Linking Google Ads and Search Console

Both links live in Admin > Product links and need you to be an Editor in GA4 and an administrator of the other product.

Google Ads link. Choose the Ads account (or manager account), keep Enable personalised advertising on if you want GA4 audiences available for remarketing, and Enable auto-tagging so clicks carry a gclid. The link does three things: GA4 reports gain a Google Ads set of dimensions (campaign, ad group, keyword, cost, clicks, CPC) in Acquisition and Advertising; Google Ads can import key events from GA4 as conversions for bidding (Tools > Conversions > Import in Ads); and GA4 audiences appear in the Ads audience manager. Data flows from the moment of linking, not retroactively, except that gclid sessions already collected get Ads dimensions once linked.

Search Console link. One Search Console property can link to one GA4 web stream. It adds two reports under a Search Console collection that you must publish from the Library: Queries (search query, clicks, impressions, CTR, average position; no GA4 behaviour metrics) and Google organic search traffic (landing page with Search Console metrics joined to GA4 engagement and key events). Search Console data lags two to three days and is limited to the last 16 months.

The Ads link has a quota: 400 Ads accounts per property. Other product links available are BigQuery, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360, Merchant Center, Google Play, Ad Manager and Floodlight.

After linking Ads, check the Google Ads channel appears correctly as Paid Search / Paid Social / Cross-network in Traffic acquisition (Performance Max lands in Cross-network) and that cost data appears in the Advertising section.