How To Create a Google Ads Report That Proves ROI

Client reporting is an essential way to communicate your agency's value. The Google Ads reports your team creates are resources to help clients better understand the impact of your efforts as well as how to improve their advertising. A well-presented, clear, and actionable report makes all the difference in demonstrating your agency's know-how.

Let's dig into the features that make Google Ads reports go from good to great, what data to include in your reports, common reporting challenges agencies face (and how to address them), and the top 8 best practices to follow for perfectly polished client reports.

What Makes a Great Google Ads Report?

A great Google Ad report provides a clear, curated overview into the effectiveness of ad campaigns and how they impact your client's bottom line. The goal is that the report will be both actionable and straightforward. You want to provide meaningful insights that translate into tactics while avoiding information overload and irrelevant data that doesn't really connect back to client objectives.

We noticed a lot of clients were paying agencies for work which didn't generate a ROI. We wanted to ensure all of our clients make a positive ROI so they could grow and invest more into their long-term marketing.

Ben Spray, Managing Director, We Are Marketable

With that in mind, here are a few specific things you want a great ad report to have:

• Clarity: It’s easy to understand, the data is well-visualized, information is presented intuitively, and the structure is logical for the purpose of the report.

• Relevance: The selected metrics connect directly with the core objectives of the campaign. Even better if the metrics were agreed upon before launch!

• Customization: Each report must be customized to the specific needs, goals, and context of the client. Templates speed things up, but there should always be a level of personalization.

• Actionability: Beyond tracked metrics, there must be next steps. Your team should identify ways of adjusting Google Ads campaigns for improved performance based on the data presented.

• Transparency: A clear breakdown of their Google Ads budget allocation, ad spend, and results should be included. It's important not to hide any data that's not what you were hoping for. Instead, show how your team plans to use those results to inform optimizations and improvements.

• Trend Analysis: Rather than present static data, demonstrating trends over time provides a more nuanced understanding of ad performance.

Check your reports for these essential features and you'll be sure to effectively demonstrate your agency's value to your clients. This is how you'll show that your team not only plans and executes strong ad strategies, but that they're also able to articulate the result of those strategies and integrate it into their future work. 

Types of Data to Include in Your Google Ads Reports

Like any type of reporting, there are tons of options of what data to include in your Google Ads campaign reports. Each metric tracked in Google Ads offers a unique way of understanding ad performance, so getting familiar with them is important for selecting the right ones to monitor. 

Here are some of the metrics that are tracked directly in Google Ads:

• Impressions: Impressions are the total number of times your ads were displayed on Google search. This is a good metric for measuring the reach of Google Ads, and tends to indicate that you’ve selected good keywords to target.

• Clicks: This is the number of times users clicked on your ads. Clicks help assess how effective your ads are at driving users to visit a website, landing page, web store, or other destination link.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Click-through rate is the ratio of clicks to impressions, expressed as a percentage. A high CTR indicates that your ad is reaching the right target audience, conveying the right message, and/or catching the attention of users with compelling ad copy and visuals.

• Conversions: This metric tracks the number of desired actions users take after clicking on your ads. Conversions could be a measurement of purchases, forms submitted, sign ups, services requested, or something else. Usually, a conversion indicates the point at which leads become customers.

• Cost-Per-Click (CPC): This is the calculation of the average cost paid for each click on your ads. Monitoring CPC helps your agency optimize ad spend to ensure a better ROI for your clients.

• Cost-Per-Action (CPA): This metric represents the cost associated with each conversion that comes from your Google Ads. Again, this is a way to measure and optimize the ROI of advertising on Google for your clients.

While these metrics are a great starting point, they're just that—a starting point. A great report shouldn't stop short at measuring metrics, but should analyze, combine, compare, and track data over time to draw meaningful observations.

Vanity metrics tend to show some of the ignorance that you see in the industry from time to time. There are some who like to gloat, but don't have much to show. They are grabbing for shoe-strings. Those who know the difference are able to actually make a difference. For example; a vanity metric might be showing that your Google Ads have a certain percentage of a click-through-rate (CTR). But, an actionable metric might be the actual conversion rate. Or, even better, the cost per click as opposed to the actual cost per acquisition.

Nathan Hawkes, President, Arcane Marketing

This is where a third-party reporting tool really makes the difference. AgencyAnalytics is a reporting solution designed specifically for agencies, and pulls together data from across your tech stack. Your team is able to craft compelling client reports with data from Google Ads, Google Analytics 4, social media platforms, ecommerce platforms, and other sources.

4 Common Challenges of Creating Google Ads Reports

Of course, there's a reason why you've ended up on this page looking for solutions for improved reporting on Google Ads. Client reporting is tricky, and agencies frequently run into similar challenges trying to get it right. If any of these challenges seem familiar, check out our tips on how to address them:

You always want to make sure the aggregate of your marketing efforts are leading to net positive ROI.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations, Ad-Apt

8 Best Practices for Building Google Ads Reports

Creating effective Google Ads reports requires thoughtful planning and a clear understanding of your client's objectives. Here are some best practices that will help your agency team build reports that clearly outline the performance—and value—of the Google Ads campaigns you set up for clients:

1. Establish Goals and KPIs Upfront

Your agency and your client need to be aligned on a campaign's goals before your team starts working on the campaign, let alone building a report. This is also a good time to establish the key performance indicators (KPIs) you'll use to measure success. This helps ensure that the work provided matches client expectations, and that the report lines up with the business objectives you're working towards for your client.

