# Google Analytics 4 integration for paid acquisition

Hendrik reads Google Analytics 4 traffic acquisition, landing pages, events, transactions, items, technical dimensions, and report settings so you can compare advertising changes with on site behavior.

## Questions Hendrik can help answer

- Did traffic acquisition or landing page behavior change?
- Could tagging or consent coverage explain the gap?
- Does the site journey support a campaign pause or test?

## Illustrative example

### Distinguish a traffic change from a store outcome

Same 14-day USD windows

*About this example: Synthetic data · illustrative analysis · Hendrik only acts with the permissions you give it.*

- Clicks (Google Ads): 42,000 → 43,200
- Sessions from Google paid traffic (Google Analytics 4): 36,500 → 27,800
- Orders (Shopify): 2,100 → 2,050

### What Hendrik checks

- **Check traffic definitions:** Confirm GA4’s source definition and Google Ads auto-tagging state.
- **Review consent and tagging:** Look for tracking changes that affect session coverage.
- **Separate orders:** Keep Shopify orders as store data, not a campaign match.

### What Hendrik sees

Google Ads clicks were nearly flat, while GA4 paid sessions fell and Shopify orders changed little.

### What to do next

Check tracking and consent coverage before changing bids.

**Limit:** The comparison does not identify a causal reason for the session gap.

## What Google Analytics 4 contributes

Use GA4 with an advertising integration and store data to see whether a change appears in traffic, the site journey, tracking, or completed orders.

## Data Hendrik reads

- **Traffic acquisition:** Acquisition reports by reported traffic dimensions.
- **Landing pages:** Landing-page reports.
- **Events:** Captured event counts and dimensions.
- **Transactions and items:** Reported ecommerce transactions and items.
- **Report metadata:** Property reporting metadata, including currency and timezone.

## Setup and access

- **Setup:** When enabled, sign in with Google and select the GA4 property.
- **Permissions:** Google Analytics OAuth scope: analytics.readonly.
- **Accounts:** One GA4 property.
- **History:** The current product configuration defaults to 90 days. Hendrik shows the actual coverage after the first sync.
- **Refresh:** Configured data streams run every 6 hours. Hendrik shows the published freshness for each source after sync.
- **Setup timing:** Google Analytics 4 starts its initial sync after authorization, account selection, and data checks. The duration depends on the selected account and history.
- **Actions:** Connecting reads Google Analytics 4 reports. It does not change your property, events, or tags.
- **Availability:** Your workspace shows Connect or Request access for your account.

## What you need to connect

- Confirm the GA4 property, consent coverage, timezone, and currency.
- Define the event or transaction metric being compared.
- Use comparable, completed windows.

## Important limits

- GA4 data is instrumented data, not a complete commercial ledger.
- Consent and tagging affect coverage.
- GA4 does not automatically map store orders to ad-platform campaigns.

## Provider documentation

- [GA4 Data API](https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/reporting/data/v1)

## Start with Google Analytics 4

[Create a workspace and connect Google Analytics 4](https://app.withhendrik.com/auth?mode=sign-up&acquisition_channel=marketing&return_to=%2Fonboarding%2Factivation&cta_location=integration_markdown&landing_page_id=integration-ga4&integration=ga4)