A friend of mine Dean owns a small company. Whenever Dean invites me over for food and drinks, I notice his Google Analytics account is conveniently open and he’s logged in. I know he wants to pick my brain.
During a recent, visit Dean told me he was frustrated by his poor Google AdWords performance; he said they weren’t getting him any leads, not even email newsletter sign ups, and he asked me to have a look.
It seemed odd to me considering he was spending a lot of money on AdWords.
When I looked closer, I saw that there wasn’t any AdWords data in his Google Analytics account.
When we opened his Google AdWords account, we saw much more encouraging data: more than a dozen sales leads and a few email sign ups. AdWords was performing!
What Dean wasn’t doing — a mistake many businesses make — was linking his AdWords account to his Google Analytics account, to leverage the power of both.
Linking your Google AdWords and Google Analytics accounts allows the two products to work in tandem and exchange valuable data. And that helps you make better business and marketing decisions:
The Good Things That Happen when You Link Your Google AdWords and Google Analytics Accounts
Everything Works Towards the Same Goals
When you link your Google AdWords and Google Analytics accounts, you can automatically import your Google Analytics goals into AdWords. That means your ads are now required to meet the same conversion standards as other traffic sources like SEO, referral, and even other advertisers.
And you’ll be able to see how all your online lead generating activities are performing in one single report.
This screenshot from Google Analytics shows how you can compare AdWords and all other traffic sources in a single screen:
This report helped me see that one of my customers was generating more revenue with Google AdWords advertising than all other advertising sources combined. They made thousands more in revenue by redirecting money from under performing advertisers to AdWords.
This post is an excerpt from a previous Linked In Pulse article.
