The Google Ads report tells you which campaigns from Google Ads bring people to your site. It combines data from Google Ads with data from Piwik PRO like sessions, bounce rate, goal conversions. By looking at this report, you can figure out which campaigns are working best to bring people to your site and turn them into customers.
Before you start
Here are a few things to know before you explore your report:
- The Google Ads report only works if you’re integrated with Google Ads. If you’re not, follow integration guidelines for Piwik PRO (cloud and private cloud) or Piwik PRO (on-premises).
- The integration will download campaigns supported by Google Ads API. These campaign types aren’t avaliable via API:
Discovery,Performance Max. - If you want to combine data from Google Ads with Piwik PRO, follow these guidelines.
- We recommend that you use auto-tagging in Google Ads. It allows Piwik PRO to combine data and to show more accurate information in reports.
About the report
In Google Ads report, you’ll see eight subreports:
- Accounts: This report shows the Google Ads accounts connected to your site in Piwik PRO.
- Campaign performance: This report shows the campaigns set up in Google Ads that drive traffic to your site.
- Ad group performance: This report shows the ad groups set up in Google Ads that drive traffic to your site.
- Keyword performance: This report shows the keywords set in Google Ads that are used to display ads.
- Landing pages: This report shows the URLs of pages to which visitors were sent from ads or keywords in Google Ads.
- Ad performance: This report shows the ads set up in Google Ads that drive traffic to your site.
- Performance by day of week: This report shows how much traffic your ads generate each day of the week. It combines data on clicks, costs and goal conversions.
- Ad distribution network: This report shows where your ad was displayed. The networks are: content, mixed, search, search partners, unknown, unspecified, YouTube search and YouTube watch.
To view the report, follow these steps:
- Go to Menu > Analytics.
- Navigate to Reports.
- On the left, click Google Ads.
- View the report.
- Click the report name to access a subreport.
- Click the section name to view more details
- (Optional) Whenever you see a nested dimension in a report, you can click on it to drill down into the data.
Note: The question mark (?) next to cost or average CPC in the Google Ads report indicates values in different currencies. When linking Google Ads accounts with different currencies, the cost and average CPC figures are inaccurate. Piwik PRO cannot change currencies, so you see summed values for different currencies in your reports.
- If you want to see two dimensions in a single view, click + and choose a dimension.
Metrics in the report
In the Google Ads report, you’ll find the following metrics:
- Clicks (Google Ads): The number of clicks your ad received.
- Cost (Google Ads): The amount you’ve paid for your ads in Google Ads.
- Average CPC (Google Ads): The average cost per click (CPC) is the amount you’ve paid for your ad divided by the total number of clicks. Average CPC = (Cost / Click) * 100%.
- CTR (Google Ads): Click-through rate (CTR) measures how many times people click on your ad in Google Ads after it’s shown to them. CTR = (Clicks / Impressions) * 100%.
- Sessions: The number of sessions performed by visitors. A session starts with the first event and ends 30 minutes after the last event.
- Bounce rate: The percentage of sessions during which visitors viewed only one page and didn’t continue to another page view, goal conversion or ecommerce conversion. Bounce rate = Bounces / Sessions * 100%.
- ROAS (Google Ads): Return on ad spend (ROAS) shows whether your ad spend on Google Ads has resulted in revenue from conversions. ROAS = (Goal revenue + Ecommerce revenue) / Cost (Google Ads)) * 100%.
- Goal conversions: The number of goals completed in a session.
- Goal conversion rate: The percentage of sessions in which visitors completed a goal. Goal conversion rate = (Sessions with a completed goal / Sessions) * 100% (You need to set goals to collect this data.)
- Sum of goal revenue: The revenue counted for the goal. (You need to set goals to collect this data.)
You can apply segments to this report, export this report to the CSV, XML, JSON, or JSON (KV) file format, or customize the report.
Click vs. session data
Sometimes you may notice that the number of clicks is much higher than the number of sessions. Here’s why it can happen:
- No consent: If you use a consent form and don’t collect data from visitors who don’t consent, session data won’t be collected. Example: A visitor clicks on an ad, but in Piwik PRO they don’t agree to data collection. In this case, no session will be created.
- Closed tab: A visitor clicked on an ad and closed the tab before the landing page loaded.
- Many clicks on the same ad: A visitor clicked many times on an ad during a 30-minute session. Google Ads counts every click and Piwik PRO still sees the same session.