We mention a lot of advanced tips to Google Ads reports throughout this guide. Use them as inspiration for the different reports that will be uniquely valuable (and actionable) for your own account.Customizing the reports that you develop will increase your efficiency and save you time.
Create custom columns that focus on what matters most
Your success metrics should always be front and center in your reporting. It’s easier to focus on your performance drivers if the data in your analyses and reports is customized to what you care about. A particularly powerful way to customize is to create your very own columns.
Through custom columns, you can tailor the presentation of your data so you can benefit from the information that is most important to you. Depending on the context of your report, you can create different custom metrics.
For example, if you are doing a detailed analysis of cross-device performance, you could create columns that contain cross-device conversions by device. That way your analysis will keep your key insights front and center, focusing on what you care about most.
Save your important, recurring analyses as reports
Hold onto all of the actionable insights that you’re driving. Make smart reporting a recurring process.
Just as there are lots of ways to customize your reports, there are also a lot of ways to save those reports:
- Save different sets of columns on the Campaigns tab
- Schedule and email reports to yourself or anyone else in your account
- View customized, saved reports on the Reports tab
- Create higher-level reports across multiple accounts with manager account reporting
If you decide to email yourself certain reports, be sure that you’re thoughtful about what to send. Make what you send valuable enough that each time it’s delivered you feel justified when you open it. That’s a good litmus test of a good report, too - would you open this report if it was emailed to you? If the answer is no, consider trying to improve what you’re including in the report.
While we can’t be sure what reports will be most important for you, there are certain ones that we see advertisers use often. They’re the type of reports that you can rely on when you’re performing standard maintenance in your account.
- Search terms report
- Geographic report
- Device report
- Hour of day report
- Campaign details report
- Ad group details report
- Paid & organic report
Reports Recap
We’ve mentioned a lot of different reports throughout this guide, and here’s a list of all of them. Use them as inspiration for the different reports that will be uniquely valuable (and actionable) for your own account.
| Report to run | Action to take after reviewing report |
|---|---|
| Ad report segmented by keyword | Give keywords that would benefit from further customized ad text their own ad groups |
| Line chart for your main success metric | Jump in to diagnose and fix any issues that are out of the ordinary |
| Top movers report | Know what's changing in your account and what some possible causes could be |
| Auction insights segmented by week | Adjust your bidding and messaging based on the changing competitive landscape |
| Keyword report segmented by top vs. other | Decide whether or not being more/less aggressive on targeting the top of the page is driving the right kind of traffic (after accounting for the appropriate conversion delays) |
| Ad group report filtering out Search Partners and Display, also filtered for 1,000 impressions | Decide ad tests based on performance on Google.com ads specifically |
| Device report segmented by day of week | Be more aggressive during high conversion rate days. Consider promotions intended to increase conversion rates during slow times. |
| Bar chart with search impression share and lost IS by month | Communicate the effects of different tests to non-Google Ads audience. In this case, diagnose and fix any impression share losses. |
| Maintenance reports that should be set up & regularly emailed to you | Make monthly optimizations centered on the recurring insights you find most valuable |
Conclusion
Creating good Google Ads analyses and reports requires a deep understanding of what you want to know about your account. Once you understand what you’re looking for, you can translate those insights into action and continue to improve performance.
