Account, campaign and ad group performance

Your Google Ads account is organised into three levels: account, campaigns and ad groups. You can use these levels to customise your view of Google Ads performance data so that it’s as broad or specific as you’d like.

Find and use your performance data

Before viewing performance data in Google Ads, it’s important to understand how to view reports throughout your account, campaigns and ad groups. Based on your reports, you can know which ad groups, campaigns and keywords perform the best, which optimises your opportunities to reach new and relevant audiences.

Navigate your account

Tip: You can navigate the three levels of Google Ads from the left-side panel of your account. To find information, start with the broadest level of 'All campaigns' under the Campaigns icon Campaigns icon

and narrow your focus. After you choose an individual campaign, you'll find the ad groups contained in each one.

Your account is associated with a unique email address, password and billing information. For reporting purposes, think of your account as a collection of campaigns. If you want to review performance data for your entire account, click All campaigns under the Campaigns icon on the left-side panel of your Google Ads account. Totals for all of the rows are listed at the bottom of your statistics table.

You can also navigate your account using the campaign type selector, explanations or the report editor. Learn how to Interpret your data.

Example

Let’s consider an account that belongs to a chocolate maker who wants to increase online sales.

The owners have created two campaigns: one to promote a line of chocolate bars and another to promote deals on holiday gift boxes. They’ve also split each campaign into targeted, relevant ad groups. The campaign for chocolate bars has three ad groups, dedicated to a different flavour, while the holiday campaign ad groups test varied discount offers.

Review the structure of their account:

Account:

Chocolate Maker

Campaign 1:

Chocolate bars

Ad groups:

Raspberry bar

Caramel bar

Ginger bar

Campaign 2:

Valentine's Day
gift boxes

Ad groups:

30% off gift boxes

Free delivery on gift boxes

Luxury Valentine's chocolate

When you set up your accounts or view performance data, remember that each of your ad groups can have multiple ads. This helps the chocolate maker (and you) to compare performance for different ad elements and determine if one version resulted in more clicks or sales than another.

View performance data

You can review your performance data from your Google Ads account. Follow the steps below to view information about your account, campaigns or ad groups.

View account data

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.
On the 'Campaigns' page, update the date drop-down menu to reflect the amount of data that you’d like to view.

Note: The default 'Campaigns' view shows the last 30 days of performance.

View campaign data

An individual campaign has its own budget and settings that determine where your ads appear, and is made up of a collection of ad groups. Each of your campaigns is listed under the Campaigns icon on the left-side panel of your Google Ads account, and they also appear when you click the 'Campaigns' tab in the middle of your screen.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.
On the 'Campaigns' page, click on the campaign that you’d like to view.
Click Add filter to view specific filtered data about your campaign.

View ad group data

Your ad group contains a set of similar ads and the words and phrases, known as keywords, that you want to trigger your ads to show. When you click on a campaign, Google Ads will show you a view of the campaign's performance broken out by its individual ad groups. You can also review ad group data using the following instructions.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.
Click Ad groups.
On the 'Ad groups' page, update the date drop-down menu to reflect the amount of data that you’d like to view.
- Note: The default 'Ad groups' view shows the last 30 days of performance.

Review additional details

You can review ad group details like audience interests and habits from the 'Ad groups' page. Follow these steps to view additional reports information.

In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.
Click Ad groups.
On the 'Ad groups' page, click on the campaign that you’d like to view.
Click More details collapsible on the subpage menu on the top.

Interpret performance data

When you're familiar with the structure of your Google Ads account, you can view and customise the data in your statistics table and download reports to monitor campaign, ad group, ad or keyword performance.

Campaign type selector

You can use the campaign type selector to switch between reporting views by campaign type, such as Shopping or Display Network. This option appears as a drop-down menu on the Views bar at the top if you have more than one campaign type in your account. You'll only be able to select a given campaign type if your account actually contains that type of campaign.

Explanations

Explanations give you insight into large changes in your account’s performance with just one click. To review explanations, hover over any metrics that are underlined with a dotted, blue line (example: $1,193.60 ) and click View explanations. Availability of the feature may differ based on various criteria such as campaign type or bid strategy type. Learn more About explanations.

The report editor

The report editor is an analytical tool that allows you to engage with your data through multi-dimensional tables and charts.

A simple drag-and-drop interface lets you quickly build and manipulate multi-dimensional tables and charts, reducing the need to download your data for deeper analysis.
Multi-segment analysis lets you slice and dice your data with finer granularity in your tables and charts.
Custom charts let you quickly visualise the patterns and trends in your data.
Advanced filtering and sorting allow you to filter on segmented metrics (like mobile clicks) and sort by multiple columns.

Learn how to Create custom reports in report editor.

Download performance data

After the data on your 'Campaigns' or 'Ad groups' page is formatted the way you want, follow the steps below to download your report.

Click the download button above the table.
Select your download type from the drop-down menu. You can choose from the following file types: Excel .csv, .csv, .tsv, .pdf, .xlsx, .xml or Google Sheets. You can also choose to open your report in the report editor, or to email or schedule an email of your report.
- Note: 'More options' will allow you to add segments, compress file sizes and include additional data in your report.
After you select a file type from the list, you’ll receive a 'Preparing report' notification. When the report is finished, you’ll receive a 'Downloading report' notification.

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