At NativeRank, we prioritize the needs and goals of our clients above all else, and we work tirelessly to deliver measurable results that drive business growth. We take a data-driven approach to all of our strategies and constantly measure and analyze the results to ensure that we are delivering maximum ROI for our clients.  We also place a strong emphasis on building trust and lasting relationships with our clients. We believe that transparency and communication are key to a successful partnership, and we make sure that our clients are always informed about the progress of their campaigns and have access to the data and insights they need to make informed decisions about their digital marketing strategies. 

Daniel Dye, President, Native Rank, Inc.

Agency Example

Imagine your agency is managing a Google Ads campaign for an ecommerce client that's focused on driving sales. By establishing a target conversion rate, average purchase total, or a specific revenue goal upfront, both your agency and your client have the same framework for evaluating the campaign's success.

2. Select Metrics Wisely

The metrics you choose should be relevant to your client's goals and connected with their KPIs. You want to avoid including too many metrics that distract from the bottom line, or narrowing in too closely on a single one without showing the bigger picture—it's truly a balancing act. Keep the agreed upon goals and KPIs in mind when selecting your metrics.

Agency Example

If your agency is managing a lead generation Google Ads campaign for a B2B business, tracking metrics like cost-per-lead and lead conversion rate would be more relevant than simply focusing on impressions.

We believe reporting is crucial. Leaders are most prone to frustration when they feel they lack clarity on the ROI of their investments and may be surprised if they find out that new "shiny" addition fails to improve their business's performance. In reality, diving into analytics can provide insights into what's working and what isn't.

Consultwebs, Law Firm Marketing Agency, Consultwebs

3. Decide on Your Reporting Frequency

According to the AgencyAnalytics Marketing Benchmarks Report, the majority of agencies send client reports monthly.

Deciding how often to generate and share Google Ads reports with your clients benefits everyone. Your clients will know when to expect reports, meaning they won't be left waiting or wondering. Meanwhile, your team will know when reports are due, meaning they won't have to scrape together something at the last minute or waste valuable time drawing up ad-hoc reports.

4. Build Your Template

Creating a template for your Google Ads reports streamlines the reporting process and ensures a uniform presentation of data. This saves your team time, reduces the chance of errors, and creates a consistent brand experience for clients. To make for the most impactful yet efficient Google Ads reports, your template should include:

• Real-Time Data: Give clients a current snapshot of their metrics alongside the history of the data.

• White Labeling: Keep reports on-brand with white labeling for your agency's logo and brand colors.

• Data Visualization: Ensure clear data interpretation with visual representations.

5. Pick the Right Chart Types

Data visualization makes complex data easier to understand at a glance, but there are tons of ways to turn data into visuals. Selecting the right chart types for specific data sets helps make for a more compelling ads report. They tell the story of what the data means, helping clients process and learn from the numbers.

Agency Example

If your agency is tracking the performance of a Google Ads campaign over time, a line chart might be the best choice to show how trends evolve. On the other hand, a pie chart might be more suitable for illustrating the distribution of ad spend across different campaigns.

6. Use Real-Time Data

Giving clients access to real-time data analytics brings a whole new level of collaboration and transparency. If clients are aware of the up-to-date performance of a campaign before they join a call with the team, it frees up that time for talking about tactics to optimize performance and allocate the budget more effectively.

With AgencyAnalytics, your team is able to set up a custom tracking dashboard for every client. They'll be able to see their Google Ads metrics in real-time alongside related data from various other sources like Facebook Ads, their website, and other ads platforms.

7. Add Goals and Annotations

Including goals in your Google Ads reports helps connect the data back to the original objectives of the campaign. Meanwhile, adding annotations provides additional context and analysis, drawing connections between related ads metrics and results and helping clients realize the true impact of the efforts made.

One of the most popular features in AgencyAnalytics is the ability to add goals and annotations to client reports. This helps turn reports into narratives, allowing your team to include examples of how they might optimize certain elements of a campaign, or notes about events that impacted metric trends.

8. Remain Agile and Adjust as Needed

Finally, remember that reporting isn't one-size-fits-all. Every client and every Ads campaign is unique, so it's important to be agile and tweak how your team does reporting to best suit the context. This also applies to all of the best practices outlined above: sometimes, the best analytics reports will break away from these norms.

Make Google Ads Reporting Your Agency’s Superpower

Understanding the best practices of Google Ads reporting helps your teams to better showcase your agency's expertise and drive results for your clients. By leveraging the insights gleaned from these reports, your teams will better align their strategies with client goals, ultimately leading to increased revenue and customer engagement. With the tips and tricks outlined in this article, you're equipped to create more impactful Google Ads reports that not only inform but also inspire action, propelling both your clients and your agency towards continued success.