Impressions and clicks describe ad delivery, but do not answer the client’s main question on their own: what did this investment achieve? A useful report connects campaign objectives to measured enquiries or purchases and decisions for the next period.
Adapt the structure to the business. An online store, a quotation-based service and a company receiving calls may need different indicators. Start by defining the outcome that counts and how it will be confirmed.
1. State the objective, period and comparison
Identify the account and campaigns covered, reporting period, currency and commercial objective. Compare periods of equivalent length and explain changes in budget, promotions, availability or geographical coverage. For year-on-year comparisons, note differences in context.
Open with the conclusion the evidence supports: more enquiries, lower lead quality, insufficient campaign data or a measurement problem requiring attention. Then present the figures behind that conclusion.
2. Explain what counts as a conversion
List the actions measured, such as purchases, submitted forms or calls. Identify the measurement source and primary and secondary actions. “Conversions” and “All conversions” have different scopes; specify the column used and the goals applicable to each campaign.
A telephone link click is an interaction, not proof of an answered call. Opening a form does not demonstrate an enquiry submission. Check that the implementation measures the intended result and that overlapping configurations do not count the same event twice.
Reference: understanding conversion tracking data
Reference: primary and secondary conversion actions
3. Present metrics with their purpose
- Spend: the advertising cost for the period, separated from management fees, content production and other costs.
- Impressions and clicks: exposure and visits attributed to ads; they describe activity rather than commercial quality.
- CTR: clicks divided by impressions, interpreted in the context of campaign type and search intent.
- Average CPC: spend divided by clicks. Cheaper clicks can bring less suitable demand.
- Cost per conversion: eligible spend divided by the conversions counted. Confirm the definition before comparing.
- Conversion value and value/cost: useful when recorded values reliably represent the business objective.
The ratio of conversion value to ad spend, often reported as ROAS, is not profit. Margins, returns, shipping, taxes and operating costs affect the economic result. State whether the value represents sales, estimates or values assigned to leads.
4. Connect leads with commercial quality
For services, include valid enquiries, qualified leads and acquired customers when that information is available. Agree these stages with the sales team. An enquiry from outside the service area should not be treated commercially in the same way as a suitable request from the target market.
Illustrative example: €600 in ad spend produces 20 measured enquiries, of which eight are qualified. Advertising cost is €30 per enquiry and €75 per qualified enquiry. These figures describe different stages of the same journey; they exclude management fees and do not demonstrate profitability. They are not data from a RedeShop client.
5. Explain which searches and pages need attention
For Search campaigns, review the terms that triggered ads and how they relate to the offer. Distinguish brand searches, service searches and poorly matched intent. The search terms report does not necessarily show every query; an absent row does not prove an absence of demand.
Connect findings to specific actions: revise messaging, exclusions, search-to-page alignment or form clarity. Budget decisions should consider result quality and sufficient evidence as well as click costs.
Reference: the search terms report
6. Identify incomplete data
Some people convert after the initial click, so recent results can continue to change. Record the extraction date and allow for conversion delay before concluding that the latest days performed worse. Document changes in attribution, goals and measurement implementation.
7. Finish with decisions and owners
Choose a small number of justified actions. For each, record the observed problem, evidence, proposed change, owner and review point. When information is missing, identify what is needed and who can provide it.
- Commercial summary and context.
- Spend and results, with conversion definitions.
- Lead quality or purchase value where confirmed.
- Campaigns, searches and pages explaining the differences.
- Completed work, unresolved questions and next actions.
Make reporting useful to your business
RedeShop can review campaigns, landing pages and measurement to organise support around project objectives. Share the context and result you want to measure; account access is arranged during assessment. Explore our Google Ads management service and checks for a landing page that is not converting.