A PPC performance report should include a clear snapshot of spend and results for the date range, plus the details you need to explain why performance changed and what you will do next.
At a minimum, we include your goals (leads, calls, sales, booked appointments), the reporting window, and a comparison period (last month vs this month, or last 30 days vs prior 30 days). We also note any outside factors that can sway outcomes, like seasonality in Orlando (storm season home services, snowbird timing, back-to-school for pediatric practices), promo dates, or major website changes. If you are working with us on PPC management, the report should read like a business update, not a spreadsheet dump.
What a solid PPC report contains
| Report section | What it should show | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Goals and tracking setup | Primary conversions (form submits, calls, purchases), secondary conversions, offline tracking notes | If conversion tracking is off, every other metric can look “good” while sales stay flat |
| Budget and pacing | Total spend, daily budget pacing, spend by campaign, budget changes | Prevents end-of-month surprises and shows whether budget is limiting volume |
| Core delivery | Impressions, clicks, CTR, average CPC | Explains visibility and ad engagement before you even get to leads or revenue |
| Conversion performance | Conversions, conversion rate, CPA (cost per acquisition) or CPL (cost per lead) | Shows if you are paying a sensible amount per result |
| Revenue and efficiency (when applicable) | Revenue, average order value, ROAS, profit notes (if you share margins) | Connects ad spend to dollars back, not just form fills |
| Search intent and query quality | Top search terms, negatives added, match type notes | Keeps you from paying for the wrong searches (common in legal, dental, and home services) |
| Segment breakdowns | Performance by device, location, audience, time of day, network | Finds pockets of waste and pockets of strong performance you can scale |
| Visibility limits | Search impression share and lost impression share (budget and rank) | Shows whether growth requires more budget, better ad rank, or both |
| Ads and assets | Top ads, asset performance, extensions (calls, location, sitelinks) | Explains what messaging is pulling clicks and leads, and what is not |
| Landing page results | Post-click conversion rate by page, key drop-off notes, mobile issues | Many PPC “problems” are landing page problems, not bidding problems |
| Change log and next moves | What changed (bids, budgets, keywords, ads) and what happens next | Keeps the report honest and prevents random changes without accountability |
For lead gen in Central Florida, we usually separate conversions into “contact” actions (forms, chats) and “high-intent” actions (qualified calls, booked consults, online deposits). That keeps you from celebrating low-quality leads. If your team is tagging leads in a CRM, include a simple lead-quality line item: total leads, qualified leads, and cost per qualified lead.
Good reports also show what happened at the campaign and ad group level, not only the account total. For example, you might see overall CPA stay steady while one service line (like “emergency plumber” or “same-day dentist”) is improving fast and deserves more budget.
Finally, the report should connect ads to the on-site experience. If your landing page is slow on mobile, confusing, or missing trust signals, paid traffic will leak. That is where landing page and website improvements often move results more than tweaking bids. If you want to keep your measurement clean, our FAQ on tools to measure performance with Google Analytics explains what we look at on the analytics side, and which metrics to track helps you avoid vanity numbers when reviewing any marketing report.
If you want, we can tell you what your current report is missing by comparing it to this checklist and pointing out the gaps that typically hide wasted spend or undercounted conversions.
