How to Read Your Google Ads Reports Without Getting Lost

Google Ads works. But only if you know whether it's actually working for *your* business.

The problem is that Google throws about fifty different metrics at you, and most of them are noise. You'll see impressions, clicks, impressions share, search lost IS budget, conversion rate, cost per acquisition, view-through conversions — the list goes on. It's like being handed a car dashboard with 47 warning lights, half of which you'll never need to understand.

Here's the thing: you don't need to understand all of them. You need to understand six. That's it.

The Six Metrics That Actually Matter

1. Impressions

An impression is every single time your ad shows up on Google. Someone searches "plumber near me" in Manchester, your ad appears, that's an impression.

Impressions tell you reach. They answer: are people actually seeing your ad?

Low impressions usually mean one of three things: your budget's too small, your keywords are too narrow, or your ads aren't ranked high enough. High impressions are good — but only if they're leading somewhere.

What to aim for: There's no magic number, but if you're spending £500 a month and getting fewer than 500 impressions a week, something's wrong.

2. Clicks

This is straightforward: someone saw your ad and clicked it. Your ad appeared 1,000 times, 50 people clicked. That's 50 clicks.

Clicks mean interest. They show someone thought your ad was worth investigating.

What to aim for: This depends entirely on your business and industry. A plumber in Bristol might get 40 clicks per week on a £400 budget. A window cleaner might only get 15. The key is whether those clicks turn into actual business — which brings us to conversions.

3. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR is clicks divided by impressions, shown as a percentage.

If your ad gets 1,000 impressions and 50 clicks, your CTR is 5%.

CTR tells you how *relevant* your ad is to the people seeing it. A high CTR means your ad is saying something people want to click on. A low CTR means your ad message isn't landing.

What to aim for: 3–5% is solid for most service-based businesses in the UK. Anything under 2% means your ad copy or keywords need work. Above 6% and you're doing genuinely well.

If your CTR is low, you don't need more budget — you need better ad copy or tighter keyword targeting.

4. Cost

Total money spent. Simple.

But what matters isn't the total cost — it's the cost *per* click and *per* conversion.

Cost per click (CPC) = Total spend ÷ Number of clicks

If you spent £100 and got 25 clicks, your CPC is £4.

CPC matters because it shows you how expensive it is to get attention. In the UK, CPCs range wildly depending on industry. A solicitor in London might pay £15 per click. A local tradesperson might pay £1.50. Both can be profitable — it depends on what that click's worth to you.

5. Conversions

A conversion is whatever actually matters to your business. For most UK small businesses, that's usually:

• A phone call
• An enquiry form filled in
• A booking made
• An email address captured

Google can track conversions automatically if you set it up properly (which we'd recommend doing). Without conversion tracking, you're flying blind. You literally cannot tell if your ads are making you money.

If you're not tracking conversions yet, stop reading this and set that up first. Seriously.

What to aim for: This varies wildly. A plumber might convert 1 in 20 clicks into a job enquiry. A personal trainer might convert 1 in 5. Track your own numbers for two weeks and you'll know.

6. Cost Per Conversion (CPC conversion)

Total spend ÷ Number of conversions.

This is the only metric that genuinely tells you if Google Ads is profitable.

Example: You spent £500 on Google Ads last month. You got 12 phone calls from the ads. Your cost per conversion is £42 per call.

Now ask yourself: if each phone call results in an average job worth £300+, then £42 is brilliant. You're making money. If your average job is worth £80, you're losing money.

Cost per conversion is everything. It's the one number that directly answers the question: am I getting a return on this spend?

What to Ignore (Mostly)

Your Google Ads account has dozens of other metrics. Here's what you can safely ignore:

Impressions share — tells you what percentage of possible impressions you're getting. Interesting for data nerds, pointless for your business.

Search lost IS (budget) — means you ran out of daily budget. Only matters if it happens consistently. If it does, increase your budget (or improve your efficiency).

Average position — tells you where your ad ranks. It's less important than CTR and conversion rate. A lower position can work fine if your CTR and conversions are good.

Quality Score — Google's internal rating of your ads (1–10). Yes, it affects your costs. No, you can't do much about it directly. Focus on CTR and conversion rate instead, and quality score usually follows.

View-through conversions — people who saw your ad but didn't click, then converted later. For most small UK businesses, this is noise. Ignore it.

How to Tell if Your Campaigns Are Actually Working

Ask yourself these three questions:

1. Is my cost per conversion lower than the value of a typical job/sale?

If yes: keep going. If no: something needs to change.

2. Am I getting at least a few conversions every week?

If you're getting zero conversions in two weeks, your ads aren't working. If you're getting 3–5 per week, they are.

3. Is my CTR above 2%?

If yes, your ads are relevant. If no, your keywords or copy need work.

If you can answer "yes" to all three, your campaigns are working. You might be able to optimise further, but fundamentally, they're doing their job.

The Monthly Check-In You Actually Need to Do

Every month, pull your Google Ads report and write down these six numbers for the past 30 days:

• Total spend (£)
• Total impressions
• Total clicks
• CTR (%)
• Total conversions
• Cost per conversion (£)

Compare them to last month. Is cost per conversion going down? Are conversions going up? Is CTR stable or improving?

If the answer is yes to most of these, you're on the right track. If costs are climbing and conversions are falling, something's broken and needs fixing.

Getting Help

If you're setting up conversion tracking for the first time, or you've been running ads for months but have no idea if they're profitable, that's exactly the kind of thing we help small businesses with at BrightClick. We set up the tracking, we interpret the data, and we tell you straight: is this working or not.

But you don't need an agency to read your reports. You just need these six metrics and a bit of honesty about whether your ads are making you money.

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What to do today: Log into your Google Ads account. Find your last month's campaign report. Write down your cost per conversion. If you don't know what that number is, you're not ready to spend another penny on Google Ads until you do.