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With the "Ads", "Assets", and "Placements" pages, you can view detailed statistics to help you evaluate the performance of your Display ads. In this article, you’ll learn how to:
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Tip:
Try to spend an hour or more each week analyzing the performance of your Display ads.
Basic insights
Confirm that your ads are showingFollow the steps below to check whether your ads are running or paused.
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
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- Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
- Click Ads.
- From the Views bar at the top, select Display campaigns.
- The “Status” column will show whether your ad is showing. If your ad isn’t showing, you’ll see why not and what you can do to fix the issue.
See which websites, videos, and apps have displayed your ads using the “When and where ads showed” page.
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
- Click the Insights and reports drop down in the section menu.
- Click When and where ads showed.
You’ll see all placements, including automatic targeting methods such as keywords, topics, remarketing, and audiences. You’ll also see any manual placements you chose.
What to look for:
- Placements that have performed well and where your ads could show more often with an increased bid.
- Poor-performing placements to exclude, based on how they compare with your other placements. Sometimes it may not be immediately clear why your ads appeared on a certain placement, but comparative performance is a good gauge of whether or not a placement should be excluded.
Note: Some of the URLs that you see may be incomplete. It could be that the URL is too long or that it contains private information about the person viewing the placement, like a username or password. When this happens the URL is shortened with an ellipsis and may be partly stripped, potentially taking you to a page that’s different from where your ad was shown.
Example
An outdoor company has a Yosemite Hikes campaign. They’ve been using managed placements and want to find additional sites to target by analyzing impressions (Impr.) and conversions. By visiting the Placements page, they can analyze those metrics.
| Placement | Type | Campaign | Impr. | Conversions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| half-dome-hikes.com | Site | Yosemite Hikes | 1,500 | 20 |
| adventure-hikes.com | Site | Yosemite Hikes | 1,500 | 25 |
| yosemite-power-drinks.com | Site | Yosemite Hikes | 3,000 | 2 |
| hikes-for-kids.com | Site | Yosemite Hikes | 2,000 | 0 |
In the Where ads showed page, the website half-dome-hikes.com is performing well, so the account manager adds it as a managed placement to the campaign. On the other hand, the yosemite-power-drinks.com and hikes-for-kids.com automatic placements are performing poorly. These placements are also geared toward people outside their target audience, so the account manager excludes them.
Follow the steps below to find out whether your ads have earned any impressions, clicks, and more.
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
- Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
- Click Ads.
- From the Views bar at the top, select Display campaigns.
What to look for:
- How different ad creatives compare in their performance
- Which ad formats (image, video, text) perform better
Example
This Yosemite Hikes campaign has two different ad creatives.
| Ad | Campaign | Clicks | Conversions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Half dome |
Yosemite Hikes | 150 | 20 |
 Hiker |
Yosemite Hikes | 150 | 5 |
The Half dome ad gets more conversions than the Hiker ad, so the account manager decides to remove the latter from this campaign.
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
- Click the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu.
- From the workspace bar at the top, select Display campaigns.
- Select your campaign.
- Click Search keywords for keyword performance.
- Click Audiences for audience segment and demographics performance.
- Click Content for topics and/or placements.
What to look for:
- Remove targeting methods that don't perform well or that restrict your audience too much.
- Identify the targeting methods that get your ads on the most appropriate placements and in front of your intended audience.
Example
An account manager has been using broad topics like Hiking & Camping to target ads for his Yosemite Hikes campaign. However, the placements where these ads appear based on his topic targeting aren’t as relevant as he’d like. So, he decides to use the Audiences page to reach certain customers. From the Audiences page, he selects Targeting and uses an affinity audience for “Outdoor enthusiasts” and “Thrill seekers.”
Tip:
To see how your audience targeting is performing, click Audiences in the page menu and scroll to the bottom of the performance table. You’ll see metrics based on your audience targeting. Learn more about targeting your ads by audience interests and how to add audience targeting to an ad group.
Discover the groups you’re reaching from the Demographics page. You’ll see these stats even if you haven’t added demographic targeting.
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
- Click the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu.
- Click Audiences.
- From the Views bar at the top, select Display campaigns.
- Select your campaign and click the Age, Gender, Household income, or Parental status tab to access performance statistics.
- To access exclusions, click Content under the Audiences, keywords, and content drop down in the section menu and select the Topic exclusions tab.
What to look for:
- Demographic groups with high conversions
- Demographic groups with low cost per action (CPA)
- Certain audiences that you want to reach with ad creative and targeting methods
Example
This Yosemite Hikes campaign advertises tours that are relevant to all age groups.
| Age | Campaign | Clickthrough Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 18-24 | Yosemite Hikes | 0.26% |
| 25-34 | Yosemite Hikes | 0.20% |
| 35-44 | Yosemite Hikes | 0.16% |
| 45-54 | Yosemite Hikes | 0.16% |
| 55-64 | Yosemite Hikes | 0.14% |
| Unknown | Yosemite Hikes | 0.15% |
The account manager notices a higher clickthrough rate amongst people in the 18 - 24 age group. Since people in this age group tend to click ads in this campaign more often than other age groups, he decides to revisit the ad creative and targeting to make it appealing to other age groups.
Note:
If you exclude people in the "unknown" category you may be excluding some of your target audience.
Learn more about how to reach people of specific age and gender
Custom performance data and charts
By clicking Campaigns and then Insights and reports you’ll find new ways to see and analyze your ad performance data.
There are three main reporting tools:
Reports allows you to create various charts or tables to see performance data. You can combine dozens of custom metrics, seeing granular detail on factors such as impressions, targeting, and conversions. These reports can be saved for future reference.
Learn more about reporting tools
Predefined reports (formerly Dimensions) let you see basic performance data from a selected set of metrics, which you can further refine.
Learn more about predefined reports
Dashboards are designed to let you access your most useful data in one place. You can drag and drop saved charts and tables you made using Reports into multiple panes on the dashboard, create new charts, create Scorecards to see quick performance data, and add notes.
