Results data is one of the keystones to understanding and improving your results in Google Ads. Fortunately, the platform comes with its own inbuilt analytics to help you review ads performance and tweak each campaign for better results.
But, with analytics comes a lot of acronyms and figures that may not immediately make sense, especially to beginners. So let’s take a look at Google Ads Analytics to demystify them and set you on the path of digital advertising success.
Table of Contents
What are Google Ads Analytics?
Analytics is the data produced from your ads, measuring performance, audience demographics, and more. Not only does the Ads platform provide you with the quantitative data, it can also make suggestions for improvements, and provide snapshots of significant changes in your campaigns, such as whether there has been a large drop in clicks. There is also data on how you compare with competitors advertising similar products, and suggestions on the type of phrases your users search for. It’s a lot of useful information to tap into!
Where to Find Analytics Data
There are a number of places you can find analytics information in Google Ads, and which one you use will probably depend on how you use the platform.
Overview
When you first log into Google Ads, you are presented with an Overview screen that provides snapshots of much of your analytics data. You can select the time period to review, and can compare to earlier time periods to see how your campaigns are performing over time.
A line graph right at the top can be toggled to show performance for one to four of your key metrics. By default, Clicks and Conversions are visible, with Cost/Conversion and Cost available to toggle on. You can adjust the graph displays different metrics and see the ones most important to you.
Scrolling down the Overview page, you will find a number of cards with different data snapshots. Each of these can be analysed in more detail by clicking the given links on each card. They include:
- individual ad group data
- search ad performance
- activity by day and hour
- keyword performance summary
- ad performance across device
- campaign performance summary
A couple of additional cards provide performance snapshots to quickly show you your best and worst performing ads and demographics.
Campaigns & Ad Groups
From the left-hand menu, select Campaigns, then Campaigns again, and you will be able to view either full campaigns, your ad groups, or the individual ads. Each of these pages holds data in table form specific to the ad element. Default metrics will be displayed, but you can also customise the table to show the details that are most important to you.
Insights and Reports
From the left-hand menu, select Campaigns to view a sub menu with a number of Insights and Reports. Many of these can also be accessed via the Overview screen.
The Insights and Reports section provides you with data on a more granular level, so you can take a deep-dive into the performance on your ads based on information such as search terms, time of day, and user location.
Remember that most of these reports will only show if you’ve reached a certain threshold of activity. Small or new campaigns may therefore not have access to this information.
Insights includes a graph on overall performance across all campaigns, AI-generated performance highlights (such as significant changes in performance), competitor comparison data, and search category performance.
Auction insights lets you see in more detail how you compare to your competitors in terms of how and where your ads show.
Search terms looks at your ads performance for individual keywords so you can see which searches are most valuable to you.
When and where ads showed is fairly self-explanatory: it looks at the performance of your ads based on date and time, where they were shown (for example, on an app or a website), the devices they were viewed on, and geographical locations.
Landing pages: what page did a user land on after clicking you ad?
Shops If you have a bricks-and-mortar store, this report provides data on in-person visits and related actions.
As well as this collection of handy reports, in this section you’ll also find a Report Editor and Dashboards to further customise your analytics views. However, for beginners, I recommend you stick to what is available by default. In most cases, you will find this more than enough for your needs.
Google Analytics
Your Google Analytics account can be linked to Google Ads to provide cross-platform data that can be compared to other types of traffic (such as organic and social). This can be extremely handy, but falls out of scope of this guide. If you’re interested in learning more, take a look through by Google Analytics guides.
Key Metrics
Now that you know where to find it, it’s time to learn what kind of data you’re looking at.
What counts as a key metric for your business will vary based on your goals and the types of ads you’re running. So it’s unlikely that you’ll want to track every single metric available. However, it’s nonetheless useful to understand the metrics that are available, so that when you review your strategy, you can better recognise what would be helpful to track.
It’s worth noting that this is not an exhaustive list of available metrics in Google Ads, but includes those that are likely to be most useful to your business.
