Connecting with Google is a single sign-in that gives gas access to up to three services at once: YouTube, Google Ads and Google Analytics. Compared with the other platforms, Google has one extra step: before you sign in, you tick in gas which of these three services you use on that Google account. The linked account belongs to your user account, that is the one you are signed in with in gas. Only then do you pick the specific channels, ad accounts and Analytics properties for individual customer accounts.
Linking has two steps. This article describes the first one, signing in to Google. Only the second step, picking a specific channel, ad account or Analytics property, decides whose data appears in the customer account. Signing in to Google on its own does not download any data yet.
Before you start
Sign in with the Google account that really manages those services. gas sees exactly what this account sees, nothing more.
- YouTube: the Google account has to be either the owner of the channel, or the owner or manager of the so-called Brand Account the channel runs under. A Brand Account is a separate identity on YouTube, named after the company or destination, not after you. Channel permissions granted in YouTube Studio (the Manager, Editor and Viewer roles) are not enough for linking. YouTube states directly that invited users do not have access to the YouTube API, and that is exactly the interface gas reads the data through.
- Google Ads: the Read only access level is enough, because even that one may view and run campaign performance reports. The higher Standard and Admin levels work too, of course. The Email only and Billing levels are not enough, they cannot open performance reports. Access is granted in Google Ads by a user with the Admin level on that ad account, no other level can do it.
- Google Analytics: you need access to a specific property, that is to what Google Analytics measures on one website. The lowest role that can read data is Viewer. The role is granted either on the whole account, in which case it applies to all properties under it, or on a single property, in which case it applies only to that one. It is granted by a user who has the Administrator role at that level.
If you are not sure which services you use on your account, tick all three in the procedure below. Ticking is only a request for access, which you then confirm on Google's side.
Only Google Analytics 4 properties are offered from Google Analytics. The older generation, Universal Analytics, stopped processing data for standard properties on 1 July 2023, and from July 2024 Google removed access to it, including the interface for applications, and deleted the data. If you measure your website only in the old generation, you will see an empty list in gas and you first have to create a Google Analytics 4 property in Google Analytics.
Agree on the linking with the administrator of the customer account in advance. A linked service belongs to the user account of the person who signed in, whereas a connected profile belongs to the customer account. That is why it often happens that a user sees nothing in Settings → Connected services even though there is data in gas: someone else on the team connected the profile. The complete overview is in Settings → Customer account → Linked accounts in the Who links the account column, which shows the e-mail address of the owner of the link so you can write to them straight away. The value Nobody means the profile has no live link. So the administrator can tell whether a new link is needed at all. This is described in detail in the article about who linked the account.
Procedure
- Open Settings in the left menu and click the Connected services tile. The Dashboard page opens with tiles for the platforms and the number of linked accounts for each of them.
- Click the Google accounts tile. A list of your linked Google accounts opens. If you do not have any yet, instead of a list you will see the message "You have no linked Google account."
- Click the Connect Google account button above the list. If you have no linked account yet, you will find it in the middle of the screen.
- The Google account connection window opens with three tick cards: Google Ads, Google Analytics and YouTube. Tick the services you use on that Google account. The Select all button ticks all three at once.
- Click the Connect account button in the bottom right. As long as no service is ticked, this button stays grey and cannot be clicked.
- gas redirects you to the Google sign-in screen. Sign in with the account that manages those services. If you are signed in to several Google accounts in your browser, be careful which one you pick from the list.
- Google shows you a consent screen with a list of permissions and with tick boxes. Confirm all the boxes offered and complete the consent.
- Google returns you to gas. You will see the Connection with the Google account screen with the message "Processing". Wait a moment and do not close the page.
- Once it is done, gas switches you to the Google accounts list by itself. You can tell the link succeeded because a new row with the e-mail address of the account you just linked has appeared in the list.
The most common mistake is unticking boxes on the Google consent screen. What you ticked in gas is only a request for access, the consent at Google is what decides. If you turn off some box there, data for that service will not reach gas and the service will not appear on the account at all. If you allow nothing, the link ends with a message saying that you did not allow access to any Google service. The fix: start the link again with the Connect Google account button and this time leave everything switched on in the Google screen. The new consent overwrites the original one, it does not create a second account.
What happens next
In the Google accounts list, every linked account has its own row. The Account column shows the e-mail address, the Services column shows which services the access actually arrived for, and the Actions column holds the buttons for working with the account.
Clicking the e-mail address opens the account detail. At the top there are tabs for exactly those services you have access to. In each of them you pick the specific ad account, Analytics property or channel you want to track, and you decide which customer accounts it should be shown to. This second step is described in separate articles about connecting a YouTube channel, a Google Ads account and a Google Analytics property.
You can have more than one linked Google account. If, for example, you manage the YouTube channel under a different address than the ad account, link both addresses one after the other using the same procedure.
