Practical guide • Benchmarks, templates, and inline charts

The Ultimate PPC Report Template (With KPIs Clients Care About)

Updated: 19 August 2025 • UK English

Quick Answer

A PPC report your clients will actually read fits on 2–4 screens and leads with business outcomes. Include: Executive summary → KPI overview (ROAS/CPA/CVR) → Channel highlights (Search, PMax, Display) → Budget pacing → Opportunities & next steps. Use benchmarks for context (e.g., 2025 search averages: CTR ~6.7%, CPC ~$5.26, CVR ~7.5%, CPL ~$70 across industries) and define actions tied to profit, not just clicks.

Most PPC reports drown decision-makers in widgets. What clients want is a clear story: Did we spend wisely? What did we get? What’s next? This guide gives you a reusable HTML template with embedded SVG charts, a universal KPI glossary, 2025 benchmarks for quick sanity checks, and a one-month rollout playbook. Swap in your numbers and ship.

1) KPIs clients care about (glossary + formulas)

Keep the KPI set small and tied to business value. Define once, reuse forever.

KPI	What it tells the client	Formula	Notes
Revenue / Conv. Value	Money in — the north star for ecommerce/performance.	Sum of order values or assigned conversion values	Use value-based bidding where possible.
ROAS / POAS	Return on ad spend.	Revenue ÷ Cost	Pair with margin or POAS where profit matters.
CPA / CPL	Cost to acquire a lead/order.	Cost ÷ Conversions	Great for lead gen; validate lead quality.
CVR (Conversion rate)	How well clicks turn into conversions.	Conversions ÷ Clicks	Segment by branded vs non-branded.
CTR	Ad appeal and match to intent.	Clicks ÷ Impressions	Impacts Quality Score & CPC.
CPC	Cost of traffic quality & competition.	Cost ÷ Clicks	High CPC acceptable if CVR/ROAS strong.
Impression Share (IS)	How often you showed when eligible.	Impr ÷ Eligible Impr	Use Search lost IS (budget) vs (rank) to diagnose gaps.
Click Share	Share of achievable clicks captured.	Clicks ÷ Achievable Clicks	Useful for Search/Shopping/PMax.
Quality Score	Ad/keyword relevance proxy.	Composite	Components: Exp. CTR, Ad Relevance, Landing Page Experience.
New Customer %	Acquisition mix (vs returning).	New convs ÷ Total convs	Use New Customer Acquisition goal for clarity.

Tip: Put ROAS/CPA first, then CVR, CPC, CTR, then coverage metrics (IS, Click Share). Add a one-line diagnosis beneath each KPI: “Lost IS (rank) 28% → increase Ad Rank via QS & bids.”

2) 2025 PPC benchmarks (quick reality check)

Use industry benchmarks to sanity-check performance, not to set targets. Averages hide intent, brand strength, and pricing power.

Avg. CTR (Search, 2025)

6.66%

Avg. CPC (Search, 2025)

$5.26

Avg. CVR (Search, 2025)

7.52%

Avg. CPL (Search, 2025)

$70.11

Benchmarks are cross-industry aggregates. Compare within your vertical and mix (brand vs non-brand) for fairness.

Source: cross-industry 2025 search benchmarks analysing 16k campaigns (CTR 6.66%, CPC $5.26, CVR 7.52%, CPL $70.11). See Sources.

3) Executive summary (copy-paste examples)

Spend

$48,900 (+6%)

Revenue

$312,400 (+11%)

ROAS

6.39× (+5%)

New customer %

44% (+4pp)

Paste-ready summary:

Paid search revenue rose 11% on a 6% budget lift, lifting ROAS to 6.39×. Gains came from Non-Brand CVR (+13%) and cheaper remarketing CPCs (–9%). Risks: Lost IS (rank) at 24% on our top non-brand terms and average RSA Ad Strength “Good” (needs more unique headlines). Next: (1) add 6 net-new headlines per RSA and pin only brand/legal; (2) raise tROAS on PMax +8% to protect margin; (3) expand top-3 non-brand terms with exact match + value rules to favour high-margin audiences.

4) Channel mix & budget pacing

Show where money went and what came back. One trendline beats six pie charts.

Spend rose steadily while conversions accelerated — a good sign of efficiency, not bloat.

Channel	Spend	Revenue/Value	ROAS	Notes
Search (Brand)	$6,300	$84,600	13.4×	Protect with exact + negs
Search (Non-Brand)	$22,800	$118,000	5.2×	Upside via IS (rank)
Performance Max	$14,500	$80,900	5.6×	New customer rate 49%
Display/Remarketing	$5,300	$28,900	5.5×	CPC –9% after audience trim

Show totals plus 1–2 lines of commentary per channel. Push deep tables to the appendix.

5) Search (Branded vs Non-branded) + RSA checks

Split Search into Brand and Non-brand so clients see where growth actually comes from. Then prove ad quality with RSA hygiene.

