Google Adwords Reports

Google Adwords Reports can make all the difference

Are you using the free reports that Google makes available with it's Adwords service?

 

Did you actually know that they exist!

 

You will find the reports on the Reports tab between the Campaign Management and Analytics tabs as I've shown in the image below.

 

At the moment there are 10 different types of report you can run and each one is invaluable in improving your Adwords performance.

 

It doesn't stop there either. Each of these reports can be adjusted and filtered to give you exactly what you are looking for. They can also be set up to run automatically at times you choose and they will email you the results.

 

 

The Ten Types of Google Reports are:

Placement / Keyword Performance
Ad Performance
URL Performance
Ad Group Performance
Campaign Performance
Account Performance
Demographic Performance
Search Query Performance
Placement Performance
Reach and Frequency Performance

Placement / Keyword Performance

As the name suggests this report allows you to look at the performance of your keywords and placements for your ads. At first glance it appears to provide the same information you probably already see when you view your Adgroups normally through Adwords. However it's real power comes through the ability to filter and add fields that you want to report on.

 

Ad Performance

This report lets you really focus on your Ads and compare performance across all your Adgroups. This is really useful when you are running many Adgroups with similar Ads that have been optimised for specific keywords. It helps to compare Ads to see which ones are getting results and which need further work.

 

URL Performance

Compare your landing pages and review which are performing better. This can give you insight into why certain pages work for you and why others don't. With this knowledge you can then update the poorer performing landing pages and increase your conversion rates across you site.

 

Adgroup Performance

View all your Adgroup performance data in one report. Filter on the values you want to compare and this report can yield some very interesting facts about your Adgroups.

 

Campaign Performance

Comparing Campaigns can be quite enlightening. Some people set up campaigns with exactly the same Adgroups and keywords but with different Campaign settings. For example: they might have a daytime campaign that they have set to run during the daytime and nighttime one. This allows them to compare performance and decide which campaigns are giving better results and therefore should get more budget.

 

Account Performance

This report gives you an overall view of your accounts performance. Probably the least useful of all the reports.

 

Demographic Performance

This report can be very useful. It can tell you in which countries/locations you are doing well and in which you are doing badly. I've saved myself quite a lot of money with this report. It allowed me to identify countries where I was getting a lot of clicks but very few conversions. With this information I could either change my campaign settings and stop displaying in the country or maybe create a new landing page specifically for that country

 

Search Query Performance

This is one of my favourite reports. It tells me exactly which search queries trigger my ads to be clicked. This is great for refining broad match terms as I can see the exact phrase that caused the ad to be shown and if I don't have an exact match already for that phrase I can add it

 

Placement Performance

If you are using the Content network then this report is a must have. It will show you what websites (more specifically the pages) that are showing your ads and what clicks (if any) you are getting. This is great for finding the sites that giving you good return for your spend and then possibly setting up a placement campaign specifically for that site.

 

Reach and Frequency Performance

If you are running CPM placement-targeted campaigns then this report will show you how many people saw your ads and how often over certain periods of time.

Essential Reading:

Beating Adwords
Five Top Tips for Google Adwords
How to write Ads that get Clicks