You can't buy data strength. You build it.
Google made data strength central at GML 2026 and now measures it in Google Ads. But it is not a setting you switch on. Here is what actually builds it.
Mark Rochefort21 Jun 2026
Blog
Dara Fitzgerald4 April 20142 min read

<blockquote>Please note that this app is no longer relevant as Google have provided their own cost uploader tool!</blockquote>
GA has long since allowed you to import AdWords cost data with a few simple button clicks. However other cost data - Bing/Yahoo paid search activity, affiliate marketing, email, Facebook advertising, etc. - were not catered for until about 18 months ago when GA released the Cost Data Import tool in beta.
This Cost Data Import tool, which feeds data into a new report in GA called Cost Analysis and also into the Attribution Modelling Tool, was a welcome release but it is not quite straightforward for all users to actually make use of it. As a result a lot of people we speak to have not been able to take advantage of this feature yet. This is because the upload needs to be performed via a self-service API, rather than simply being able to upload a CSV within the GA interface.
A number of independent solutions have been created since the release of the Cost Data Import tool but at Measurelab we like to have more control over the tools we use wherever possible... so we created our own. This allows you to batch upload your cost data in a single CSV file, which can contain costs, click volumes and impressions for any channel, campaign or even keyword.
The CSV does need to be formatted correctly and the official Google documentation for the Cost Data Upload tool can be found here. More importantly though, the Measurelab Cost Upload tool, allowing you to easily import your cost data into GA without needing to worry about APIs, can be found at costuploader.measurelab.co.uk. All we ask for in return for access to this is your email address - a small price to pay :)
We welcome feedback on this so please email us at hello@measurelab.co.uk with any comments or suggestions about our Cost Uploader.
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Google made data strength central at GML 2026 and now measures it in Google Ads. But it is not a setting you switch on. Here is what actually builds it.
Mark Rochefort21 Jun 2026
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