” based on the conversions that most people define in AdWords (phone calls, form submissions, purchases). Also AdWords is not perfect in tracking all conversions. Sometimes different circumstances may prevent a conversion from being recorded. This is why it’s important to link your Analytics to your AdWords account. Linking your Analytics to your AdWords account will allow you to view 4 valuable pieces of information in AdWords:

  • Bounce rate
  • Pages / Session
  • Avg. session duration
  • % New sessions

The information you gain from these metrics

These four pieces of information are very relevant to the effectiveness of your keywords & ads. It also tells you about a user’s experience on your site. If you lead a new customer or client to your website through an ad then you want to know if that ad led them to what they were looking for. This relates to the effectiveness/relevance of the ad as is relates to their keyword search. If it led them to the right place (a page on your website) then they shouldn’t “bounce” (leave your site after viewing one page). Instead they should have a long “Avg. session duration” looking at the content on the given landing page and maybe even navigate to other pages for more information. Navigating to other pages would of course increase the number of “Pages / Session”. As you can see these first three metrics are very helpful in letting you know about how good of an experience users from ads are having on your site, user experience (UX). The “% New Sessions” would of course let you know if you were leading new potential clients/customers to your website. Now that you see the benefits of linking the accounts let’s look at how to link them and why sometimes analytics don’t show up in AdWords.

Here is a video from Google talking about the benefits of linking your Analytics and AdWords account.

Why your analytics may not be showing up in your AdWords account

Double check and see if your Analytics are showing up

You can check and see if your analytics is linked by:

  • Logging into your AdWords account
  • Selecting a campaign
  • Clicking on a campaign tab
  • Click on the drop down menu “columns”
  • Click modify columns
  • Look for “Google Analytics” in the “Select Metrics” column.

If see see Google Analytics in this column then you have successfully linked the it, but if not then you will have to complete the linking process. An explanation on how to do this is given in the next paragraph.

The number one reason why Analytics are showing up in your AdWords account is you simply because you haven’t linked them in your Google Analytics admin section. Here is a link to the instructions by Google on how to link them. It is important to note that as of this writing the number two reason why your analytics isn’t showing up isn’t in this article. How to link Analytics to AdWords by Google . The number two reason why your analytics aren’t showing up is because you didn’t do the final step in the linking process. After you’ve followed all of the steps listed in Google’s article you will then need to go to your AdWords account.

Once you are logged into AdWords you will follow these steps

  • On the top right of the AdWords page click on the gear icon and select “Linked accounts”
  • On the next page select “Google Analytics” from the navigation on the left of the screen
  • Find the account that your are trying to link (you may have multiple accounts that show if you manage multiple accounts)
  • Google Analytics Linked Account
  • Click on the edit button below that account
  • Click modify columns
  • Click on “Import site metrics” and hit save.
  • Show Analytics in AdWords

Once you have completed all steps then you should go back to “Double check and see if your Analytics are showing up” in this article to see if your analytics are appearing now. Note: Per Google it may take up to 24 hours for the data to appear.