Creating an effective PPC (pay-per-click) report is essential to understanding the performance of your campaigns and making data-driven decisions. A well-structured custom PPC report not only provides insights into key metrics but also helps optimize overall marketing efficiency.

This guide will walk you through the essential components of building a PPC report that speaks to both immediate performance and long-term marketing success.

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Focus on Marketing Efficiency Beyond Paid Ads

When building a PPC report, it’s crucial to look beyond just the paid media metrics and consider your overall marketing efficiency and the effectiveness of various ad campaigns. Instead of simply reporting how individual campaigns performed, aim to present a Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) that evaluates the impact of all marketing efforts relative to the revenue generated.

Key benefits of this approach:

• Provides a holistic view of marketing performance: MER isn’t limited to digital metrics; it encompasses everything from online ads to offline channels like direct mail, billboards, and TV commercials, giving a complete view of how all your efforts drive revenue.


• Accounts for varying customer lifetime values (LTV) by channel: One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is applying a single, blended LTV across channels. The reality is that customer LTV often varies by channel. For instance, customers acquired through Google SEO may have a higher LTV than those from Instagram ads. Understanding these differences is essential when evaluating the cost to acquire customers on each channel and setting accurate profitability goals.


• Demonstrates cross-channel influence: Using MER lets you assess how various marketing channels influence each other. For example, traditional campaigns, such as billboards or TV ads, can drive traffic to digital channels like Google Ads or social media, making it essential to see the impact of one on the other.


• Puts profitability front and center: Looking at total marketing spend relative to revenue reveals overall profitability and ensures your marketing dollars are working efficiently. With MER, you can allocate budgets based on channel-specific LTVs rather than a blended average, leading to better-informed spending and stronger results.

A note on LTV per channel: To make the most of MER, avoid blending your LTV across channels. Instead, determine the LTV for each major channel, such as Google or Instagram, and adjust your acquisition goals accordingly. Blending LTV may lead to misallocated budgets—especially if one channel drives higher-value customers. This channel-specific approach provides a clearer view of each channel’s unique profitability.

Focusing on marketing efficiency shifts the approach from tracking isolated metrics to understanding the overall impact of your marketing budget.

Everything covered in this guide relates to how we at Single Grain suggest building your PPC reports. However, you should ultimately balance the metrics in your report based on what is practical to your PPC campaigns’ overall health and wellness, as well as metrics that matter most to the brand based on its objectives.

The Golden Rule: Always prioritize marketing efficiency over isolated metrics in your PPC reports. Focus on how all campaigns and platforms work together to drive overall profitability while aligning the report’s metrics with the brand’s core objectives.

With all of that said, if you’d like help from an agency with decades of experience working with scale-up brands through PPC, then click here to connect with us.

Now, let’s talk about which metrics to focus on in your PPC report.

Track Key PPC Metrics That Matter

While it’s important to keep an eye on smaller platform-specific KPIs, your PPC report should prioritize the key metrics that truly impact the bottom line and evaluate PPC performance. This helps your clients or stakeholders easily see what’s driving business outcomes and where optimizations are needed.

Essential performance metrics to include:

• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Measures how much revenue you’re making for each dollar spent, a key metric for seeing direct profitability.


• Cost per Acquisition (CPA): Tracks how much it costs to acquire a customer or lead, helping to keep your spend efficient.


• Middle-of-Funnel Metrics: These give insights into how engaged people are before they’re ready to buy. Metrics like Cost per Email Signup or Cost per Meta Form Submission can show how well you’re moving leads through the journey, bridging that awareness-to-conversion gap.


• Conversion Metrics: Whether it’s purchases, calls, or form submissions, tracking conversions gives a clear picture of success at the bottom of the funnel.


• Engagement Metrics (Top of Funnel): Metrics like click-through rate (CTR), impression share, video views, and engagement rate help track early-stage interest and awareness.


• Bottom-of-Funnel Metrics: Focus on metrics tied directly to revenue, such as ROAS and CPA, which show how well your ads are driving conversions.

Nuances with Channel-Specific Tracking: Social Media & Search Engine PPC Campaigns

Each advertising platform often tends to over-attribute conversions to its own efforts, which can make it seem like each channel is driving more results than it actually is. This can skew data if you’re looking at platform reports in isolation, so it’s important to view them in context.

Search Engine Ads:

• Impression Share: Shows ad visibility compared to competitors but can be overestimated by search platforms. Cross-check against overall brand performance.


• Click-through Rate (CTR): Useful for gauging ad relevance but not always an indicator of true intent to convert.


• Conversions and ROAS: Essential for bottom-line metrics, but remember that search engines may over-credit themselves, especially if other channels are involved in the user’s journey.

Social Media Ads:

• Ad Performance Over Time: Tracking trends across campaigns can be helpful, but keep in mind social platforms often attribute conversions to themselves if the user interacted with an ad before converting through another channel.


• Engagement: Metrics like likes, shares, and comments show interest but may not directly translate to conversions.


• Top-of-Funnel Metrics: Engagement rate and video views provide insight into ad awareness. Just keep in mind that social channels may overstate their impact without considering interactions on other platforms.


• Bottom-of-Funnel Metrics: Metrics like ROAS and CPA are important for tracking revenue-driven results but should be compared with data from other channels to get a balanced view.

To get an accurate picture, avoid relying solely on each platform’s attribution and consider a multi-touch attribution model. This way, you’ll see how each channel truly contributes to conversions, providing a clearer understanding of each platform’s role in the full customer journey.

Let’s Start Reporting

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