Google Analytics Audit Test #

60

Google Attribution for All Paid Google Links

Why It Matters:

Critical to understanding where your traffic is coming from and assigning appropriate credit.

Industries:

All

Checks For:

Accuracy

How accurate is your recent data?

Insight Category:

Attribution

Can you tell which marketing efforts are working?

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Background

A GA4 audit is essential for uncovering missing insights—key data points that organizations don't yet know and can act upon. A well-done audit evaluates both behavioral tracking and traffic attribution, ensuring each is accurate and useful. It also assesses whether the data collected truly supports business decisions and reporting.

Test Detail

This test verifies that all paid traffic from Google Ads (search, display, YouTube, etc.) is correctly attributed in Google Analytics as paid Google traffic.

If attribution is broken, these sessions may be incorrectly classified as “Organic Search,” “Referral,” or even “Direct,” leading to underreporting of ad performance and wasted budget.

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Google Analytics audit test results.

How to Conduct This Test

Basic Tests

  • In Google Analytics > Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition, filter by Session source/medium.
    • Look for:
      • Google CPC traffic showing up under “google / organic” or “(direct) / (none)”.
      • Traffic from YouTube or Google Display Network appearing under “referral” or “unassigned”.
  • Use Explore or BigQuery to dig deeper into traffic where source = google but medium is not “cpc”.
  • Also check that:
    • Auto-tagging is enabled in Google Ads.
    • gclid parameters are present in your site URLs from Google Ads.

Automated, Free Audit

Run our Instant Audit to check for accurate attribution of your Google Ads campaigns in Google Analytics.

Unsure how to evaluate or fix your Google Ads attribution in Google Analytics? Hire a pro.

How To Fix

  • Ensure auto-tagging is enabled in your Google Ads account (under Settings > Account Settings > Auto-tagging).
  • Confirm your site is not stripping query parameters like gclid—test this by clicking a live ad and checking the landing page URL.
  • If using redirects (especially in forms or LP tools), make sure gclid values persist through the redirect.
  • Link your Google Analytics property to Google Ads for more accurate attribution and conversion importing.
  • Hire a pro to fully audit and repair your Google Ads attribution pipeline for dependable performance reporting.

Tips from a Google Analytics Consultant

Focus on Insights

Every Google Analytics audit should result in a plan for more insights.

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An insight is:

  • something you don't know
  • and can act on to improve performance

The Goal

Identify and remove insight blockers. Don't get tempted to track things you can't act on!

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