Meta is encouraging advertisers to integrate Google Analytics 4 with its ad platform, offering early access to advertising system updates that show a boost in conversions.

GA4 is Google's analytics platform that collects event-based data from websites and apps. 

Samantha Noble, a freelance paid search and social consultant out of Havant, England, posted the note on LinkedIn.

Meta will make visible all traffic data sources in Google Analytics 4. By connecting Meta with Google Analytics, advertisers improve their attribution models.

Advertisers will need to configure event mapping to connect Meta conversion events with Google Analytics conversion events. It aims to improve conversion attribution and cross platform measurement.

The test is available to advertisers maintaining “a high-quality connection will get early access to the new ad system updates. The post says it takes between five and 10 minutes to get up and running.

Meta conducted a performance campaign analysis on 1,075 advertisers globally. The results demonstrated a 5% average increase in conversions driven by Meta

The company has worked on this integration with Google Analytics during the past year. The idea is to gain additional data in the feed to collect additional traffic insights to help improve ad performance.

Meta Events Manager supports the linking process. Events Manager is where advertisers oversee integrations with Meta Ads accounts.

Meta’s system aggregates data from Google to establish the connection and monitor context for web traffic. When combined with the Meta Pixel and the Conversions API, it can provide advertisers with a better understanding of campaign performance, the company said.

In the official announcement made last year, Meta touted this integration as a “new opt-in attribution setting that optimizes for and reports on incremental conversions, which are conversions that we believe would not have occurred without the ad being shown.”

The goal was to begin in 2024 and continue into this year, introducing the ability for businesses to connect their analytics tools directly to Meta’s ads system through a simple API setup. The company started with Google Analytics and Northbeam, and intended to expand this to Triple Whale and Adobe.

Wonderkind in Amsterdam published a post on the pros and cons to this integration for advertisers, suggesting those benefiting the most include ecommerce brands, lead generation businesses, and multi-channel advertisers.

Potential challenges include data privacy concerns because of the data sharing, especially in Europe, accuracy of event mapping, and limited availability of the service.