Introduction
Google Ads is one of the most effective ways of bringing new visitors to your site.
At Net Age, we make use of both the Google Ads Search Network, which displays advertisements alongside search engine results when somebody searches for a keyword of phrase that’s associated with your business, and the Display Network, which displays your ads on participating sites.
The display of your advertisements is affected by your monthly budget, the amount that you’re willing to pay per click, your click through rate, quality score, and the landing pages on which visitors arrive after clicking on your ad.
Each month, you’ll receive this report with a quick overview of your Google Ads campaigns, providing you with information about how often your ads were seen, how many people clicked on them, and how those people interacted with your site.
Part 1 – Google Ads – Client Campaign Report
The report contains the following information:
Clicks Graph
The first part of your report displays a graph that shows an overview of all the clicks your Google Ads campaigns have received in the previous reporting period, as shown by the dates in the top right corner.
Divided into days on the X axis, and clicks on the Y axis, you can get a good overview of when your ads get the best response, and when they’re less active.
Depending on your business needs, we might set your campaign to only be active on certain days. Business to business (B2B) services for example, might run on weekdays only, while business to consumer (B2C) services, might be more active on weekends.
Each point on the graph represents the clicks that were received on a particular day. Please note that these clicks are for your entire Adwords account, and not for any single advertisement or ad group.
Immediately below the graph, you’ll see a line telling you how many clicks your ad groups received in total, and how many ad groups are currently active in your campaign.
Campaigns – General Overview
Below the graph, you’ll see a number of columns, beneath a small tab that says “Campaigns – General.” The figures in these columns represent data for your campaign as a whole, and provide the following information:
Clicks
The “Clicks” column shows the total number of clicks your campaign has received, across all advertisements and Ad Groups.
Impressions
The “Impressions” column shows the number of times your advertisement was displayed to users of Google, or on sites which display Google ads.
CTR (Click Through Rate)
The click through rate, shown here as a percentage of the total impressions. In other words, this is the percentage of people that saw your ad, and clicked on it. Evaluating the CTR is not an exact measure, as what is considered a good CTR will vary, depending on your industry, and the amount of demand for products and services like yours.
In general however, for the search network, a CTR of 1-5% is considered average, while anything above a 5% CTR is considered good. CTR’s of over 10% are excellent.
In contrast, a click through rate of 1%, (or even less), is considered average for the display network. Google recognises this, and lower CTR’s on your display network campaigns do not have much of a negative affect on your campaign overall.
Total Goal Completions
On your site, you have certain actions that you would like visitors to complete. Depending on your business, this could range from using the contact form to get in touch, to purchasing something directly off your site. Things like signing up for your newsletter, or requesting a quote, are also potential goals.
These goals are predefined, and when a visitor to your site completes one of them, the action is tracked. This column shows how many of the people who arrived at your site via one of your advertisements completed one or more goals.
Please be aware that it is not always possible to track conversions as well as we would like. This is usually a result of websites which have not been designed with Google advertising or conversion tracking in mind, and in these cases, accurate conversion tracking may be compromised.
Goal Conversion Rate
The goal conversion rate is the percentage of visits to your site that resulted in one or more goals being completed.
Pages/Visits
The pages per visit figure shows the average number of pages that each visitor to your site viewed. As it represents an average, it may mean that some people viewed multiple pages, while others viewed only one. The pages per visit figure is achieved by dividing the number of total page views, by the number of total visits.
Average Time On Site
This figure shows the average amount of time that a visitor arriving via one of your advertisements spent on your site. As with the Pages/Visit, this figure represents an average between all visitors, so one visitor could be spending more time on your site, or many visitors could be spending less.
Please also note that your bounce rate affects this. All bounces are counted as 0 seconds spent on site, so if you have 100 visits and a 99% bounce rate, and one visitor who spent 10 minutes on your site, your average time on site will only be 6 seconds.
Bounce Rate
Your bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who looked at only a single page on your site, and left your site from the same page on which they arrived.
The importance of your bounce rate will differ depending on your industry and the type of website you have, but in general, a high bounce rate suggests that people are not finding what they’re looking for on the page at which they arrive, or that your site is not encouraging them to take action.
The bounce rate is one of the most important metrics in your statistics, for the simple reason that it affects all averages. Bounces are still counted as visitors, with, as mentioned above, a 0 time spent on site, which means that they affect all averages.
If, for example, you receive 100 visitors to your site, and you have an average of 10 pages/visits, (which equals 1,000 page views) with a 50% bounce rate, that means that only 50 visitors have viewed more than a single page. This in turn means that you only have 950 page views, (1,000 – 50 bounces), averaged over 50 active visitors, which equals an average of 19 page views per active visitor.
When making calculations, always take into account your bounce rate, and calculate accordingly. All statistics need to be balanced with your bounce rate.
Google Adwords Client Adgroup Report
Below the columns that provide you with a general overview of your entire campaign, you’ll find the same data for each of your separate ad groups. Ad groups are, as the name implies, a group of ads which target specific products or services.
This information is divided into the following columns:
Ad Group
Each ad group contains advertisements related to specific themes for your products or services.
Each group can contain one, or multiple ads related to the themes which have been identified as being relevant to your business. The ad groups also contain the keywords which are related to the ads in that specific group, or the display websites that are associated with your themes.
Ad groups will be prefaced by a letter indicating the type of network, and the type of search being targeted. We’ve added these indicators in order to make it easier to understand your ad groups. The indicators are as follows:
SN: Search Network. Ads displayed alongside search engine results.
DN: Display Network. Ads displayed on sites participating in Google’s display network.
