8 free tools for PPC reporting

Reporting is a crucial part of paid media management to communicate results to stakeholders and inform optimization decisions.

While there are a number of well-designed third-party reporting tools, many are expensive and inaccessible to all PPC managers, either due to budget concerns or complex approval processes.

Additionally, various tools have different benefits, with some better suited for spreadsheet analysis and others for visually-friendly reporting.

This article looks at eight free options you can use for PPC reporting.

1. LookerStudio

Looker Studio (formerly known as Google Data Studio) is a large-scale tool for creating interactive reports that can be viewed in a browser or downloaded in PDF format.

Since Google owns this platform, it integrates with most other Google-owned properties by default, such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Search Ads 360, and Display and Video 360.

For other platforms, you can export data to Google Sheets and sync it with a report. Several paid third-party tools also allow you to sync directly with a wider range of data sources.

You can create tables, charts, tables and text boxes or include drop-down lists and other elements to allow users to filter data as they wish.

Advanced users can mix multiple data sources, such as combining Google Ads data and CRM data or reporting across multiple accounts.

For those just starting out, ready-made templates are free directly from Google and third-party vendors to provide a basic reporting structure.

Dig Deeper: 3 Steps to Effective PPC Reporting and Analysis

2. Google Ads/Google Sheets Add-on

With this free add-on developed by Google, you can generate advertising reports then impSort them in a Google Sheet.

You can customize which columns to display and filter the data (for example, to show certain campaigns or only those with recent impressions).

The tool also allows you to set data refresh schedules at regular intervals.

This configuration can be useful when sharing with people who want to see data in a spreadsheet format or to provide easily exportable data tables that you can manipulate for other reports.

3. Google Ads Reports and Dashboards

The Google Ads Report Editor allows you to create reports with the precise statistics you want to see and save them for later use. You can effectively create a pivot table populated with the metrics and dimensions you want to include.

Plus, several ready-made templates can help you quickly visualize performance by ad group, keyword, audience, content, or other dimensions.

A handy tip: You can include custom columns that you have created, for example to display totals and CPA for individual conversion actions.

Additionally, you can create dashboards with data from multiple reports, dashboards for higher-level metrics, and notes for feedback. One recent use where I found a dashboard useful was tracking specific ad tests I’m running.

Dig Deeper: How to approach weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual PPC reporting

4. Microsoft Advertising Reports

Microsoft also contains its own robust reporting section, where you can view predefined reports or create your own.

In addition to displaying standard campaign data, here are some practical uses for these reports:

• Publisher reports to see performance breakdown by website URL, which cannot be viewed in the main interface.
• Negative Keyword Conflicts to remove negatives that might inadvertently block the keywords you want to bid on.
• Reporting on ad extensions at the keyword or ad level.
• User location reports to display individuals’ actual geography as opposed to targeted geography.
• Tag reports (useful for reviewing tests where ad variations can be tagged separately).

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On the social advertising front, Meta has a built-in reporting section, which can be found in the Ad Reports section of the menu.

Options include pivot table functionality and the ability to create line and bar charts.

You can save predefined reports with the specific dimensions, measures, and filters you want to include. You can also split the data in different ways, such as by campaign name, device, location, etc.

6. Google Ads Editor

Although it’s not necessarily your first idea of ​​reporting, you can view performance data in Google Ads Editor.

When you first open it, you’ll see a chart and selectors for top-level metrics, with the option to choose a time period.

You can also extract data into the editing section via the Show statistics button in the top bar. Choose individual metrics, which you can then populate into a table in the editor interface.

Additionally, you can view a report on search terms or see the performance of individual search, display, application, or Demand Gen assets (including images and text).

These features could be useful as an alternative to the web UI for downloading data in spreadsheet format.

7. Microsoft Advertising Editor

Like Google, you can also include metrics when uploading data to Microsoft Advertising Editor.

Use the Show statistics in the top bar and select the period you want to view. You can also view the data directly in the interface or export it for manipulation in Excel or another program.

8. Google Analytics

A properly configured Google Analytics implementation is crucial for any PPC manager’s analytics. You will need to ensure that your website traffic from your advertising platforms is properly tracked (for example by connecting Google Ads and using the appropriate UTM parameters across all platforms).

Reports created in GA4 can help show ad traffic performance related to website behavior metrics.

If you’ve linked your Google Ads account and enabled auto-tagging, you can view Google Ads data as well as key events (events that you’ve marked as a priority for your business, such as form completions, sales, etc.) . in the Advertising section.

Explorations are a good starting point for creating custom reports that can be segmented to include only specific traffic, such as from paid channels, along with selected dimensions and metrics.

For example, you can create a funnel report showing the volume of ad traffic generated at each stage of the buying process.

An added value of Google Analytics reporting for PPC is the ability to see how ads perform with other channels such as organic search, social, referrals and direct traffic in the conversion process.

The Attribution section lets you see user journeys across multiple channel combinations and compare last clicks to data-driven models.

Dig Deeper: How to Combine GA4 and Google Ads for Powerful Paid Search Results

Start reporting

Even if you don’t have the budget for more expensive reporting tools, there are plenty of free options available.

If you haven’t tested some of the options reviewed in this article, take some time to check them out, play with the features, and see which reporting configurations may meet your needs.