Reporting on paid search, starting with the reason Monday’s report does not match itself a week later.
Google Ads credits a conversion to the day of the click, so every report you send keeps filling in behind you. What settles, when, and how much difference Google itself still expects.
The guide
Google Ads credits a conversion to the day of the click, so the report you sent on Monday keeps changing. I opened all 35 Google Ads templates Google publishes: one of them says so.
Google removed auction insights from Data Studio in September 2024 and keeps the API metrics behind a closed allowlist. I ran the query today and got a permission error back. What the six columns mean, and how to work with a report no dashboard can hold.
Google omits low volume search terms for privacy and shows no row for what is missing, so the terms never sum to campaign spend. What the threshold is, what it does to negative keywords, and how to read a report with rows deliberately absent.
Google’s planner priced eighteen dental terms and returned fifteen with no numbers at all. Rename a refused term and twelve times out of fourteen you get silence back — so the refusal does follow meaning. But it admits dental implants at $26.00 and refuses dental veneers, and tooth bridge prices while dental bridge does not. What it never means is that nobody is searching.
Breakeven ROAS is one over your contribution margin. I opened the twelve calculators Google ranks for it, and not one asks how many of your leads become paid work.
Nine guides show you how to change the Count setting. None says how to check whether you need to, and Google already publishes the number that decides it.
Channel reports, placement reports, search terms back to March 2023. What did not arrive is the label saying which of those rates you are allowed to compare.
Score 10 saves you 50 per cent on a click, says every guide. The table is one minus five over your score, and it assumes your competitor stands still.