Search Network
A: All Match Types.
These ad groups contain keywords of all the types mentioned below.
E: Exact Match.
This ad group contains a set of keywords, (between 1 & 20) that are related to the keyword for this ad group. All keywords in this group will be exact match. For the search network, exact match targets only searches with the exact primary keyword, without variations or additional words.
P: Phrase Match.
This ad group contains keywords related to the groups primary keyword. For the search network, phrase match allows the inclusion of additional words which are related to (searched with) the actual keyword. Excludes plurals, synonyms and variations. This group contains only phrase match keywords.
B: Broad Match.
This ad group contains keywords related to the groups primary keyword. Broad match includes plurals, synonyms, and relevant variations of the keyword for the search network. All display network ads are considered broad match, and this group contains only broad match keywords.
Display Network:
MP: Managed Placements.
This designation means that we control the links on which the ad displays manually.
AP: Automated Placements.
This designation means that Google chooses relevant sites on which the ad displays automatically, based on the theme of your ad groups.
For the search network, the ad group will consist of the keywords relevant to the particular products and / or services you’re advertising.
For the display network, the ad group will consist of the sites which match the theme of your campaign, and where your ad can or should be displayed.
Clicks
This column shows how many times people clicked on an ad in that particular ad group.
Impressions
The “Impressions” column shows the number of times your advertisement was displayed to users of Google, or on sites which display Google ads.
CTR (Click Through Rate)
As in the general overview, the click through rate refers to the number of visitors who clicked on an ad in that group, as a percentage of the total number of impressions (people who saw an advertisement) for that ad group.
Total Goal Completions
This column shows the number of goal completions (or conversions) that have been accomplished by visitors who arrived via each of the specific ad groups. As already explained, goals are predefined actions which you’d like site visitors to complete.
Goal Conversion Rate
The total number of people who completed a goal, after arriving through an ad in that group, as a percentage of the total number of visitors for that ad group.
Pages/Visit
The average number of pages that people, who arrived through an ad from that ad group, saw on your website.
Average Time On Site
The average time spent on site by people who arrived through an advertisement that forms part of that ad group.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of people arriving through an ad in that particular ad group, who viewed only one page, and left your site from the page on which they arrived.
Part 2 – Google Adwords – Keyword Report
For the search network, each ad group and advertisement is associated with keywords that match the theme of the relevant ad group. This section of your report examines the best performing keywords in your Google Ads campaign, and provides you with the related Google Ads data for each keyword.
Graph Overview
At the top of this section you’ll find another graph, this one displaying the total clicks that your ads received over the last reporting period, as indicated by the dates in the top right corner of the page.
The graph shows the number of clicks on the Y axis, and the days covered by the graph on the X axis. Below the graph, you’ll see the total number of clicks, and the total number of keywords in your campaign.
Keyword Overviews
Beneath this heading, you’ll see a series of columns that show the relevant information for each of the targeted keywords in your campaign. The Keyword Overview contains the following information for each keyword:
Keyword
This column shows each of the keywords currently being targeted in your Google Ads campaign. A + in front of a keyword means that a broad match modifier is being applied to that word.
Clicks
This column shows the number of people that clicked on an advertisement associated with this keyword.
Impressions
The “Impressions” column shows the number of times your advertisement was displayed to users of Google, or on sites which display Google ads.
CTR (Click Through Rate)
As in the general overview, the click through rate refers to the number of visitors who clicked on an ad in that group, as a percentage of the total number of impressions (people who saw an advertisement) for that ad group.
Part 3 – Google Display Network Report
You will only receive a copy of the Display Network Report if your campaign targets the Display Network. This report contains the following data:
Domains
This section of the report shows a list of the domains on which your advertisements are displayed.
Clicks
This column shows the number of people that clicked on an advertisement associated with this keyword.
Impressions
The “Impressions” column shows the number of times your advertisement was displayed to users of Google, or on sites which display Google ads.
CTR (Click Through Rate)
As in the general overview, the click through rate refers to the number of visitors who clicked on an ad in that group, as a percentage of the total number of impressions (people who saw an advertisement) for that ad group.
In Conclusion
This report provides you with a general, but informative, overview of the ongoing performance of your Google Ads campaign.
It gives you an idea of how many visitors Google Ads is bringing to your site, and how many of those visitors are converting by completing the goals on your site.
If you’d like to attract more visitors to your site, then speak to one of our consultants about increasing your Google advertising spend. The more your advertising spend is, the more your adverts can be displayed.
If you’re interested in increasing your conversions, then ask us about our Conversion Optimisation services.
Give Us Your Feedback
Nobody knows your business like you do. If your campaign targets keywords that are not relevant, or if there are relevant keywords that your campaign is not targeting, please liaise with your account manager, and we’ll make the necessary changes.
We’re constantly tweaking your ads to try an improve their performance. If you have specific requirements for your ads, or certain constraints under which you need to work, we need to know about them. If necessary, we can set up your account to send you new ads so you can see them. Keep in mind that requiring manual verification of each ad may have both time and efficiency implications.
Finally, please note that the keywords that are visible in your report may not be all the keywords that trigger your ad. If you’re looking at an exact match group, the words that you see will be the same as the words that trigger the ad. However, for broad and phrase matches, the ad may be triggered by variations containing the defined keyword, but which do not appear specifically in the report.
For example, if we have targeted “air conditioners” on a phrase match, the phrase “air conditioners” will be shown in the report, but ads will still be triggered by the phrase “air conditioners prices.” The variation on the phrase however, will not be displayed.