How to Give an Agency Access To Google Analytics

Methods for Giving Account Access to a Marketing Agency or Partner

When it comes to working with any company that is helping you with marketing or technical support, you will often find the need to provided access to various accounts, and Google Analytics is among the most frequent.

There are three primary ways to give someone access to your Google Analytics account and the preferred method for you may just depend on what the Agencies preferences are or which option you are the most comfortable with.

Our preferred method is the first one we will cover. That is where you, the account holder, adds the agency as a user directly.

The second method is to simply share your username name and password with the agency.

The third method is where you provide the agency with your Google Analytics Account ID and they send a request to access your account, that you will need to accept. Let’s get into the first method.

Method 1: Add the agency as a user directly

Providing anyone (including agencies) access to your Google Analytics account is easy. You will just be adding the email of their Google Analytics account to your list of users and set up the access levels they need.

If you prefer video, check out this walk-through we provide our clients at Nuwave.

Just change out our support email with the email the Agency you are working with gives you. They will likely ask for the same access levels as in the video, but if not, just provide Edit access and skip the Manage Users option.

If you prefer reading, here are step-by-step instructions:

1. Visit Site: https://google.com/analytics
2. Login: Using the hamburger style navigation menu, click “Sign in to Analytics” followed by entering your login information if not logged in already.
3. Select the Account: Navigate to Admin, then on the left column under Account, select the account you want to give us access to from the dropdown menu.
4. Add us as a user: Next, click Account User Management, then click the blue + button in upper right corner, followed by clicking Add Users
5. Enter details: Enter the email address the agency has provided you with, then check the Edit box and the Manage Users box so all the boxes are checked. Finally, click the blue Add button in the top right.

The access levels we recommend in step 5 is what we request here at Nuwave. If the agency you are working with doesn’t need access to Manage Users, we recommend keeping that one unchecked.

Method 2: Sharing Your Username and Password

The no-fuss option for giving access to your Google Analytics account is to simply share your username and password with the marketing agency or consultant.

There are no real steps to doing this you, simply give them the username and password you use for your Google Analytics account, and they use that to access it or they will set up themselves as a user by using your account. But there are some challenges to this option that we want you to be aware of.

What concerns us about giving your account info like this

Access to all your Google properties: Google has set up their infrastructure to use one Google account for all other properties, so by giving your login information for Google Analytics, you are also giving it for any other Google applications you may use with that login. This could be your Google Ads account, Gmail, Sheets, Docs, Tag Manager… everything. You are handing over a lot of control to that agency, which isn’t necessary given the other options.

2-Factor Authentication: If you are using 2FA features on your account, then you will need to send them a code to get into your account, which is a major hassle as the code expires relatively quickly. We have had multiple instances where a client needed to resend a code 3, 4, even 5 times because the code kept expiring before they sent it.

Access to your email: Because your account is tied to your email (if using Gmail or Gsuite), the agency can access your email to change passwords and accept requests. This is a lot of power to give them, so you should have a very high trust level with them to do this. However, it can eliminate a lot of back and forth if you want to be hands-off.

Unsecure Transfer of Sensitive Information: Most agencies don’t have a secure method for collecting usernames and passwords. Often clients just email the information which is not a secure way to send credentials. We took the time to build a secure method to transfer information like this, but if there is an option to create or add us as a user, we still advise doing that oversharing credentials for your account.

Changs to Your Password: At some point, you will need to change the password for your account. Maybe you entered the wrong password too many times, forgot the password and needed to reset it, or the system forces you to change it every 6 months or so. This means that the agency will need to obtain the new password again every time you change it. This can be a big hassle and an unnecessary barrier if you are needing urgent help.

In short, we recommend to only provide your username and password if it is necessary, or if the agency is going to just set up their accounts as users using temporary access to your account. If you choose the latter, we recommend changing your password before and after the only password being shared is a temporary one that is completely different from any other password you have for other websites, applications, or accounts you hold.

Method 3: The Agency Sends a Request to Access Your Account

A newer method that some agencies are adopting is to get the Account ID of your account from you and then send off a request to access that account from their Google Marketing Platform Organization account.

For steps 1-4 we have a quick video that walks you through the process:

1. Visit Site: https://google.com/analytics
2. Login: Using the hamburger style navigation menu, click “Sign in to Analytics” followed by entering your login information if not logged in already.
3. Select the Account: Navigate to Admin, then on the left column under Account, select the account you want to give us access to from the dropdown menu.
4. Provide Your Account ID: You can now find your Account ID, which is a numeric value, by going to Account Settings. The Account ID is at the very top. You can just copy and paste that in an email to your contact at the agency.
5. Wait for an Access-Request Email: The agency will then need to manually fire off a request to link your Analytics 360 account to theirs. Once the email is in your inbox that starts with [Action Required], then proceed to the next step.
6. Accept the Request: In the email, click the link that says Manage Request. You will then need to check the box on the account that the request was sent from. Then click the three dots to the right of the search bar and click Approve Selected Requests. The user interface for this is not very intuitive, so we left some images to help with that below.

