If you’re like me you had taken the time at some point in the past to set up report templates that run automatically. So if you are wondering where some of them have gone, read on! Google has updated their reports so the Account, Campaign, and Ad Group data is available through the Campaigns tab only. Yep, that is right…you have to make all new templates, but don’t fret, it’s not that bad.
Creating Account, Campaign and Ad Group Level Reports
So, first and foremost, to create a report from the Campaigns tab you need to click on the arrow in the tool bar below the navigation tabs. This will then give you your download options, and a chance to name your report. Remember that specific names will help you later, so try not to use the generic default names. You will also have the ability to choose a Segment (ie: network, certain time frame, click type, device) to help you filter the data.
It is important to note here that should you download a report upon logging in, the data included in the report will represent your default settings. This means that your date range will automatically be the last 30 days, and the campaigns or ad groups you see on the screen will be in the report. The date is certainly something to think about, because you cannot edit this field after the report is created without creating a similar report, and running it as a fresh template.
In order to filter your results, you will need to actually set and apply a filter, then download the report. The filter system is fairly straightforward, just remember that they follow AND logic, so the criteria that you set will need to apply for results to show up. For example, if you say Status = Eligible and Avg. Position is better than 3, only the items that match BOTH criteria will be included in your filter.
So once you’ve created your report, where do they go? On the left hand side of the screen you will see a list of all of you campaigns, and at the bottom there is a link called Control panel and library. Click on this link, and you will be taken to a list of all of the reports that you’ve created. Unlike the old reporting interface, you aren’t limited to seeing only the last 15 reports run (thank you Google!). You will quickly see that the more specific your naming conventions, the better, especially when you have three that say “Campaign report”, so as I said before, keep that in mind when creating a new report.
Editing Your Reports
The following fields can be edited from the control panel page:
- Report Name – Simply type in a new name.
- Format – You can choose from a variety of formats such as .csv, .pdf, and .xml.
- Email – Depending on the report, different people may need to see the data, so you can choose to email just yourself, all account users, or no one at all.
- Frequency – Each report is set by default to only run once. However, you can choose to run it daily, the first day of the month, or the same day of the week that you originally ran the report on (for example, a report I create today can be set to run every Wednesday).
Once your reports are created you can choose to run them immediately, or create a similar report. As stated earlier, should you want to set a custom time frame, you will need to create a similar report, change the date range from the original report, and run a new one.
Reports Available On The Campaigns Tab
Not all of the reports from the original reports tab are available yet on the campaigns tab. However, the following reports are already available, and just like before they will show you the following:
- Account Reports – Summary of your entire account data to give you a high level idea of performance.
- Ad Reports – Metrics relating to text, image, video, mobile, and local business ads.
- Ad Group Reports – Data pertaining to your ad groups across every campaign.
- Campaign Reports – Data pertaining to the campaigns in your account.
- Keyword Reports – Data pertaining to the performance of all of the keywords across every campaign and ad group.
- Placement Reports – Data pertaining to the performance of the display network (previously known as the content network).
Though the keyword, ad, and placement reports are available on the campaigns tab, they are also still available on the reports tab, but knowing that Google is moving toward reporting from the campaigns tab, I would recommend getting to know the new process to help alleviate future learning curve headaches.
The Dimensions Tab
The final part of creating new reports from the Campaigns tab is the dimensions tab. If it is not already showing in the interface when you log in, click on the down arrow directly to the right of the Ad Extensions tab, and you will see a check box next to the Dimensions Tab option. By checking that box, the Dimensions Tab will be added to your interface for future use.
So what is the dimensions tab for? It is used to help you create reports that require larger amounts of data. You may notice that if you set your time range back to far on the campaigns tab, and try to download a report, say on the day level, it will tell you that the report cannot be created. In order to resolve this issue, you need to create the report from the Dimensions tab.
From here you can create reports for various time periods such as Day of Week, Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year, and Hour of Day. You can also edit the columns that you are included so you can extend or eliminate certain metrics to make the report as customized as you want.
All in all, the new reporting system should be helpful, and I hope that it will eventually streamline the process for gathering data for various reports, so hang in there, and keep trying different filters and segments!
