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Paid Search Reporting: Google Analytics PPC Dashboard

January 21, 2014

We work with a wide range of clients here at Venture Stream; brands and retailers, large and small – but regardless of the products they sell or the size of their business, they all share a common desire; to spend less time reporting, and more time understanding and actioning.

This is often easier said than done; after all, without taking the time to mine the data and compile the reports, it is seldom clear what the numbers and figures mean and, more importantly, where the actionable insight lies. With this in mind, we’re working with our clients to better understand what they want out of reports, and making them easily accessible for self-service reporting and data-mining.

First on the hit-list was Paid Search Reporting. We manage PPC Marketing for many of our clients, and we’ve reported on it since day 1, via a range of spreadsheets and formulas, pulling in data from Google AdWords, Analytics and other sources. However, we felt that the reporting could be more streamlined and opened up to our clients so that they can run reports, see the data and look for insight in order to better educate themselves and challenge us on strategy and delivery.

So, inspired by a brilliant blog post on econsultancy that I’ve had bookmarked for months, we decided to create a Custom PPC Dashboard in Google Analytics. We polled our clients and peers and found the key metrics that they wanted to see at a glance, and the results are below:

  • Visits
  • Revenue
  • Conversion Rate
  • ROI
  • Click Through Rate
  • Cost per Click
  • Cost
  • Transactions
  • Cost per Conversion
  • Average Order Value
  • Transactions by Campaign
  • Campaign ROI and Conversion Rate
  • Keyword Transactions & Revenue
  • New vs. Returning Visits
  • New vs. Returning Revenue

The resultant Paid Search Activity Dashboard provides a wealth of PPC Campaign information at the touch of a button – no need for hefty spreadsheets, complex formulas, or back-and-forth between tools and profiles.

We’ve made the Google Analytics PPC Dashboard available as a template, so that you can import it to your Google Analytics profile – click here to give it a whirl. Just click on the link and follow the instructions.

We’re going to be expanding our use of Dashboards in Google Analytics in the coming weeks and months, so let us know if you have any ideas on what you’d like to see as part of our series.

Written by Andy

Andy is Venture Stream’s Chief Operating Officer and has over 15 years’ experience in ecommerce consultancy, design and retail marketing.

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