A common mistake we see in relation to Google Ads and PPC campaigns is a lack of performance monitoring. Businesses simply expect their ad campaigns to work and yield results immediately but this isn’t always the case.
You need to make continual changes, look at what is and isn’t working, and review your ads. By doing this, you can continually improve, make sure that your marketing budget is well spent, and make a positive ROI.
To give you a head start, we look at PPC reporting below and how you can set goals, monitor your performance, and get better PPC results.
Why is PPC Reporting Important?
Let’s first take a brief look at why you need PPC reporting. In a nutshell, if you want PPC results then you MUST set goals, monitor your performance, and make adjustments. Specific PPC report benefits include:
- Check PPC expenditure and adjust budgets accordingly
- See which ads are working and which are falling short
- Look at which keywords are proving effective
- To calculate ROI
- To help your business grow
You can’t expect an ad to just work and never need any changes – if it does then you should work for a pay-per-click agency and share your knowledge with others! Reporting helps push your business forward, keep track of spending, and make sure the time and effort your are investing in PPC is worthwhile.
A Simple Guide to PPC Reporting
If you want to use PPC marketing then you must be prepared to allocate time and money for PPC reporting too. With that in mind, we have listed some basic processes and tips for easy PPC campaign reporting below.
Setting Goals is Essential
Before you use any PPC reporting tool you need to establish goals. Without goals you can’t effectively measure the success of your ads or see where you need to make improvements. Examples of goals include:
- To generate positive ROI
- To monitor PPC expenditure
- To highlight market trends
- To gain greater customer insight
- To boost website traffic
- To generate more sales
Look at what you want your ads to achieve from a business perspective and you should then be able to define clear goals. Try and be as specific as possible and use actual figures as this allows the reporting data to be used more effectively and accurately.
Knowing what to include in your PPC report is also vital
Google Ads has a great reporting feature where you can produce custom reports with different columns and inclusions. You have flexibility to include different parameters and it’s important to use the right ones that can actually yield results in your reporting. Some of the most important data to include is listed below:
- Date range
- Campaign goals
- Conversions Cost per acquisition (CPA)
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Metrics that show how your ads are performing are vital so data like conversions, CPA, CPC, and CTR should always be included. Using metrics like these you can directly see if your ads are making a positive ROI and how much each new customer acquisition is costing.
There is a range of other general analytical data too that can be beneficial like bounce rates, ad traffic, and time spent on page. Make sure you take the time to look through the available report columns and assess which ones are most useful for your business and the type of PPC ads you run.
Consistency is key for successful performance measuring
You can’t expect to review the performance of your PPC ads once per year and expect great results. Or maybe you have a few months where you review performance weekly, but then for the next half a year do nothing.
Consistency is key.
For easy PPC campaign reporting you need to set a performance monitoring schedule. Ideally this should be weekly, monthly, and quarterly but the frequency depends on the size of your company and the scale of your ad campaigns.
A small business with just a few employees and a handful of Google Ad campaigns may not benefit from weekly monitoring whereas an enterprise level business would. Look at your business and scope of your PPC campaigns and set a realistic performance monitoring schedule to suit.
Make sure to compare against benchmarks
Did you know that there is a range of industry benchmarks relating to the success of PPC ads? It’s one thing to monitor the progress and success of your ads in-house, but it could also prove useful to compare your ads to industry standards.
You can easily find reports and statistics from different sources relating to PPC success for Google Ads and Facebook Ads. This allows you to see how your company is performing compared to your industry/sector average.
Make use of reporting and analytical tools
Google Ads does have a great range of analytical tools and reporting features but you can get outside help too. The following are three potential PPC reporting tools you can use:
- Google Ads Data Studio
- Google Ads Analytics
- Whatagraph
Google Ads Data Studio and Google Ads Analytics are two primary options as they link directly with Google Ads and offer integration. They are much easier to tie together as opposed to using a third-party platform.
Google Ads Data Studio is incredibly popular and it can build on the reporting tools already available in Google Ads. You can also download the reports and share them quickly with your colleagues.
Make Sure your Google Ads are Effective With PPC Reporting
Creating a consistent PPC report and regularly monitoring performance will help your ROI immensely. You can eliminate ads that aren’t working, build on the success of those that are, and work towards continual improvement.
There are many PPC reporting templates and tools available that can help too and make the process more streamlined. Just make sure that you define your goals first, and set something like a weekly or monthly schedule for performance reviewing.
