What marketers get wrong about PPC reporting

PPC reporting mistakes to avoid

Let’s break down what these PPC reporting mistakes are and how you can avoid them now.

Failing to set PPC goals

Any PPC ad campaign needs to have a goal first and foremost. If you don’t set your goal before you run your campaign, all you’ll do is gather random junk data that can’t accurately be analyzed and that you can’t compile into an organized report for future ad campaigns.

Always be sure to set a goal for your PPC ads and outline, in explicit detail, what you want to achieve with the campaign and what conversion or sales results you want to see by its end. Coming up with your goal ahead of time will help you know more quickly (and thus, report more quickly) whether your campaign was an overall success or not.

Not using the right tools

Gathering and analyzing PPC data takes a lot of time if you don’t use the right tools. Marketers often waste hours of their workweeks by using subpar platforms that can’t get the job done efficiently or that don’t perform the right analysis for their collected data.

PPC dashboards are much better alternatives that can give you a much more full, holistic picture of what your PPC data represents. As a result, you’ll spend more time running your marketing campaigns instead of reporting on and analyzing them retroactively.

Including too much data

While being detailed with your PPC reporting is good, you can also go overboard and include too much data for client or executive comfort. Clients and executives typically want big picture analyses and conclusions, not to be bogged down by numerical data that might take them hours to sift through.

Don’t just present numbers. Instead, your PPC reports should include context, clear conclusions, and basic breakdowns so any executive can read the report quickly and make good decisions.

Failing to segment your reports

Any good PPC analytics report should be segmented for clarity and organization. Segmenting your reports means optimizing the presented data so it’s clearer and easier for your audience to understand. Consider segmenting your PPC reports by topics like:

• network traffic
• devices used
• audience demographics
• hours of the week etc.

Assuming mobile traffic and desktop traffic are the same

Lastly, don’t make your PPC reports and assume that mobile and desktop traffic “clicks” are exactly the same. People click on and respond to ads differently depending on the platform they use. Keep this in mind when generating reports to present more accurate information for your clients and company executives.

There’s no such thing as a perfect PPC reporting. But your next reports will be much more effective and accurate for your clients should you take the above strategies into consideration. 

Good luck!