There’s no better way to get a clear view of performance inside your Google Ads account than looking at the dollars and cents. Not just how much your ad clicks and daily costs are which Google automatically displays, but your actual web sales shown side-by-side with this other data… e-commerce baby!
NOTE BEFORE WE GET STARTED:
This guide is meant for those that have their site built on WordPress/ WooCommerce platform. If your site is built on Shopify or another platform, you will want to see how it feeds data to Google Analytics. Many of the steps below will still apply and be relevant, but I would recommend checking first.
Ok, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here is what you are going to need to accomplish this magical integration:
- Your WordPress/ WooCommerce Website
- The WooCommerce Google Analytics Plugin (free btw 😉 )
- Your Google Ads Account
- Your Google Analytics Account
Now we’re ready to rock!
Getting Started
Once you have followed the below steps, something powerful will happen- You will be able to not only have any sales from your website appear in your Google Ads account to get a complete view of overall performance and return on your investment (ROI), but you will also have invaluable shopping cart and sales funnel data and visuals inside Google Analytics that will help guide you towards making better decisions and refining your on-page optimization to get better results from each visitor.
Sounds like a ton of work, huh?
It’s not, just set aside a couple of focused hours and listen to some soft rock in the background to get you going.
Oh! One last thing:
This setup assumes the following:
- You already have Google Analytics set up for your website. This setup does not replace your Google Analytics setup.
- Your Google Analytics account is already linked to your Google Ads account.
- You want to see sales data related to your Google Ads campaigns inside of the Google Ads dashboard.
- You have a WordPress/ WooCommerce website.
#1 Install and enable the WordPress plugin WooCommerce Google Analytics (Developed by WooCommerce directly)
#2 Next, go to the settings page for this plugin after you’ve installed it. Go to your plugins dashboard, then find the plugin, and then click ‘settings’.
#3 Make sure that the highlighted settings match the highlighted areas here:
(Google Analytics ID is filled out with your Analytics ID (UA-xxxxxxxxx-x), Make sure ‘Enable Universal Analytics’ is checked and ‘Enable Enhanced eCommerce’ is checked).
The only settings you should have to set are the highlighted ones unless your Google Analytics setup is non-standard.
#4 Now, navigate over to your Google Analytics account and head over to the Admin Panel and then find your default view and select ‘Ecommerce Settings’.
#5 Enable ‘Ecommerce’ and then enable ‘Enhanced Ecommerce Reporting’.
Save and exit the admin panel.
#6 Test that the Enhanced Ecommerce is working as intended by logging out of your wordpress website and navigating to your product pages, adding products to the shopping cart, and then leaving.
IMPORTANT: Make sure any adblockers you use are turned off as well so that the Analytics scripts run.
After you’ve done this test session, go back to your Analytics page and navigate to Conversions > Ecommerce > Shopping Behavior (this is the easiest way to confirm the different data is being sent). Set the data range to ‘Today’ and you should see some data there.
If you don’t see any data, try waiting an hour or two for Analytics to refresh and if it still doesn’t work review the plugin settings from step #3.
example of the data that you’ll start to see:
#7 Now it’s time to link the Enhanced Ecommerce data to Google Ads so you can easily attribute sales data to your Google Ads Campaigns.
Navigate over to Google Ads and go to the ‘Tools & Settings’ (the little wrench icon) dropdown and select ‘Conversions’.
#8 Add a new conversion by clicking the blue ‘+’ button, select ‘Import’, and then select ‘Google Analytics’.
#9 Select ‘Transactions’ and then hit ‘Import and Continue’. If you don’t see transactions then your Google Analytics account might not be linked to your Google Ads Account or you might have already imported transactions (go back to where you hit the blue ‘+’ and check if ‘transactions’ is already there).
#10 That’s it! Conversions and sales data from your website will now be attributed to your Google Ads endeavors (if the sale came from a Google Ads campaign).
The sales data will appear when there is a new transaction (a sale) through your website that will not only count your Conversions but the sale amount will appear under ‘Conversion Value’.
If you know you have transactions with sales data but don’t see anything inside your Google Ads account, then make sure you have the proper column by going to ‘Columns’ and selecting ‘Modify Columns’.
Then under ‘Conversions’ making sure the ‘Conv. Value’ is part of the filtered results.
You may have to wait a full day for data to appear inside Google Ads. Sometimes Google waits a while for this information to be final for the day and provide all of this information.
Conclusion
Armed with the data at your finger tips, this helpful integration will give you the power to make informed decisions, automate, and give you the information you need for building out a full fledged e-commerce site.
