Lifetimely: Connect Google Ads

How to Integrate Google Ads with Lifetimely :

Overview

Integrating Google Ads with Lifetimely lets you track ad spend, ROI, and overall performance directly within the app. Follow these steps to connect your Google Ads account.

Steps to Integrate Google Ads

1. Access the Integrations Tab

   • From your Lifetimely dashboard, navigate to Integrations in the left-hand sidebar.

     Select Google Ads

   • Under the Integrations tab, locate and click Google Ads.

     Authorize Your Google Ads Account

   • Log in with the Google account that has access to the ad accounts you want to connect.
   • Review the permissions Lifetimely requests, then click Allow to authorize.

   • If prompted, select the specific ad accounts you want to connect.

     Confirm the Connection

   • Ensure your Google Ads account shows as Connected in the Integrations tab.
   • Lifetimely will start syncing your data. This can take up to 30 minutes, depending on the amount of data.
   • Once synced, head to the Ad Spend or Marketing Performance sections to view your results.

Changing or Updating Your Google Ads Account

• To connect a different Google Ads account:
  1. Go to Integrations → Google Ads.
  2. Click Disconnect Account.
  3. Reconnect by logging in with the new account credentials and authorizing access.
  4. Wait up to 30 minutes for the sync to complete.

Troubleshooting Tips

• Enable pop-ups during setup to avoid blocked login windows.
• If disconnected, click Reconnect and follow prompts.
• Ensure you’re selecting the correct Google Ads account and have the required permissions.
• If your organization requires 2FA, you’ll see on-screen instructions during setup. Follow them to complete the connection.

Campaign Exclusion:

It is common for multi-store users of Lifetimely to use one Google Ads account for all of their stores.

For example, let's consider a setup where a merchant has a UK store, a DE store, and a FR store but uses a single Google Ads.

If this single Google ads account is connected to each Lifetimely account (please note that a Lifetimely account can only be connected to one Shopify store at a time), then there is a possibility that the spending data meant for the DE store syncs to the UK Lifetimely account's marketing spending, which inflates the costs and reduces the profits.

But no worries, Lifetimely has a solution to this conundrum.

The setup to solve this:

In each Lifetimely account, when you go to the Google Ads integration page https://lifetimely.useamp.com/integrations/google, there is an option to exclude the spending data from campaigns that are not relevant to the current store.

Here's a screenshot of this option that you see under each marketing integration:

In the text field, you need to enter the exact keyword that is present in your campaign(s). For example, if you enter the keyword "DE", then all the campaigns that have the keyword "DE" in their name will be excluded from Lifetimely.

So, you can use this trick in your UK account to exclude the campaigns that are meant for DE and FR stores. This way, the ad spending data will be accurate in each of your Lifetimely accounts,

Also, use UTM Parameters to Attribute Campaigns to Specific Stores

Since you have one ad account managing campaigns across multiple stores, the best way to differentiate performance by store is through UTM tagging:

• In your ad campaigns, append UTMs that specify the store—for example:
  • ?...utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=UK_store_campaign
  • ?...utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=DE_store_campaign

This will let Lifetimely assign resulting revenue to the correct store using its UTM Explorer, which ties Shopify order data to those UTMs (first-touch or last-touch) (read here).

Then, drill down and analyze Ad Spend & Revenue by Store

Once your tagging and integrations are in place:

• Use Attribution → Overview to see overall campaign performance by channel (Google, Facebook, TikTok) across stores (read here).
• Use the Drill Down report to get granular: campaign → ad group → ad-level performance per store (read here).
• Use UTM Explorer to visualize revenue, ROAS, conversions, and orders tied to your store-specific UTM tags (read here).

Combine the above with store selection in the dashboard to view metrics per store or aggregated.

Important notes to consider:

• Currency Conversions: Lifetimely automatically converts ad spend into your Shopify store's currency, so ensure you're mindful of this when looking at spend vs. revenue in different currencies (read here).
• Time Zone Differences: If your stores operate in different time zones, the consolidated totals may not exactly match the sum of individual store metrics due to conversion timing and order assignment differences (read here).