What is different about it from the first method?

Managing Access for Team Members: What this enables the agency to do is provide access to various team members from one centralized account. This is helpful for agencies because they can bring on multiple team members or if someone leaves the company, they can simply remove them from the organization instead of changing passwords.

Ease of Use for the Client: Although the process is pretty straight forward, there is slightly less explanation involved by just asking for the Account ID instead of adding a user to the account.

No back and forth for changes to permissions: Often clients end up entering the wrong permission levels, so the agency has to explain why they need the higher access level and guide the client through editing the settings

Why do we still prefer the first method?

The Need for Accepting the Request: As simple as it seems to accept a request it still requires the clients attention twice. Once to find and send their account id and a second time to find the email and hit Accept. This extra step can mean waiting several days before having the access we need.

Email Troubles: Accepting the request is handled via email, which is very unreliable. We often hear clients report that they never received the email. It may be in the spam folder or it just didn’t land in their inbox for some reason. We wish Google would make it possible to intuitively accept these within the Google Analytics account in the future, but for now, this is a big problem. Although you can access it from your own Google Marketing Platform Account, most people don’t know this exists.

We can still link the account: By having access to Manage Users, we can add your Google Analytics account to our Google Marketing Platform Organization account entirely on our end. That eliminates both of these issues while having the benefits of being able to manage access for our team.

We are willing to clearly explain things: Usually, people get confused on permissions or have trouble adding a new user because an agency hasn’t left clear instructions for them. We put together videos and clear instructions to make it easy for our clients.

Troubleshooting Possible Issues Accessing Your Account

A past agency/company set it up for me and I don’t know how to get in

We hear this all the time. In the future, insist on setting you your own accounts or in the very least, having the agency create it using your email so you don’t end up in this situation again. If you are in this situation, your best bet to take these steps in order:

1. Try to reset your password

You may have an account already and just never use it. Most agencies will create a username for the client, just try entering your email addresses when attempting to login. For more details, see the instructions in the I don’t know if I have an account section.

2. Contact the old agency

Sometimes an account never gets created for you when an agency sets it up, in this case, ask the agency to create you as an admin on the account with user management privileges. Normally agencies are happy to help because even though you are no longer a client of theirs, they want to maintain a positive relationship with any former client.

I don’t know if I have an account

It’s pretty easy to check if you have an account.

Simply try entering your email address from the login page and click Next.

If you don’t have an account with that email, it will display an error message that says Couldn’t find your Google Account. Usually, this will be a Gmail email or a Gsuite email. Try different email addresses you own until you find one that moves you on to enter your password.

What if it was set up by a former employee?

If you had an employee set it up that is no longer with the company, you may need to forward emails from their old email address to yours. Then do the password reset. You will use their email and the new password you created to login. Once you are in, we recommend adding your email as an admin with user management privileges, so you don’t have to keep using your former employee’s account to log in.

I don’t remember my password

If you don’t remember your password, simply click the Forgot Password? link on the login page. Enter your email and then hit Reset Password. Head on over to your email account and look for the reset password email.

What if I didn’t receive the password reset email?

This can be a big problem for many.

First, check your spam, trashes, archive, and any other places the email may be hiding. Some inboxes automatically organize your emails by Promotions, Social Media, etc. You can typically bypass this by looking for an option that says All emails or All inboxes something like that.

If you still can’t find it, click the link of the password reset page that says Try Another Way. If you have set up a recovery phone number or email, you can use it to reset your password. It will default to the phone number option via call or text. If you want to use the secondary email address instead, then click the link that says I don’t have my phone.

If those all fail, click Try Another Way again, it should give you the option to enter the last password you remember.

What if I don’t have any of the secondary verification methods set up?

If you didn’t set up these secondary verification options, try the following, but once you get in, set these up right away so you have multiple ways to access your account in the future.

If you still can’t find it, try resending the forgot password email like you did the first time.

Still no luck? You may have entered the account information incorrectly. Double-check you entered your email correctly and try again. If that’s not working, try a different email.

If you are still having trouble, check that you are still able to receive emails with your email account. This sometimes can happen and you will need to fix your email first before you can reset the password.

If you have multiple admin users on your account, see if one of them can check to see what your username is and set you up with an account if you don’t have one or to just add a different email of yours as an admin user.

Your final option is to try Google Support, but if that doesn’t work you may be out of luck.

I was able to log in, but I don’t have access to the Google Analytics Account

You likely, have your Google Analytics access under a different Google Account. Try logging into other Google Accounts you may have until you find the one associated with your Google Analytics. Then add your other Google accounts as Admin users with User management privileges so you can use any of them in the future.