Find the AdWords Stats that Matter

Wondering how your ads are performing?

AdWords offers a lot of of ways to track how your ads are doing based upon your advertising goals, so it’s understandable to be a little overwhelmed when you first begin.

So let’s look at the most essential performance statistics that every new advertiser should know.

First, let’s start with where to find your essential performance stats. Want to follow along in your account? Click the Try it Now button to start.

Once you sign in to your account, click the Campaigns tab, where you’ll see the statistics table.

On the Campaigns sub-tab, you’ll see stats for campaigns in your account. To see stats for specific ad groups, Ads or individual Keywords, just click on those sub-tabs.

All statistics tables can be customized. Just click the Columns drop-down menu, then Customize columns. Add, remove, or reorder whatever columns you’d like and Click Apply when you’re done.

So, if you’re running a standard campaign on the Google Search Network, which is what we recommend for newer advertisers, what performance statistics should you monitor?

We recommend looking at these commonly-used statistics:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Click-through rate
• Average cost-per-click, or Avg CPC
• and Quality Score.

Let’s go over each of these terms:

An Impression is counted each time your ad is shown. You’re not charged for impressions for most campaign types, but this statistic gives you an idea of how frequently your ad is showing to potential customers.

A Click is counted each time a person clicks on your ad. Relevant, highly-targeted ads are more likely to receive clicks.

Want to know which keywords are leading to the most clicks on your ad? Go to the Keywords tab and check out the Clicks column for each keyword.

You’re charged for each click on your ad. You set a maximum amount you’re willing to pay per click, called your max. CPC bid, though you’ll usually pay less than that, depending upon how competitive the ad auction is.

The Clickthrough rate, or CTR, is an important statistic for evaluating your ad’s performance.

CTR shows you how many people who’ve seen your ad, end up clicking on it. A high CTR is a good indication that users find your ads helpful and relevant.

On the Search Network, a good CTR is generally considered to be 1% or higher.

To keep track of costs, use the Average CPC column to see the average amount you’re paying for clicks on your ad.

Finally, there’s Quality Score. Quality Score is an estimate of the quality of your ad, keywords, and the page your ad links to, called the landing page.

The more relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user, the more likely it is that you’ll see higher Quality Scores.

You can see your Quality Score on the Keywords tab. Click the white speech bubble in the “Status” column to see your Quality Score on a scale of 1 to 10. A good range for keyword Quality Scores is between 6 and 10.

Now that you know the essential performance statistics, you should check your AdWords account regularly to get a clear picture of which ads and keywords are helping you reach your goals, and which ones aren’t.

Then, you can make adjustments to your ad text, keyword lists, and bids to optimize performance.