Integrate Google Analytics with SFMC

Question

I would like to receive data from Google Analytics in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, I know that with the integration I can receive data to create Audiences to use in Journey Builder, but what I really want is to store customer behavioral data in a Data Extension and after use this Data Extension to show dynamic content in Email Templates.

Is it possible to receive this data with the Google Analytics Integration? Or should I download all this data from Analytics and Import this to a Data Extension on SFMC and automate this process? How do I implement this integration?

Answer 1

First of all, the ability to receive audiences requires GA360:

Google Analytics Free users get access to sampled data reporting about their customer interactions. Marketing Cloud adheres to Google’s sampling rate. Go to Google Analytics Help for more information about data sampling and sampling rates. Google Analytics 360 users get access to unsampled data and audiences, empowering them to act on the reporting that Google and Salesforce provide. Google Analytics 360 customers can market to customers in your audiences in Journey Builder using the Google Analytics 360 entry source.

(source)

Even if you have GA360 integrated with SFMC, you can't receive detailed behaviour data with the Google Analytics connector. It only provides you with audiences, meaning that the specific details of the visitor behaviour are kept within GA360 only.

The audiences can also only be used along with GA360 entry source of Marketing Cloud Journey Builder.

So, if your GA version allows you to export raw data, you can indeed upload them to a data extension, which will enable you to use this data for segmentation and personalisation.