Interpreting AdWords Reports

Interpreting Ad, Ad Group, Campaign and URL Performance Reports

The Ad Performance report lets you view statistics on how specific types of ad variations are performing. This type of report lets you see performance stats on text ads, image ads and, where available, video ads, mobile ads and local business ads. The Ad Group, Campaign and URL Performance reports shows you information for each level of your account.

Interpreting Account Performance Reports

The Account Performance report gives you information for your entire account. From the 'Attributes' column, select the ad distribution you want to see for your account. The two conversion columns offers the conversion statistics broken down by type, ad conversions, and ad conversion rates. The remaining columns give metrics for any other ad type your account contains.

Interpreting Keyword Reports

Keyword Performance reports let you view statistics on how your keywords are performing across all campaigns or in selected campaigns.

Interpreting Placement Performance Reports

There are two places where you can see the information for this report. The first way to reach this data is to view the Networks tab, which helps you reach your marketing objectives by giving you increased transparency into your campaign's performance on both the Search and Display Networks. It appears in three places in your account: On the 'All online campaigns' overview screen, on the main screen for each of your campaigns, and on the details page for each of your ad groups. Use this tab to help you manage your campaigns and reach your ROI objectives on the search and Display Networks.

The second place in your account where you can access the placement performance data is in the Reporting > Reports tab. Click 'Create a New Report' and select 'Placement Performance.'

The tips below can help you interpret the data that results once you run this report.

1. Think in terms of conversions
When taking action on information provided on the Networks tab, we recommend you rely on conversion data to guide you. This will help you understand how individual sites are converting for you. We offer two free tools for advertising accountability: Google Conversion Tracking and Google Analytics.

2. Focus on the right areas by sorting
The Networks tab displays a wealth of information about your ads' exposure on the search and Display Networks. This can be overwhelming and knowing where to start can be a challenge.

In the upper corner of the Networks tab you'll see pull-down menus reading Last 7 Days and Tab Options. These allow you to focus on the areas that matter the most by filtering the results shown, either by date or by performance criteria. This will help you focus on the domains or URLs where your ads are getting the most exposure. You can also click any column title to sort your keywords according to that metric.

3. Act only on statistically significant data
Some sites may have little data associated with them on your Networks tab. For example, you may notice sites that accrued very few impressions, while others may have accrued many impressions, but only a few clicks. In these cases, we recommend waiting for enough data to accrue before taking action on these sites. With time, you may find that these sites convert and deliver significant value once enough statistics have accumulated.

4. Don't focus on clickthrough rate (CTR)
Don't worry if your clickthrough rate (CTR) on Display Network sites is lower than what you're used to seeing on the Search Network. It's normal for CTR to be lower on the Display Network because user behavior on Display Network pages is different than on search sites -- users on Display Network pages are browsing through information, not searching with keywords. Remember:

• Just because you have a low CTR on a Display Network site doesn't mean you're performing poorly.
• In keyword-targeted campaigns, you only pay for clicks, regardless of the number of impressions your ad may receive.
• Your ad performance on the Display Network does not affect your performance, cost-per-clicks (CPCs), or position on Google.com or on other pages in the Search Network.

For these reasons, we recommend that your conversion tracking data and ultimately your ROI, not your CTR, is the true performance gauge for your ads.

5. Optimize for success
The Networks tab can provide you with vast amounts of data about the performance of your campaigns on the Display and Search Networks, making it a powerful tool you can use to improve campaign performance. Here are some tips on optimizing for success on the Display Network: