To target — and retarget — the right shoppers, ecommerce sites need to connect customer behaviour and ecommerce data from Google Analytics with their Google Ads (AdWords) accounts. But until now that was a complicated process, to say the least.

Marketers have spent years going through detailed setup steps to connect the platforms, or wading through spreadsheets with manual imports and exports, building custom audiences and segments. It was an ongoing headache, but they did it because connecting shopping behaviour data with AdWords campaigns gets big results.

Now there’s a better way. Littledata’s new Google Ads connection makes it easy to link Analytics to AdWords. Ecommerce sites are using the connection for smarter targeting that increases online sales and customer LTV.

Why should you link Analytics to AdWords?

In past posts we’ve highlighted the benefits of linking Analytics with AdWords for a mutually beneficial relationship. Littledata’s new connection automates the process to ensure accurate tracking and more targeted campaigns. Benefits include:

• Online sales data in AdWords reports, and visa versa. Add sales columns to reports in Google Ads and view Google Ads costs in Google Analytics.
• Abandoned cart campaigns. Get higher ROI with targeted PPC campaigns based on shopping cart activity.
• Ecommerce hyper-segmentation, especially for Shopify stores and enterprise clients. Since Littledata fixes ecommerce tracking across the checkout flow, the Google Ads connection is especially powerful for marketers looking to retarget with granular user behaviour data, such as product list views, product detail pages and adds-to-cart.
• Multiple accounts. Multiple views. Our Google Ads connections lets you link multiple AdWords accounts to multiple Google Analytics views. It’s that simple.

Wait, do you mean Ads or AdWords?

Have you heard the news?

Google AdWords is now Google Ads. Google pitched the switch to Ads as a large-scale rebrand for simplicity, but it’s clearly targeted in part at bumping up competition against other ‘ads’ in common parlance: Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads and Twitter Ads, with Reddit Ads quickly gaining pace among SaaS companies in particular. We still talk about AdWords a bit on the blog (as does the rest of the internet, such as Search Engine Land), but soon we’ll all have to adapt to the change.

So we’re calling this new connection a Google Ads connection, but we don’t expect marketers to stop chatting about AdWords any time soon.

How does it work?

After you sign up for Littledata, you can connect Analytics to AdWords from the Connections tab in the Littledata app.

Just follow a couple of setup steps and the app makes the connection for you. No more manual connections. Plus, we audit your analytics setup continually to ensure consistent ecommerce tracking, campaign tagging and UTM parameters.

So what are you waiting for?

Those products aren’t going to retarget themselves…

And don’t forget to try our Facebook Ads connection to complete your marketing analytics stack. It’s an easy way to link Facebook Ads to Google Analytics. All paid plans in the Littledata app include a variety of Google Analytics connections for Shopify, Shopify Plus, ReCharge, Refersion, CartHook and more.

PS. The next iteration of our Google Ads connection will provide automation for retargeting using ecommerce segments. Sign up for Littledata today so you’re first in line!