The report you're probably getting
Most PPC agency reports follow the same template. A few graphs showing impressions going up. A table of click-through rates broken down by campaign. Maybe some quality score numbers. A line about "optimisations made this month" with no detail on what actually changed.
It looks professional. It's full of numbers. And it tells you almost nothing about whether your money is working.
The problem isn't that these metrics don't matter — they do, in the right context. The problem is that they're platform metrics, not business metrics. They tell you what happened inside Google Ads. They don't tell you what happened to your pipeline.
What a useful report actually covers
A report worth reading answers three questions: how much did we spend, what did we get for it, and what are we doing next? Everything else is context.
Cost per lead by channel and campaign
This is the single most important number in any PPC report. Not cost per click. Not conversion rate in isolation. How much did it cost to generate a lead that your sales team can actually work?
If your agency can't tell you this, they either don't have the tracking set up properly or they don't want you to see the number. Neither is acceptable.
Lead quality breakdown
Not all leads are equal. A demo request from a VP of Engineering at a mid-market SaaS company is worth more than a whitepaper download from a student. Your report should break down leads by type and, ideally, by quality — which ones turned into sales conversations, which ones went nowhere.
This requires CRM integration, which is where most agencies fall down. If your agency doesn't have visibility into what happens after the form fill, they're optimising blind.
Pipeline and revenue attribution
The gold standard: how much pipeline did paid media generate this month? How much closed revenue can be attributed back to ad spend? This isn't always possible to report precisely — attribution is messy and multi-touch — but a good agency will at least show you the trend and be honest about the gaps.
Spend vs budget pacing
Simple but often missing. How much did we plan to spend? How much did we actually spend? Are we on track for the month, quarter, and year? If spend is significantly under or over plan, why?
Search term and audience insights
What are people actually searching for when they find your ads? Which audience segments are converting and which aren't? This is where the strategic value lives — it tells you what your market is thinking, not just what your ads are doing.
What changed and why
Every report should include a plain-English summary of what the agency changed this month and what impact those changes had. New keywords added. Underperforming campaigns paused. Budget shifted from display to search. If they can't articulate what they did and why, question what you're paying for.
What's planned for next month
A backward-looking report is a history lesson. You need to know what's coming: tests being run, new campaigns being launched, budget recommendations, seasonal adjustments. This is what separates a reactive agency from a strategic partner.
Red flags in agency reporting
Good PPC reporting isn't about more data. It's about the right data, connected to commercial outcomes, delivered with context and a point of view.
Watch out for reports that lean heavily on vanity metrics — impressions, reach, ad frequency — without connecting them to outcomes. Be wary of agencies that celebrate click-through rate improvements without mentioning that lead volume dropped. And be especially cautious if your agency resists giving you direct access to ad accounts. The data is yours. You should be able to see it.
What to ask your agency
If you're not getting the reporting you need, start with these questions:
Questions worth asking
- Can you show me cost per lead by campaign for the last three months?
- Do you have visibility into which leads converted to pipeline?
- What was our blended cost per opportunity this quarter?
- What percentage of our spend went to campaigns that generated zero leads?
If they can't answer these, it's not a reporting gap — it's a capability gap.
The bottom line
Good PPC reporting isn't about more data. It's about the right data, connected to commercial outcomes, delivered with context and a point of view. If your monthly report doesn't help you make better decisions about where to invest next, it's not a report — it's a screensaver.
Is your current reporting cutting it?
Media Metrics helps B2B companies get more from their paid media. Our Performance Audit includes a full review of your tracking, attribution setup, and reporting — and tells you exactly what needs to change.