Segment	Impr	Clicks	CTR	CPC	CVR	CPA	ROAS
Brand	210,400	22,640	10.8%	$0.68	18.9%	$3.60	18.4×
Non-brand	980,300	60,420	6.2%	$3.62	6.7%	$53.97	4.8×

Revenue skewed brand-heavy, but the majority of new conversions came from non-brand. Plan budgets accordingly.

RSA hygiene (prove quality):

OK 1 RSA per ad group, Ad Strength “Good/Excellent.”

OK Provide up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions; pin only where legally required.

Watch Test unique CTAs and proof points; avoid repetitive headline variants.

Fix RSAs with <6 unique headlines or “Poor” Ad Strength.

6) Performance Max (what to show + pitfalls)

PMax can drive profitable scale, but its reporting is different. Show what matters and note the guardrails you applied.

Metric	Value	Comment
Spend	$14,500	Within ±5% of plan
Revenue	$80,900	tROAS 550% (target 520%)
New customer %	49%	New Customer Acquisition goal enabled
Top asset group	AG-Search-Prospecting	Best CRE & CTR
Query themes	“{product} near me”, “best {category}”	Aligned to non-brand intent

Include asset-group notes and negative keyword lists; call out brand-protection steps and newly available controls.

Guardrails to mention: Search themes reviewed weekly, campaign-level negative keyword list maintained, brand term protection in Search, audience signals emphasising high-margin segments, and new PMax asset insights tracked monthly.

7) Quality & coverage (QS, IS, Click Share)

Coverage metrics show headroom. Quality metrics show how to capture it efficiently.

Metric	Value	Interpretation
Search IS	64%	Room to grow to 70–75%
Search Lost IS (budget)	8%	Small budget cap — OK
Search Lost IS (rank)	28%	QS/bid leverage needed
Click Share	41%	Competitors winning higher-value clicks
Avg. Quality Score	7.2/10	Focus ad relevance & LP experience

Diagnosis: Lost IS (rank) > Lost IS (budget) → improve Ad Rank via QS components (expected CTR, ad relevance, landing page experience) and selective bid/tROAS adjustments.

Prioritise rank fixes (quality & bids) before asking for more budget.

Quality score focus areas

Expected CTR: Sharper RSAs (keyword variants, proof points), test site-links/callouts to increase real estate.
Ad relevance: Tight ad groups; 1 RSA/ad group; pin only what must appear; use keyword in H1/D1 naturally.
Landing page experience: Message match, speed, mobile UX, trust signals; reduce above-the-fold friction.

8) ROI, LTV & incrementality snapshot

Tie paid media to value. Keep the math visible and assumptions explicit.

Item	Value	Notes
Spend (month)	$48,900	All PPC channels
Revenue / Conv. value	$312,400	GA4 + offline import
ROAS	6.39×	Target ≥ 5×
New customer %	44%	NCA goal enabled
Blended CAC	$52.10	Spend ÷ new customers
Est. LTV (12-mo)	$420	CRM cohort model

If you value new customers higher, use conversion value rules (e.g., +30–50% value uplift for “New”).

Visualise ROAS against target; annotate big swings with causes and fixes.

9) Reusable PPC report template

Copy this outline and reuse monthly. Keep the main deck short; link to dashboards for deep dives.

<!-- PPC Report (Summary-First) -->
1) Cover
   - Client, month, owner

2) Executive Summary (5–8 bullets)
   - Wins, risks, next steps (owners & dates)

3) KPI Overview (1 row of cards)
   - Spend, Revenue/Value, ROAS/CPA, New customer %

4) Channel Highlights (1 table + 1 chart)
   - Search (Brand/Non-brand), PMax, Display/Remarketing
   - 1-line diagnosis per channel

5) Quality & Coverage
   - Impression Share, Lost IS (budget/rank)
   - Click Share, Avg. QS (with component notes)

6) Budget Pacing & Forecast
   - MTD vs Plan, projected month-end (simple calc)

7) Actions & Decisions
   - 3–5 priorities, expected impact, owner, due date

Appendix (links)
   - Google Ads dashboard (Search/PMax/Shopping)
   - Asset insights, query themes, RSA assets
   - Methodology (attribution, GA4 definitions)

Budget pacing formula (paste into Sheets):

= (Spend_MTD / Days_Elapsed) * Days_in_Month → Compare to plan; adjust bids/budgets ±10–20% mid-month if variance > 8%.

10) 30-day rollout playbook

Week 1 Inventory KPIs, clean naming, ensure data-driven attribution and GA4 conversion definitions are correct.

Week 1 Split Search into Brand / Non-brand; set RSA minimums (≥10 unique headlines, 3+ variants with proof).

Week 2 Enable New Customer Acquisition where LTV justifies; add conversion value rules for high-margin segments.

Week 2 Build 2-page summary pack; push dashboards to appendix (links).

Week 3 Implement IS/Click Share monitoring and a weekly “rank vs budget” triage.

Week 3 PMax guardrails: negative keyword lists, audience signals, asset reviews.

Week 4 Ship to all clients; measure read rate, approval times, and ROAS stability for 60 days.

Benchmarks vary significantly by industry, seasonality, and brand strength. Use them as context, not targets.