Data only starts downloading after you pick a specific channel, ad account or property, not right after you sign in. With Google Ads the first numbers appear within hours: clicks, impressions and costs are refreshed by Google roughly once an hour, conversions take longer to come through. A YouTube channel is updated approximately once a day, because YouTube keeps recalculating its numbers for several days back. Google Analytics is topped up at much longer intervals, in the order of several times a month, because Google itself writes the data through with a delay: closing one day commonly takes it 24 to 48 hours and the numbers still change during that time.
No history is lost in the process, each of the three services provides it far back into the past: Google Ads keeps performance data up to 11 years back, YouTube Analytics returns daily values for any date after 1 July 2008, and the summary reports in Google Analytics 4 reach back to the date the property started measuring the website. After connecting, gas fills in earlier periods too, not just the days from the link onwards. For Google Ads ad accounts, however, it downloads only the last few years, not the whole period Google offers.
In the Actions column you will find the Unlink account option for every account, after which gas asks whether you really want to do it. If the account feeds a regular report, instead of a simple question you will see a window with a list of the affected reports and the option Remove unlinked profiles from these reports as well. Unlinking can be undone: if you link the account again, the data is kept and the connection comes back. If you do not link it again, gas removes its data after 30 days.
If you do not sign in to gas through Google yet, the Actions column additionally offers the Use for login option. After that you will be able to use Google as a way of signing in to gas, which is confirmed by the message "Account linked for login."
Common problems
The Connect account button is grey and cannot be clicked
No service is ticked in the Google account connection window. Tick at least one card, or click Select all.
A service you use is missing from the account after linking
Look at the Services column. If the service is not there, it stayed unticked either in the Google account connection window or on the Google consent screen. Start the link again and tick the service in both places. Do the same when you want to add a service to an already linked account: go through the whole link again and tick the new service as well as the ones you already use.
gas says you did not allow access to any Google service
All the boxes stayed unticked on the Google consent screen. Click Try again and tick at least one service in the Google consent, ideally all the ones offered.
gas says you cancelled the account link
You closed the Google screen or refused the consent. Go back to the Google accounts list and start the link again with the Connect Google account button.
gas says the OAuth state does not match
This means the sign-in started in one browser or device and finished in another, or that too much time passed between starting and finishing. Click Try again and do the whole link in one browser without longer breaks.
gas reports an error during linking or an error on the provider's side
Try the link again. If the message comes back the second time too, write through the contact form and include which Google account you were linking and which services you ticked.
A channel, ad account or Analytics property is missing from the list
Check whether you manage them under a different Google account, and whether you have permission to read reports for them. Permissions are set on Google's side, they are granted by the administrator of that account. Once they have been changed, start the link again.
Each of the three services follows a different rule for which items Google offers at all:
- Google Ads only gives applications the ad accounts the signed-in user is added to directly. Accounts run under a manager (MCC) account do not expand from it, even though you normally see them in Google Ads.
- YouTube offers the channels of the account you signed in with, and the channels of Brand Accounts where you are the owner or manager. A permission granted in YouTube Studio does not count here.
- Google Analytics offers Google Analytics 4 properties where you have at least the Viewer role.
gas says the channel or account is already linked
That item is already connected in gas, there is no need to create a second connection for the same channel or account. If you see a message saying that all channels (or all accounts) are already linked, pick a different Google account, or agree with the administrator of the customer account on where the item is connected.
Data stopped coming after a colleague left the company
This is the most common cause of data suddenly missing. The profile was once connected by someone who no longer works with you, and as soon as their access is removed or their account is closed on Google's side, the link stops working, even though you still see the profile in gas. Do not solve it by deleting the profile and creating it again. The profile should be connected again by an active colleague who has access to it on Google's side: during the selection a message appears saying that the channel or account was linked by another user, together with the Take ownership button. That takes it over under their link, the history and settings are kept and data starts coming again. If you connected the item yourself in the past but under a different Google address of yours, gas offers the Relink button instead.
The channel or account shows a yellow Paused label
Access has stopped being valid, typically after a password change at Google, after permissions were removed or after the account was closed. gas also sends a "Google connection paused" alert about it. You restore it by going through the link again.
- Open the Google accounts list.
- Click Connect Google account and tick the same services as the first time.
- Confirm the consent at Google.
gas relinks the previously selected channels, ad accounts and Analytics properties by itself, lets you know with an "Google accounts automatically relinked" alert and confirms the restoration with a "Google connection restored" message. There is no rush measured in hours, but do not put it off either: if you do not restore the link within 14 days of it being paused, gas removes the related data. This is described in detail in the article about restoring a link after access expires.
The channel or account shows a yellow Missing permission label
The link as a whole works, but gas has lost permission for that specific item. Check on Google's side whether the linked account still has access to that item, and then go through the link again.
You cannot see an account you linked in your list
In Settings → Connected services you only see your own links. If another member of the team has linked the same Google account in the meantime, the link passed to them and it is no longer in your list. The connected channels, ad accounts and their data are not lost by this. You can find out who owns the link in Settings → Customer account → Linked accounts in the Who links the account column.