Google Ads reporting
What should a monthly Google Ads client report include?
Updated 1 November 2026
A monthly Google Ads report should answer five questions for the client: did we spend what we planned, what did we get for it, is that better or worse than last month, which campaigns did the work, and what changes next month.
That means six sections: headline numbers against last month and target, the trend through the month, a campaign breakdown, what drove the change, a split by device or audience where it matters, and your own commentary.
The six sections
| Section | What to show | Why it's there |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Headline numbers | Spend, conversions, cost per conversion, conversion value and ROAS, each against last month and against the client's target | Answers "did it work?" before anything else. Most clients read this and little more |
| 2. The month, day by day | Daily spend and conversions as a line chart | Shows when things changed: a sale, a budget cut, a tracking break |
| 3. Campaign breakdown | Every campaign with spend, conversions, cost per conversion and ROAS, sorted by spend or by results | Shows where the money went and which campaigns earned it |
| 4. What drove the change | The one or two levels behind the headline movement: ad groups, search terms or ads | Explains the "why" with evidence instead of adjectives |
| 5. Device, location or audience | A split only where it changes a decision, such as mobile converting at half the desktop rate | Supports a specific recommendation; leave it out otherwise |
| 6. Your commentary | What happened, why, and what you will change next month | The part only you can write, and the part clients value most |
What to leave out
- Leading with impressions and clicks. They describe activity, not results. Put them in the campaign table if the client wants them, not at the top.
- Every metric Google Ads offers. A column the client can't act on is one more thing to skip past. Agree the headline metrics with the client once and keep them stable.
- Unexplained jargon. "Impression share lost to rank" means nothing to most business owners. Either explain it in a sentence or say what it means for them.
- Charts with no point. If you can't say in one line what a chart shows, it doesn't belong in the report.
Getting the figures to match Google Ads
A client who checks your report against their Google Ads account and finds a different number stops trusting the rest of it. The usual causes:
Rates averaged across rows
Cost per conversion, CTR, CPC, conversion rate and ROAS must be worked out from totals, never by averaging the rows above them.
Google Ads reports ₹231. A report that says ₹600 is wrong, and the client will notice.
Date range and time zone
Use the account's own time zone and the exact same dates. A report built in a different time zone shifts a few hours of data between days, and between months at the edges.
Which conversion column
"Conversions" counts only the actions marked as primary goals; "All conversions" counts everything tracked. Say which one the report uses, and use the same one every month.
Late conversions
Conversions can be recorded days after the click, so the last days of a month often rise after the month ends. Send the report a few days into the new month, or note that the final days may still move.
How often, and in what form
Monthly is the standard for small and mid-sized accounts. Add a short weekly note only when something is changing fast, such as a launch or a sale. Whether you send a PDF or a link, fix the figures at the moment you send: a report that silently changes after the client has read it causes more questions than it answers.
Ways to build it
- By hand in a spreadsheet. Free and fully flexible, but rebuilt every month, and the place most averaging mistakes creep in.
- Google Ads' own report editor. Free and accurate, with scheduled emails, but plain to look at and hard to add commentary to.
- Looker Studio. Free dashboards with Google's own Google Ads connector. Flexible, but you build and maintain each report. See Roster vs Looker Studio.
- Paid reporting tools such as AgencyAnalytics, Swydo and DashThis: templates and many data sources, priced per client or per report.
- Roster. You describe the report to Claude once; it refreshes from live Google Ads data each month, works out every rate from totals, and you send the client one link. Google Ads only, free during early access.
Questions
- How long should a monthly Google Ads report be?
- Short enough that the client can find the answers in a minute: one page of headline numbers and commentary, then supporting pages for anyone who wants the detail. Length is not the measure; whether the client can see what happened and what you will do next is.
- Should I send the report as a PDF or a link?
- A link opens on any device and can't go stale in an inbox thread. A PDF suits clients who file reports or forward them on. Either way, the figures should be fixed at the moment you send, so last month's report doesn't change after the fact.
- Why don't my report's figures match Google Ads?
- Usually one of four reasons: rates averaged across rows instead of worked out from totals, a different date range or time zone, a different conversion column (Conversions against All conversions), or conversions still arriving for the last days of the month.