How to report Google Ads results to clients

Most Google Ads reports contain too many metrics and not enough meaning. Clients open a table of 12 columns — impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, conversions, cost/conv, search impression share — and have no idea whether the number in each cell is good or bad. Here's how to build a Google Ads report that answers the only question clients actually care about: are we getting value for this spend?

The 6 metrics that belong in every Google Ads report

Most clients do not need to see 20 metrics. They need to see 6 — the ones that tell the complete story of whether the campaign is working.

What to leave out

Impressions (standalone, without context), search impression share, average position, quality score, and conversion rate. These are optimisation metrics — useful inside Google Ads, not useful for a client trying to understand business performance. Including them makes the report look thorough but causes confusion and invites irrelevant questions.

The rule: if a client asks about a metric and the honest answer is "it's something we monitor internally to optimise the account" — it doesn't belong in the client report.

How to explain CPA in plain English

Never say: "CPA decreased to £38, a 15% MoM improvement."

Say: "Each new enquiry cost £38 this month — 15% cheaper than last month, and well ahead of the £45 target we set at the start of the engagement. We're acquiring leads more efficiently than we have in four months."

The difference: the second version answers the implicit question ("is that good?") and connects the metric back to the original goal. Clients don't know if £38 is good or bad in isolation — they need the comparison to target and the trend direction to make sense of it.

How to handle a bad month

Bad months happen. CPA spikes. Conversions drop. Budgets run out early. The worst thing you can do is bury the bad news in a wall of data and hope the client doesn't notice — they always notice, and finding it themselves destroys trust faster than the result itself.

The formula for reporting a bad month:

1. State it directly. Don't hedge. "This was a difficult month for Google Ads performance."
2. Explain what happened. "CPM increased 28% across the account — a platform-wide trend we've seen across all our clients this month, likely driven by increased competition ahead of the summer season."
3. State what you're doing about it. "We've paused the two lowest-performing ad groups, refreshed the top three creatives, and tightened audience targeting. We expect to see CPA return to target within 3–4 weeks."

Clients retain agencies who are honest and proactive, not agencies who always have perfect numbers. The report that explains a bad month clearly and demonstrates you're in control is often more trust-building than a good month reported passively.

The Google Ads section structure

For a standard monthly client report, the Google Ads section should follow this order: KPI callout (CPA vs target, or ROAS vs target) → spend vs budget → conversions MoM → clicks and CTR → campaign breakdown (top 3–5 by spend) → 2–3 sentences of plain-English commentary.

The entire section should be readable in 90 seconds. If it takes longer, there's too much in it. For the full report structure including GA4 and other channels, see the digital marketing report template guide.