All conv. Tracks the number of all conversions in your account, whether or not they have been selected as a conversion under Goals > Conversions > Summary.
For example, an e-commerce site may have a conversion called Sales, which triggers when a product is bought. However, they may also have other conversions – perhaps imported from Google Analytics – that track other goals, such as a Newsletter Sign-Ups.
In Google Ads, they may mark only the Sales as a tracked conversion. However, the All conv. metric would still track the newsletter too. To only track Sales, they would need to look at the Conversions metric (see below).
All conv. rate The percentage of all conversions received based on the number of Interactions or Clicks.
All conv. value As for the All conv. metric, but tracking the value of the conversions.
All conv. value/click Value of all conversions per click. Calculated by dividing All conv. value by Clicks. This gives you an idea of how much each click costs you based on the conversions you make.
All conv. value / cost Your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Compares the amount you’ve spent on Google Ads with the income from all completed conversions. If you have some conversions with no assigned value, and some conversions with an assigned value, be aware that this figure will be skewed. In this case, you may be better using the metric called Conv. value / cost instead.
Average cost The average cost per interaction with your ad (e.g. click). Divides Cost by Interactions or Clicks.
Click share Shows the percentage of clicks that you received based on all the ads auctions your ad was eligible for, even if it didn’t win. It gives you an idea of how many clicks you receive compared to all your competitors for the same ad space. This is only available for Performance Max, Search, Shopping, and Hotel campaigns.
Clicks The number of times someone clicked on your ad. This may be the same figure as shown under the Interactions metric, depending on the set-up of your ads.
Conversions Tracks the number of conversions that have been sent as conversions under Goals > Conversions > Summary. Many conversions need to be set up and you may need the help of a PPC or SEO expert.
Conv. rate The percentage of tracked conversions based on the number of Interactions or Clicks.
Conv. value The total value of tracked conversions. You will need to assign a value to your conversions in order to obtain this data.
This is not necessarily how much you make from a conversion. You could, for example, still assign a value to a newsletter signup, even if you’re not directly making any money from that conversion.
Conv. value / click Value of tracked conversions per click. Calculated by dividing All conv. value by Clicks. This gives you an idea of how much each click costs you based on the conversions you make so you can then compare it to how much Google charges you and see if they provide value for money.
Conv. value / cost Your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Compares the amount you’ve spent on Google Ads with the resulting income from tracked conversions. This will only be accurate if you have accurate conversion values set up in Google Ads.
Cost How much you have spent on ads.
Cost / all conv. How much each conversion (tracked and untracked) costs to obtain. Calculated by dividing Cost by All Conversions.
Cost / conv. How much each tracked conversion costs to obtain. Calculated by dividing Cost by Conversions.
CTR Click through rate. The percentage of times someone clicked on your ad compared to the number of times your ad was displayed.
Engagements: How many times users have engaged with your ad without necessarily taking the primary associated action. This is only valid for certain ads.
Engagement rate: Similar to CTR, but includes other engagements in addition to clicks. For example, video views.
Impressions How many times your ad appeared and was viewed.
Interactions How many times someone takes the main action associated with an ad. That could be a click, a view for video ads, or a swipe on shopping ads. This is very similar to the Engagements metrics, but there is a subtle difference.
Interaction rate Similar to CTR, but includes other interactions in addition to clicks. For example, video views.
Revenue How much money you have actually made from sales that have come about through your ads.
Search impression share The number of times your ad is seen compared to the number of times it was eligible to be seen based on factors such as targeting and budget. This can give you an idea of how your fare against competitors. A low share might also indicate that your ad needs adjusted – for example, perhaps you don’t have enough budget for the type of searches you’re targeting.
Value / conv. Value per conversion. This gives you an average figure of how much each conversion is worth based on the total value of tracked conversions and the number of tracked conversions.
Summary
Without analytics and insights, you’re running Google Ads blind. This data is important to ensure you’re not wasting money, and that you’re attracting the right people with your ads. Understanding the different metrics available to you will help you plan a strategy and choose which information is most useful for your business to track.
