Don't be left in the dark. Get a clearer picture of your Marketing Cloud campaign performance in Google Analytics or with built-in dashboards. With this blog post, you will learn how to connect your Salesforce Marketing Cloud with Google Analytics so that data from the two platforms can be seamlessly integrated.

Google Analytics & Salesforce Marketing Cloud integration process

By integrating Google Analytics with Marketing Cloud, you can gain a more comprehensive view of how your emails are performing through data tracking and analysis. This integration brings email engagement and conversion data from Google Analytics directly into Marketing Cloud, providing marketers with the ability to swiftly analyze the top-performing content. Moreover, by using Marketing Cloud data, marketers have the ability to create fresh customized target groups within Google Analytics, which empowers them to provide more tailored advertisements and content.

Marketers can effortlessly modify tracking parameters for email links, update Google Analytics view and properties, and configure the integration using Marketing Cloud's intuitive administrative user interface.

Begin by following these 5 straightforward steps to establish the Google Analytics integration for Marketing Cloud.

Set up a Google Analytics Integration User:

To make sure that all of your organization's properties and views are recorded in only one Google Analytics, we recommend creating a dedicated separate account. This Google Analytics account will be utilized to grant Marketing Cloud permission to access data from Google Analytics.

Link Google Analytics to Marketing Cloud:

Click your name (on the top from the Setup settings) > Select Apps > Click Google Analytics Integration (on the left menu) > Click the Link Account button

Configure access to Google Analytics Views:

Select the dedicated Integration user you created above and click Allow.

The page will shift back to the Google Analytics Integrations Setup page. You will see a green checkmark in front of your username once the integration is successful!

Click the Manage button and then choose a property and a view. 

The Journey builder dashboard will show all Google Analytics Goals set in the selected view.

Set up Web URL Tracking Parameters:

Last but not least, This step is about configuring the URL link parameters that will be appended to all messaging links. The Parameter Management Setup page will appear after you click Manage from the Manager Tracking Parameter section.

If you are already using the Web Analytics Connector to append UTMs then update or deactivate it first. And also ensure that the Web Analytics Connector isn't being used with any other emails in Marketing Cloud.

Update utm_source & utm_medium parameters, and then decide if utm_campaign should represent the Message Name or stand set manually for each communication. Click Save.

You can further set GA4 property tracking for Web. And App links if your organization is using GA4.

Test the Integration:

For testing the integration, we suggest sending a sample through Journey Builder and finishing a goal on the site that coincides with one of the Google Analytics goals that are created in your Google Analytics account. After sending the email, it is recommended to wait for a duration of 10-15 minutes before accessing the Journey Analytics dashboard. Upon successful integration, you should observe the population of Goal Completion and Site Usage data on the dashboard.

The insights you need to make a firm decision are right in front of your eyes.  With Google Analytics and Marketing Cloud integration, it's easy for marketers like yourself who have been wondering how their campaigns perform across both platforms can see all the information that matters most at one time!

References:

• https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_gai_google_analytics_integration_tracking.htm&type=5

• https://hevodata.com/learn/google-analytics-and-marketing-cloud/