Linking Google Ads to GA4 as a tradesperson
Without a GA4 link, Google Ads only sees clicks, not what a visitor does afterwards. Link your Ads account to GA4 correctly and import the conversions, and you know exactly which campaign brings in callers and which does not. This page shows you in 3 steps how to set this up and what you then see in your account.
The most common mistake sits between step two and step three. A link that exists but where no one has imported the conversions delivers precisely zero steering data.
What you miss without a GA4 link
You are running Google Ads for your handyman business in Tilburg. Your ad sits at the top for "handyman Tilburg" and you get 180 clicks a month. But what happens to those clicks once someone lands on your site? Without a link between Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 (GA4), that question stays unanswered.
In Ads you do see the number of clicks and an estimate of conversions, but not the behaviour of those visitors on your website
Smart Bidding, the system that automatically adjusts your bids to get more conversions for less money, then works on incomplete data. The result: your budget goes to clicks that deliver nothing.
More than half of the tradespeople who come to us as an SEA specialist run Ads without GA4 correctly linked.
The most common mistake: linked but not imported
There is a difference between linking GA4 to Google Ads and importing conversions from GA4 into Ads. That distinction costs many tradespeople money unnecessarily, because they think everything is set up correctly while half the work is missing.
You link in Google Ads under Settings, at Linked accounts
That allows Ads and GA4 to talk to each other. After that, you still need to explicitly indicate which GA4 conversions Google Ads may use for optimisation.
Go in Google Ads to Goals, then Conversions, then Summary
Do you only see conversions there with the source "Google Ads tag" and nothing with "Google Analytics 4 property"? Then you have linked, but not imported. This is the most common reason why tradespeople, after months of advertising, still do not know which campaign genuinely brings in new customers.
How to link Google Ads to GA4 in 3 steps
The link itself takes little time. It comes down to three steps, in this order.
Step 1: link the accounts
Open your Google Ads account, click Settings at the bottom left and go to Linked accounts. Find Google Analytics 4, click Details and then Link. You can also set up the link from GA4, via Admin and then Product links; Google describes both routes. The wrench icon in the top right has not existed since the interface overhaul at the end of 2023.
Step 2: import the conversions
Go to Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. Click the plus sign to add a new conversion action. Choose "Import" and then "Google Analytics 4 properties".
Step 3: set them as a primary action
Make sure the imported GA4 conversions are set to "Primary action". Click the conversion name and change the category if needed. Only primary actions are used by Smart Bidding, so you never skip this step.
After that, give it a few weeks to gather data before you draw conclusions about your campaigns.
Update April 2026: what changed and what you need to do
In April 2026, Google Ads started accepting visitor data simultaneously from the website tag, from Data Manager and via the API. So you no longer need to choose between those methods. And since June 2026, enhanced conversions for web and for leads have been merged into a single feature with one switch.
You will also come across the claim that in April 2026 Google changed the data layer schema and the way GA4 counts and attributes conversions
That is not in Google's announcement.
Check this yourself in Google Ads and not in GA4: go to Goals, then Conversions, then Summary, open your conversion action and check whether enhanced conversions for leads is switched on. The diagnostics report for that conversion action shows whether data is genuinely coming in. Enhanced conversions for leads is set up entirely within Google Ads, not in GA4.
Have you only recently started advertising, or did you set up your link after April 2026
Then in most cases you do not need to do anything.
What enhanced conversions for leads does with an enquiry
In the previous step you check a switch. This is what sits underneath it. Google calls enhanced conversions for leads an upgraded version of importing offline conversions: when someone submits an enquiry, your Google tag captures encrypted data from your own form, for example the email address, and Google later matches that to signed-in Google accounts. That means a job that is only closed in the office weeks later can still be attributed to the right ad click.
For a tradesperson, that is the difference between knowing how many forms came in and knowing which campaign actually brought in the jobs
Two sides are needed for this, and they do not both sit with Google. On Google's side, you switch the feature on and agree to the customer data policy. On your side, someone needs to record per enquiry what came out of it, because without that outcome there is nothing to report back.
What changed this year: enhanced conversions for web and for leads have been merged into a single on/off switch, since April 2026 Google Ads accepts the data simultaneously from the website tag, from Data Manager and via the API, and from 15 June 2026 the uploads run through the Data Manager API. If you are following a guide that still describes uploading via the Google Ads API, you are following a route that has moved.
To be honest about it: we do not have this feedback loop running for any client today, and we therefore do not sell it as such
What we do instead is map out with you the five steps from click to won customer, so it is clear which step your own admin needs to deliver. That sequence is on the page about measuring conversions in Google Ads as a tradesperson NL.
How to see at a glance whether it has been imported or not
The most common mistake sits right there in your conversion summary, in two columns. The source column tells you whether a conversion comes from the Google Ads tag or from your GA4 property. The column next to it tells you whether it is set to primary, because only primary actions feed Smart Bidding. If it only says Google Ads tag, then you have linked but not imported.
What you then actually see in your account
Once the link is set up correctly and the conversions are imported, your Google Ads dashboard turns into something that actually tells you something. You no longer just see "8 conversions", but also which campaign, which keyword and which ad generated those 8 conversions.
Take the example of a painter from Breda running two campaigns: one on "painter Breda" and one on "exterior painting costs"
With the link in place, he sees that the first campaign brings in callers who spend an average of 4 minutes on the site, while the second campaign attracts people who leave quickly and never call.
This is exactly what Smart Bidding needs to work well: real signals about which users actually become customers
The more quality conversion data you supply, the better the system learns and the lower your cost per lead becomes. Want to look beyond the link itself? Also read how a good landing page for your Google Ads campaign NL affects your conversion rate, or check your Quality Score if clicks stay expensive despite a correct link.
Frequently asked questions about linking GA4 and Google Ads
Do I need a developer to link GA4 to Google Ads? In most cases, no. Do you already have the Google Tag on your website via Google Tag Manager? Then you can do the linking and importing of conversions yourself in your Ads account. Only if you want to set up enhanced conversions or need bespoke conversion measurement might a developer be useful.
How long does it take before I see results after linking?
Google states that a bidding strategy needs up to three weeks or one to two conversion cycles to adjust to a new goal. Google does not mention a minimum threshold in numbers of conversions; it does advise waiting to judge until you have thirty days with at least thirty conversions in them. If you do not reach that, your judgement is a guess, not a measurement.
I already have a link set up, but the data is not right.
What now? First check whether conversions have genuinely been imported into Ads, not just linked. Then check whether auto-tagging is switched on. Not seeing any data for enhanced conversions? Open the conversion action and check the diagnostics report to see whether data is genuinely coming in. The claim that you need to reinstall your Google tag after April 2026 does not come from Google's announcement; that announcement is about Ads accepting data from more sources at once.
Can I measure phone callers through GA4?
Yes, but that requires an extra step. You set up a click conversion on your phone number, for when someone on mobile taps the number, or you use a dynamic call tracking system.
Does the GA4 link still work with a small budget?
Certainly, correct conversion measurement matters even more then. Are you spending €400 a month? Then you want every euro going to the campaigns that genuinely bring in callers.
Set it up yourself or have an SEA specialist check it
You can do the link and the import yourself once you have access to Google Ads and GA4. Not sure whether your conversions are set up correctly, or do you want an SEA specialist to check your whole Google Ads account for linking, importing and primary actions? Book a call and we will go through your account together.