Biddable Media Blog

I often write articles around the inner workings of Google AdWords, you name it, I have probably covered it at some point during my career. After all, Google AdWords and Google Analytics is my specialised subject, plus it is a lot more interesting than my second specialised subject – SEO.

However, after trawling through some of my past articles I realised that I very rarely cover the subject of Google Analytics.

In my attempts to rectify this, here are 3 Google Analytic Reports that should help you improve your Google AdWords campaign.

1. Landing Pages Report – One of the most important GA reports to look at

You can find this report in: Behaviour > Site Content > Landing Pages

How is your site performing? Which pages are receiving high bounce rates? If you don’t know, how can you possibly improve? The landing page report provides you with information and insights into potential AdWords budget wastage. Essentially, why send visitors to a page that is not providing a ROI (return on investment)? Why send visitors to pages with high bounce rates?

Pages with very high bounce rates should NOT be used as landing pages for AdWords since they are showing low engagement with the site. Check your AdWords account to ensure you’re not sending visitors to these pages. On the flip side you may even find pages with low bounce rates that could be fantastic candidates for landing pages.

2. Location Report

Your can find this report in: Audiences > Geo > Location

The locations report provides fantastic information about where your site visitors are converting and this can be used to improve your AdWords account.

Get started by login to your Google Analytics account and navigate to Audiences > Geo > Location.

You will be presented with a map of visitor locations, if you choose ‘United Kingdom’; you will be presented with another page, which will allow you to view visitor information by ‘city’. To do this just set the ‘primary dimension’ to ‘City’. It’ll look similar to the image below.

Providing that you have conversion tracking and goals set up on your account, you will be able to determine the highest converting locations based on any goals that you have set up. You can then add these to your AdWords campaign and increase the bid adjustments (for example, +15% on your top locations) see below.

This can have a significant impact on your AdWords performance. Many people presume Google takes care of their budget with an even spread of budget. However they fail to remember Google AdWords is an auction, and simply taking part with little or no management is not enough to be crowned WINNERS.

Winning an ad auction is not guaranteed, and you should do everything in your powers to increase your chances.

3. Devices Report

You can find this report in: Audiences > Mobile > Overview

Another great report is the device report; it will provide you with information on what devices visitors use to visit your website. The report includes traffic information from desktops, tablets and mobile devices.

The overall report will provide you with details for potential improvements in AdWords. You can drill deeper using segments. To see actual paid search traffic, click “choose a segment”, then select “paid traffic”.

This data is ideal and will help you make decisions in relation to bid adjustments for devices and to create and optimise the mobile ad copy. See below.

Find More Google Analytics Reports To Improve Your AdWords

Start with these three reports and then explore, Google Analytics has fantastic reports and information to help you improve your site and your AdWords, and it’s at your fingertips.

There is a winner and a loser when running an AdWords campaign, you or Google! You have to do all you can to make sure it’s you