Nora Efron tell the story of when he first fell in love with journalism.
His journalism teacher, Mr. Simms, asked the class to write the protagonist of an article using these facts:
“Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a conference on new teaching methods. Speakers will include anthropologist Margaret Mead, university president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California Governor Edmund ‘Pat’ Brown.”
The class followed the who/what/where/when/why rubric they had learned to create clues about the colloquium and its agenda, all of which Mr. Simms refused.
The main thing, he finally explained, was “There will be no school on Thursday.”
That’s when Ephron learned that “the point” was more important than the details.
With that in mind, if the Google Ads interface was in a journalism course, it would probably fail.
Google Ads charts and tables provide an overwhelming amount of facts and data, but do not distinguish between high and low importance. Instead, the interface mixes everything together, often leaving out key information and focusing on the trivial.
In this article, you will learn how to change it.
While “factory setting” takes center stage, key details reveal the hook of your data story hidden in the Google Ads interface.
Activate your Google Ads account and let’s dive in.
1. Dig up the lead
Like young Ephron and her fellow journalists, Google Ads will give you plenty of detail without ever getting to the point.
Your mission is to find what matters most and make it the focus of your tables and charts.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed just looking at all the data and metrics in the Google Ads interface, start here:
Correct your overview summary card
The summary card on the overview page includes unimportant metrics by default.
Here we see a card with clicks, impressions, CPC and cost. Chances are none of these are your most important metrics, so why would you include them in an overview card?
How to fix the overview summary card
Click the drop-down arrow next to each metric to change it. Click on the bottom of the scoreboard to toggle between adding or removing it from the chart. Click the three dots in the upper right corner to change the date range or download the data.
Simply changing the metrics to key performance indicators (KPIs) already makes the card much more useful.
Most clients don’t care how many clicks they got, but they do care that they generated $25 million in revenue and the trend of that metric.
Setting up your scorecard to reflect your KPIs helps you know if you’re on track to meet your goals and where to dig deeper.
Fix your statistics table
As with the overview summary card, the statistics tables in the Google Ads interface are not calibrated to help you find the point.
In English, we read from left to right, so the most important metrics should be on the left.
But are they?
If looking at your metrics in the interface makes your eyes glaze over, you probably don’t have columns properly organized.
How to add and sort columns
Click Columns and select Modify Columns from the drop-down menu. Modify or customize the columns to reflect your key metrics. Rearrange the columns to lead with the most important. Press Apply to save.
While modifying columns isn’t a deep secret of the Google Ads interface, it will give you a huge advantage in optimizing your account if you’re not already doing it.
Reviewing a stat table setup like this makes it nearly impossible to know what to do next:
After sorting the columns and adding a comparison of time periodsit’s a different story:
You can immediately see which campaigns are performing well, compared to each other and compared to last year.
Prioritize the most important information to make better decisions in the account and avoid that dreaded feeling when you’re just looking at data but have no idea what to do next.
2. Decouple your conversion actions
We’ve established that prioritizing Google Ads conversions in the interface will make your optimization easier.
But not all conversions are created equal.
That’s because “conversions” aren’t a standardized metric and can refer to different actions with different values for your business.
Any of these can be tracked as a conversion in Google Ads:
A sale A page view A download A phone call A link click
It is up to the advertiser to define which actions are tracked as conversions, but by default all conversions are accumulated and reported as a single activity.
Here we see a Google Ads statistics table with 358 conversions, for a good CPA of only $5.19:
But what exactly are the conversions shown here?
To find out, go to Segment and select Conversions > Conversion Action.
It turns out that less than 4% of conversions were actually for reserved demos, the company’s main KPI. The remaining 96% of conversions were page views (About Us, View Prices) that were automatically imported into the account and tracked as conversions:
The actual CPA for a reserved demo is not $5, but $142. ($1,857 divided by 13 demos.)
Applying this segment can help you quickly understand which conversions are being tracked and how each is performing at the campaign level, so you can correct your tracking or change your optimization strategy.
It may not be the story you want, but it’s the story you need.
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3. Are you really a “message match” (or think you are)?
You know what message matching is. This is when the keyword, ad, and landing page are almost the same thing.
Also known as “congruence,” message matching is critical to improving your quality score, increasing your performance, and keeping your prospects’ attention.
But aligning every keyword with every ad is no small feat, especially now that Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) introduce so much variation into ad text. (Maybe the keyword is a perfect match in versions 1, 2, and 4, but bombs in version 3.)
Here’s how to tell if your keywords and ads are aligned.
Target your ads by keywords
In the ad page statistics table, go to Segment > Keyword Text.
In this view, you’ll play “one of these things isn’t like the other” to see if all of your keywords are performing similarly or if there are any outliers.
The table above shows that the brand’s “promotion” ad performs very well in discount and coupon searches, but “sales” does not generate any sales. Not only that, the CTR is only 7%, which is way below the 25% average for this ad.
And now what?
You could:
Stop keyword. Edit the ad. Create a new ad group that better emphasizes the keyword in your ads.
Any of these options could be the best option for improving your message match, it all depends on your keyword, ads, and bid.
4. If you don’t target your ad extensions, your data will be incorrect
Is there any part of the Google Ads interface that is as confusing as the extension tables? This table goes beyond “burying” lead and makes it disappear entirely.
For example, let’s check how our “Gift Cards” sitelink works.
Looks great, doesn’t it? $1.6 million in revenue, 73,000 clicks – this extension is on fire!
You know where this is going. Go to Segment and select This extension vs. others Now let’s take another look at the performance:
Turns out the sitelink only got 64 clicks, generating less than $2,000 in revenue.
The rest of the performance data relates to the headline or literally any other part of the ad that wasn’t the sitelink, but was served when the sitelink was served.
By default, the table will show you incomplete or inaccurate data about your extensions. Always use this extension versus another for real performance evaluation.
Channel your inner journalist
As an investigative reporter, you can learn to uncover potential and focus on what matters most to your account.
The Google Ads interface is constantly changing, without too many ads or fanfare. This article only scratches the surface of what you can discover.
For example:
Find out how mobile landing pages affect your conversion rates by segmenting your landing pages by device type. Check if search partner volume has changed using network segmentation (with search partners). Filter search term data by search term text to quickly see the spread of keywords caused by similar queries.
Be curious and see how you can use filters, segments, columns, and new reporting features. You’ll be an expert at getting to the point of your data in no time!
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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About the author
Amy Hebdon is a Google Ads conversion expert and founder and managing director of Google Partners Paid Search Magic agency. Since 2004, he’s been managing Google Ads for clients ranging from Fortune 10 to agency, in-house and freelance SMBs. His articles have been published in Search Engine Journal, Unbounce, PPC Hero, Supermetrics, Copy Hackers and CXL. Along with her husband James, she also runs the Facebook group Google Ads for Savvy Digital Marketers.
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