PPC Reporting: What to Track and How to Use It

PPC reporting is not just about tracking clicks and conversions. Done properly, it tells you what’s working, what’s wasting money, and what to change next. But many reports are either too vague to be useful or too dense to be read.

In this article, we’ll walk through what good PPC reporting looks like, which metrics actually matter, and how to use your reports to make better decisions. Whether you're managing campaigns in-house or through an agency, getting reporting right will directly improve performance.

What Is PPC Reporting?

PPC reporting is the process of tracking and reviewing campaign performance using data pulled from advertising platforms, analytics tools, and internal metrics. The goal is simple: understand whether your ad spend is delivering value.

A good report should help you:

• Track progress against goals

• Identify wasted spend

• Improve performance through clear next steps

• Report results in a way that makes sense to your team or clients

If your reporting isn’t doing that, it’s just noise.

The Metrics That Matter

There are hundreds of things you can track in a PPC campaign. But only a few help you make real decisions. Focus on the following:

• Conversions
  The main metric to track. Depending on your setup, this could mean purchases, form submissions, phone calls, or other meaningful actions.

• Cost per conversion
  Shows how efficient your campaigns are. High costs might mean you’re targeting the wrong audience or wasting budget on low-intent clicks.

• Conversion rate
  Useful for understanding if the problem is with your traffic or your landing page.

• Click-through rate
  Helps diagnose issues with your ad copy, headlines, or relevance to the keywords being used.

• Impression share
  Shows how often your ads are shown compared to how often they could be. Low impression share can mean budget issues or low ad rank.

You can track plenty more, but if these five are right, most of your campaign will be in good shape.

If you’re unsure which metrics are worth tracking or suspect your current reports are missing key data, a proper PPC audit can help uncover what’s going wrong.

What a Good PPC Report Looks Like

There’s no universal format, but all effective reports share a few things:

• Clear structure
  Your team should be able to scan the report and know what’s going on without digging through dozens of rows.

• Relevant comparisons
  Look at month-on-month or year-on-year changes. Avoid comparing days or weeks unless your business is driven by short-term trends.

• Context, not just numbers
  Metrics are only useful when you understand what caused the change. Did conversions drop because of a new landing page, a broken tracking tag, or a shift in audience targeting?

• Highlights and recommendations
  The best reports don’t just show results, they point to the next steps. Include a short section outlining what worked, what didn’t, and what needs to change.

• Avoid clutter
  Too much data hides the important parts. Focus on what matters and leave the rest for deep-dive reviews.

Common Reporting Mistakes

Some reports do more harm than good. Here are mistakes to avoid:

• Tracking the wrong thing
  Don’t call a page view a conversion unless that’s genuinely the goal. Align your metrics with real business outcomes.

• Over-reporting
  Daily or overly granular reports rarely help. They create panic over normal fluctuations and distract from the long-term picture.

• Forgetting the audience
  A technical breakdown might work for a marketing manager but mean nothing to a CEO. Make reports readable for the people who need to act on them.

• No next steps
  If the report doesn’t guide decisions, it’s incomplete. Even if performance was flat, the report should explain why and what to do about it.

If you want reporting that goes beyond numbers and actually drives better results, our PPC management service includes custom reporting as standard. It’s built around your goals, not just Google’s data.