How to Connect DV360 With GA4: Linking Steps and Settings

Linking DV360 and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) takes about ten minutes. Most questions come afterwards: what actually flows between the two, why audiences look smaller in DV360, and why the conversion numbers never quite agree. Getting the setup right first makes those answers much easier.

What does linking DV360 and GA4 do?

The link sends data both ways. DV360 campaign data flows into GA4, and GA4 audiences and conversions flow into DV360.

Two details are easy to miss. Through this link, GA4 conversions show up in DV360 only in custom bidding and its reporting, not as ordinary conversion columns. And when GA4 exports conversions, it uses its paid and organic channels last click model, which credits differently from Floodlight.

You do not need Analytics 360 for this. Google has said any GA4 property, standard or 360, can use its DV360 integration. 360 mainly raises limits, for example 400 audiences per property against 100 on a standard property.

What do you need before you link?

Check these before you start, or the link will work but show nothing useful.

• Roles. The Editor role on the GA4 property and the Admin role on the DV360 advertiser. With only one of them, you can still send a link request to someone who has the other.
• Key events. At least one event marked as a key event in GA4. For revenue, the purchase event must send both value and currency.
• Signals for audiences. Google signals or user-provided data collection turned on in GA4, plus personalised advertising enabled in the link settings. Without them, audiences do not export.
• Enhanced Attribution in DV360. It adds a click identifier to landing page URLs, and DV360 data will not appear in GA4 without it. It is on by default for new advertisers and sits in the advertiser's Floodlight settings.
• Consent. Your privacy policy and consent banner should cover the use of analytics data for advertising.

If your DV360 advertiser uses Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) for Floodlight, Google's advice is to link the Floodlight configuration to GA4 from CM360 instead.

How do you link DV360 from GA4?

1. In GA4, open Admin. Under Product links, click Display & Video 360 links.
2. Click Link.
3. If you are an Admin on the advertisers, click Choose advertisers and select them. Otherwise, send a request with the advertiser ID and the email address of an advertiser Admin.
4. Click Confirm, then Next.
5. Review the link settings: personalised advertising, campaign attribution and campaign data reporting are on by default. Auto-tagging is on and cannot be changed.
6. Click Next, review and submit.
7. In DV360, confirm that Enhanced Attribution is enabled for the advertiser.

One property can link to up to 200 advertisers, 20 at a time. Data from before the link is not backfilled, so link before launch, not halfway through a campaign.

How do you link GA4 from DV360?

The same link can start from the DV360 side.

1. Open the advertiser and go to Advertiser settings, then Linked accounts.
2. In the Integration center, find Google Analytics and click Manage & link, then New link.
3. If you have edit access to the GA4 property, choose it. If not, request access with the property ID and an editor's email.
4. Click Link. With edit access, it is approved straight away. Otherwise a GA4 editor gets an email to approve it.

Do you also need a Floodlight link?

Often, yes. Google suggests using both kinds of link, because each gives you different things.

The Floodlight route suits advertisers who already judge campaigns on Floodlight and want GA4 conversions in the same view. Google asks for Google signals to be on for Floodlight attribution of web conversions, except under its cross-channel last click model. Our guide on tracking conversions in DV360 explains Floodlight itself, and our guide to CM360 campaign attribution covers the CM360 side.

How do you check that the link is working?

Give it a day or two of live traffic, then check three places.

• GA4 report. Go to Advertising, then Key event performance, and select Display & Video 360. The report needs the desktop version of GA4. If campaign names and cost appear, data is flowing.
• Traffic source. In GA4, sessions from your DV360 ads show a session source platform of "dv360". Filter on it to see landing pages and key events from DV360 traffic.
• Audiences in DV360. Exported GA4 audiences should appear in the advertiser's audience lists. Sizes often differ from GA4, and audiences built on demographics or interests are not exported at all.

A worked example: one D2C setup end to end

Here is an illustrative setup for a skincare brand selling on its own website.

• Key event: purchase, sending value and currency in ₹.
• Audience: added to cart in the last 7 days but did not buy, exported to DV360 for a retargeting line item. Our guide on DV360 retargeting campaigns covers how to build that line item.
• Reporting: in the GA4 Display & Video 360 report, say DV360 cost for the month shows ₹2,00,000 and total revenue from DV360 sessions shows ₹7,00,000. Return on ad spend = revenue ÷ cost = ₹7,00,000 ÷ ₹2,00,000 = 3.5.

That 3.5 is a last-click view of DV360's contribution. It will not match a Floodlight report that also counts post-view sales. Our guide to measuring programmatic advertising ROI shows how to bring both views together.

Why don't GA4 and DV360 numbers match?

They measure different things, so some gap is normal. The main reasons:

Agree upfront which system is the record for each KPI. Floodlight is usually the record for media optimisation and GA4 for site behaviour. Our guide on creating DV360 campaign reports shows how to label each source clearly.

What mistakes should you avoid?

• Linking the wrong property. Test properties and staging sites cause confusing results.
• Forgetting Enhanced Attribution. Without it, no DV360 data reaches GA4.
• Sending purchase without value or currency. Revenue and ROAS stay empty.
• Unlinking casually. Unlinking closes the audiences and goals already exported to those advertisers.
• Building audiences on interests. GA4 will not export them, so build on behaviour such as pages viewed or cart actions.
• Ignoring the audience limit. A standard GA4 property holds up to 100 audiences in total, so archive old ones before you build new lists for a big campaign.
• Linking mid-campaign. Nothing from before the link is backfilled, so the first weeks of a flight will be missing from GA4.

Next step

Our DV360 advertiser account setup includes Floodlight tracking and Google Analytics and CM360 links where needed, so data flows correctly from day one. If you are unsure which link your setup needs, ask our team to review your tracking setup.