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Understanding the Report | Google Ads

To truly assess the health of a Google Search campaign, it's essential to look beyond the monthly NinjaCat reports. Analyzing performance trends through Month over Month (MoM) and Year over Year (YoY) comparisons provides valuable context; helping determine if dips in performance are due to seasonal patterns, a continuation of an existing decline, or other underlying factors.

 

Key Takeaways

  • MoM and YoY context is critical → use trend analysis to distinguish seasonality from performance issues.

  • CTR → Goal is 2%–6% (varies by industry); steady declines or falling below benchmarks signal problems.

  • Conversions → Expect lower volume on base packages; no conversions by month two, or poor-quality leads, are red flags.

  • Cost/Conversion (CPA) → Low CPA is only good if lead quality is high; consistently high CPA ($100+) means performance issues.

  • Search Terms → Review regularly in Google Ads, not just reports; irrelevant search terms with clicks indicate wasted spend.

 

MoM and YoY Changes to Look For:
  • Drop in CTR
    • When was the last time we updated ad copy? Is it still relevant?
    • Does our ad copy and campaign as a whole align with other products/creatives we’re running?
    • Have our search terms changed to be less relevant to our keywords?
  • Conversion Rate Dips
    • How is the landing page? Is there an action easily accessible once the user gets there? 
    • Have our search terms changed to be less relevant to our keywords?
  • Increase in CPC
    • Seasonality?
    • How many competitors are in our auction insights - has it increased?
    • What are the Quality Scores on our keywords? Especially high performing ones. Does the content on the landing page include our keywords in relevant context?
  • Cost/Conversion Increase
    • Especially important after adding spend!!!
    • Are we spending more just to get the same results?
    • Compare Conversions MoM along with cost/conversion to get a better understanding



Reading Report + Red Flags
CTR
  • Goal of 2%-6% but can be flexible depending on industry. Be sure to do research into industry benchmarks for your clients! 
  • On smaller campaigns, even one ad with a low CTR can skew overall CTR for the campaign.

Red Flag: Steady decrease in CTR, or CTR being lower than industry benchmark for an extended period of time.

Conversions

  • Important to note: With base package campaigns, it’s better to expect lower volume of conversions. 

Red Flag: If by the second month of being live there are no conversions, it’s likely we need to adjust our strategy. 

Red Flag: Leads generated are low quality and/or irrelevant. Be sure to actively listen to CallRail calls and tagging your leads to keep up with this!

Cost/Conversion (CPA)

  • One expensive keyword click can spike this metric drastically
  • If you see this increase suddenly, take a look at search terms to see which keyword likely caused this. 

Red Flag: Low Cost/Conversion but bad quality of leads. Having a low CPA is a good thing, however, if the majority of the leads we are getting are irrelevant, then we need to re-evaluate the campaign.

Red Flag: CPA is consistently high ($100+). Since we have a small budget, having a high CPA means we’re getting little to no conversions. If it is high consistently, we will want to evaluate campaign performance. 
Search Terms
  • Review regularly!!!! Not just on the NinjaCat report, but also by going into Google Ads and checking as a whole.
    • On the left hand menu bar, select Insights and reports > Search Terms
    • It’s important to review search terms at all levels; Account, Campaign, and Ad Group
    • Set dates to a good range, typically last 30 days, and sort by clicks

    Red Flag: Seeing search terms with clicks that are irrelevant to the campaign