Upcoming changes to Google Analytics audiences and conversions in Google Ads

What's changing

Starting in April 2023, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will automatically set up a basic GA4 property linked to your Google Ads account if the Google Ads account still uses Universal Analyticsconversions and/or audiences.

During this process, GA4 will configure corresponding conversions and/or audiences in GA4 and apply them in your Google Ads account. This will happen even if you already have a GA4 property but still use Universal Analytics conversions and/or audiences in Google Ads.

Options for handling these changes

The configuration created by GA4 may not be set up to meet your specific business goals or capture all the historical data you need, so we recommend you start manually moving your conversions and/or audiences to GA4 now.

If you don’t want the GA4 Setup Assistant to make these changes, you may opt out by the end of April.

If you don’t want an automatically set up GA4 property at all, you can also opt out of the entire process.

What you should know

Universal Analytics standard properties will stop processing new data from July 1, 2023 onwards. GA4, our next-generation measurement solution, will become the sole Google Analytics standard property type.

This impacts Universal Analytics conversions, audiences, and site stats currently used in your Google Ads campaigns. We recommend that you switch to GA4 now to ensure your campaigns and ad groups are effectively moved to GA4 conversions, site stats, and audiences. If you’re unsure whether a GA4 property has been created, please contact the admin user for your Universal Analytics property in Google Analytics to verify.

Resources to help you migrate to Google Analytics 4

For an overview of functionality and features in UA and GA4, including APIs, check out the Universal Analytics to GA4 migration reference.

For API integrations:

  • If you previously used the Google Analytics Management API v3 to manage your Universal Analytics properties, migrate to the Admin API v1.
  • If you previously used the Google Analytics Reporting API v4 to run reports in your Universal Analytics properties, migrate to the Data API v1.

How to get help