You know the drill: you’ve got a stack of ideas, hired an agency, set a budget, and you’re ready to flood your business with leads from Google. The forecast looks great—KPI goals are about to be smashed, and that well-earned holiday (with a nice bonus) is just around the corner.
But here’s the catch: you need to track and analyze your GoogleAds campaigns (LOL).
And if you get it wrong, you might end up burning through your budget without even knowing why. For example, if you’re running ads in Europe, you must set up Consent Mode — this determines what data can be collected based on user consent. If it’s not configured correctly, your attribution will be way off.
Or maybe part of your sales funnel happens outside your website or app? Then you need to set up offline conversion tracking—otherwise, crucial data will go missing.
And what about attribution models or cohort analysis?
How to Get It Right
1. Start with clean documentation. Your campaign tracking plan and event mapping shouldn’t just exist for show—they need to be accurate and up to date.
2. Connect the dots. Google Search Console, GA4, and Google Ads don’t talk to each other by default. You need to link them manually.
3. Define your KPIs and automate tracking. A well-structured Google Ads dashboard will instantly show you whether things are going well — or not.
4. Double-check your conversion tracking. Make sure conversions are actually flowing into Google Ads and GA4, and that your legal team (if you have one) has no concerns.
Setting up Google Ads isn’t just about launching campaigns. The tricky part is often in the documentation, privacy settings, and technical setup. But once you know what to do, it’s not that complicated.
If you work with GA4 to BigQuery exports, be sure to check out my SQL cheat sheet.
