5 ways to drive action with your PPC report

Are you spending hours on consumer reporting each month, solely on your stakeholders to skim it, dismiss the numbers, or ignore your suggestions?

When reviews don’t drive motion, you lose greater than time. Price range approvals, strategic affect, and consumer belief are all compromised.

Listed here are 5 methods to verify your PPC report doesn’t simply get learn, however truly strikes your viewers to take motion.

1. Begin together with your viewers, not the information

When building a report, it’s simple to get misplaced within the knowledge – dozens of metrics, a number of platforms, countless methods to slice efficiency.

The intuition is to ask, “What knowledge can I present?” 

However that strategy creates reviews that spotlight numbers as a substitute of driving choices.

A greater query is, “Who wants this, and what is going to they do with it?”

What does your reader want to know or act on? 

To borrow from the Jobs-to-Be-Done framework – what is that this report being “employed” to do?

• What choices are your stakeholders liable for making?
• What questions do they anticipate answered?
• Which objectives and KPIs do they should monitor?

When you perceive the job your report is supposed to do, you possibly can reverse-engineer what belongs in it.

For instance:

• A CMO targeted on connecting advert spend to income and aggressive place will need to see ROAS, market share, and year-over-year progress.
• An ecommerce supervisor targeted on product combine will care extra about class efficiency, stock, and seasonal developments.

Off-the-shelf templates and automatic reviews can’t reply these questions for you – solely direct conversations with stakeholders can. 

You don’t want to attend for a brand new consumer kickoff to do that. 

Test in together with your present stakeholders to verify your reviews nonetheless replicate what issues most to them.

2. Set up the supply of reality

For those who handle platforms like Google Advertisements and Microsoft Advertisements, you’re probably reporting on engine numbers.

However engine numbers aren’t at all times the “supply of reality.” 

Typically they’re solely directionally correct. Different occasions, they barely correlate with precise efficiency.

Right here’s the chance while you don’t outline that supply upfront: you construct and current a stable report, solely to have it derailed by, “I don’t assume these numbers are proper.” 

A consumer questions whether or not Google Advertisements is inflating conversions, or a CFO insists income should come from the CRM. 

Immediately, the dialogue shifts from technique to knowledge protection.

When stakeholders don’t belief the numbers, your report loses its energy. You may’t drive motion on knowledge that nobody believes.

So earlier than constructing a report, make clear the supply of reality. 

A fast litmus check: when you mentioned, “We generated $1 million in PPC income yesterday,” what system would management examine to confirm it? 

No matter they title is your supply of reality.

You could by no means reconcile each dataset completely, however alignment issues most. 

Pull numbers from that trusted system the place doable, name out identified gaps – like offline conversions lagging in Google Advertisements or modeled knowledge in GA4 – and at all times determine knowledge sources clearly. 

When your reporting reflects the system leadership trusts, you keep away from countless debates about accuracy and hold the concentrate on choices that transfer the enterprise ahead.

Dig deeper: How to deliver monthly PPC reports clients love

3. Construct invisible CTAs into each part

A robust touchdown web page drives motion with a clear call to action. 

With out one, guests don’t know what to do subsequent – and conversions drop. 

Studies work the identical manner, solely with no button to click on.

That’s why I developed a framework I name “invisible CTAs.” 

An invisible CTA is the supposed consequence for every part of your report – the “conversion” you need your viewers to expertise. 

It doesn’t seem within the report itself, but it surely guides the way you construct each chart, annotation, and perception.

There are three varieties of invisible CTAs:

• Do: The subsequent step they need to take based mostly on the information – repair a touchdown web page, approve finances reallocation, or regulate technique to defend in opposition to a competitor.
• Know: What occurred and why, even when there’s no fast motion – a vacation promo drove a 15% spike that gained’t maintain, Apple’s privateness updates lowered match charges, or a monitoring glitch underreported conversions.
• Really feel: The emotional response that drives urgency or confidence – concern {that a} competitor is outspending you, encouragement {that a} new technique is working, or fear that rankings are slipping.

Don’t shrink back from damaging feelings. 

After we cover issues to maintain reviews “optimistic,” stakeholders gained’t commit the sources wanted to repair them. 

Consider it this manner: which battery icon motivates you to get off the sofa and seize your charger? 

Not the total one.

Earlier than constructing any part, ask: 

• What’s the one takeaway I need my viewers to go away with? 

Then design every thing – your charts, metrics, headlines, and comparisons – round that invisible CTA. 

When every part has a transparent intent, your viewers is aware of precisely what to do subsequent, even with out clicking a button.

4. Apply conversion ideas to design and format

Most PPC reviews are nonetheless designed like knowledge dumps, not choice instruments.

Charts are crammed collectively, partitions of numbers lack focus, and abbreviations or shorthand go away readers guessing.

Your viewers shouldn’t should work to know what the information means. 

As Steve Krug explains in “Don’t Make Me Think,” good design removes friction and makes which means apparent. 

The identical precept applies to reporting.

Your reviews ought to comply with the identical conversion optimization principles you’d use on a touchdown web page: 

• Hierarchy: Prioritize the important thing story. Daring the end result. Transfer secondary knowledge to callouts or appendices.
• White house: Litter kills comprehension. Give main insights room to breathe in their very own sections or pages.
• Distinction: Use colour, weight, and place to focus on wins and dangers.
• Annotations: Mark charts with context (seasonality, monitoring glitches, web site adjustments). 

Take a look at how these conversion ideas rework the very primary “Account Efficiency” chart into fully totally different knowledge tales:

Each design alternative ought to scale back friction, make clear which means, and information your viewers towards the best conclusion.

5. Present ends in context, not isolation

We regularly hope the numbers will converse for themselves – however they don’t.

“We drove $17,000 in income” means little except your viewers is aware of whether or not that’s above aim, under forecast, or proper heading in the right direction.

With out context, stakeholders don’t know how one can react. 

They will’t have fun a win in the event that they don’t comprehend it’s a win, they usually gained’t prioritize fixes in the event that they don’t see the urgency.

Each metric in your PPC report wants a body:

• Benchmarks: Was efficiency above or under goal?
• Comparisons: How does it pattern versus final month, final 12 months, or rivals?
• Explanations: What precipitated the change – seasonality, monitoring points, or market shifts?

For instance, “$17,000 in income” turns into significant while you add context:

• $17,000 is 35% above the aim of $12,600.
• $17,000 is 11% larger than final October’s $15,300.
• $17,000 represents practically 25% of all-channel income ($70,000).

The extra comparisons, percentages, and explanations you layer in, the simpler it’s on your viewers to know what’s actually taking place. 

Mix that context with conversion ideas and invisible CTAs to create reporting that’s clear, credible, and constructed for motion.

Dig deeper: How to benchmark PPC competitors: The definitive guide

From knowledge dump to choice driver

The aim of PPC reporting is straightforward – to assist your viewers perceive what occurred and what to do subsequent. 

In case your reviews don’t accomplish that, you’re not simply losing time. You’re leaving your readers with out the readability they should act.

Whenever you design reviews round your viewers’s wants, anchor them to a trusted supply of reality, construct invisible CTAs, apply conversion ideas, and present ends in context, you flip reporting right into a decision-making software.

Comply with these steps, and your PPC report will cease being a month-to-month time-sink and begin changing into a high-value asset that earns belief, drives motion, and strengthens retention.