Linking Google AdWords and Google Analytics

To track an advertising campaign in Google Analytics, you can either:

Manually Tag your links - up to 5 different variables
Use the automatically tagged Adwords campaigns

A great way to manage the ROI in your Adwords campaigns is by linking your Google AdWords account to your Google Analytics account. This allows you to fine tune your AdWords strategy based on real visitor data.

Set Up Accounts

Create Google AdWords account
Create Google Analytics account

Configure Adwords Account

Log into Adwords and click into the preferences tab [You must have Admin rights on the Analytics account]
Select "I already have an analytics account"
From the "Existing Google accounts" select the website you want to link up
Tick check boxes you want to retain
Click "Link account"
Set up ‘Auto-tagging’ - My Account Tab > Account Preferences > Tracking > Set Autotagging to ‘Yes’
Set Timezone in Adwords
Enabling auto-tagging

Configure Analytics Account

Set Timezone in Analytics - the timezone on Google AdWords takes precedence over Google Analytics. If you link your accounts together, make sure both time zones are in synch - make sure that you have set the timezone in AdWords correctly.
Isolate AdWords traffic - Create a new profile > Set up filter it to include only AdWords visitors. Note: Auto-tagging must be turned on for this to work.

Note: You can only link ONE AdWords account to each Analytics account. If you have multiple Adwords accounts that point to the same site, you will have to combine these accounts into one to link it to Analytics to see all relevant CPC data in one place. But be warned - you will lose historical data in the old accounts if you have not exported it to your own database.

To allow other users to view a campaign without giving them Admin rights to the Adwords account - Create a profile for them to 'view reports' access to your Analytics only.

Grant access to their Adwords Admin email login address - this ties Analytics to the Adwords display.