Google Ads Report

The story

Seven weeks in, three takeaways.

The campaign can find the right searcher. The page is where most of them are lost.

Both requests came from DFW Local

The second request traces to an Oct 28 click on "social media marketing agency dallas", on mobile. DFW Local has taken 43 of the 119 clicks at an 11.6% click-through rate, the best in the account.

$968

Management Services still spends most

It has taken $968 at a 4.6% click-through rate with no conversion. One keyword, "social media marketing for businesses", accounts for $558 of that.

5 of 105

Paid visitors who started the form

GA4 counts 105 visitors from these ads, and 5 started the strategy-call form. The form sits 8.2 screens down the landing page on desktop and 11.4 on a phone.

Google Ads

Clicks since launch.

Daily clicks against daily spend from the first serving day. The shaded band is the last 17 days, Oct 16 - Nov 1.

Clicks & spend per day

Clicks Daily spend

Window total 119 clicks on $2,239Shaded band = last 17 days

27.4%

Search impression share

Share of eligible DFW searches we showed on

52.3%

Lost to ad rank

Quality Score and bid

20.3%

Lost to budget

Daily spend cap reached

57%

Clicks on mobile

68 mobile, 51 desktop

How to read this chart. Volume is small by design: exact-match keywords on Google Search only, in the Dallas-Fort Worth market only. The near-empty stretch on Oct 22 - 25 follows the bidding change described below. Since launch, 52.3% of eligible impressions were lost to ad rank against 20.3% to budget.

Since the last report

Oct 16 - Nov 1 vs the 17 days before.

Fewer clicks at a higher price, and the same number of requests. Two requests in seven weeks is too few to call this better or worse yet.

469

Impressions

823 prior 17 days (-43%)

Clicks

50 prior 17 days (-42%)

$23.79

Avg. cost / click

$16.73 prior 17 days (+42%)

Strategy-call requests

1 prior 17 days

Metric	Sep 29 - Oct 15	Oct 16 - Nov 1
Impressions	823	469
Clicks	50	29
CTR	6.1%	6.2%
Avg. cost / click	$16.73	$23.79
Spend	$837	$690
Strategy-call requests	1	1
Search impression share	22.0%	35.9%
Impressions lost to ad rank	56.8%	49.8%
Impressions lost to budget	21.2%	14.3%

Management Services 319 impr. · 16 clicks · 5.0% CTR

$331

DFW Local 102 impr. · 11 clicks · 10.8% CTR

$304

Core 48 impr. · 2 clicks · 4.2% CTR

$54

What changed the volume. On Oct 22 the campaign moved to Maximize Conversions and the $35 click cap came off. Impressions ran about 46 a day on Oct 16 - 21, fell to 18 in total across Oct 22 - 25, and have since settled near 25 a day. Impression share rose to 35.9% because the campaign now qualifies for far fewer searches, so a higher share doesn't mean more reach. Without a cap, single clicks can run high: one click on "social media experts near me" cost $63.08. Oct 26 - Nov 1 averaged $24.46 a click.

GA4 · Paid sessions only

Where paid visitors drop off.

Every session in GA4 from these Google ads, Sep 14 - Nov 1. The clicks arrive as expected. The steep drop comes between landing on the page and starting the form.

Ad clicks Google Ads

119 clicks

Sessions on the site GA4, tracking lines up with Ads

120 sessions

Engaged sessions 49.2% of sessions

59 sessions

Reached the bottom of a page 17% of 105 visitors

18 visitors

Started the form 5% of 105 visitors

5 visitors

Reached the thank-you page Lead confirmed

2 visitors

Drop-off 1

100 of 105

Never start the form

On the main landing page the form sits 8.2 screens down on desktop and 11.4 on a phone. "Book a Strategy Call" buttons near the top jump to it, but only 18 visitors got to the bottom of any page.

Drop-off 2

25s vs 54s

Mobile visitors spend half the time

Phones take 57% of clicks, but engaged time per session is about half of desktop's, and 7% reach the bottom of a page against 27% on desktop. One mobile visitor started the form, and that visitor finished it.

Drop-off 3

0 of 27

Homepage visitors starting the form

Sessions that begin on the homepage engage at 41.4% against 54.0% on the service page, and none has started the form. The Core ad still points there and has spent $416.

By device	Mobile	Desktop
Ad clicks	68	51
Sessions	57	63
Engagement rate	52.6%	46.0%
Avg. engaged time / session	25s	54s
Visitors	54	51
Reached the bottom of a page	4 (7%)	14 (27%)
Started the form	1	4
Strategy-call requests (Google Ads)	1	1

By landing page	Social media management page	Homepage
Sessions	76	29
Engagement rate	54.0%	41.4%
Visitors	74	27
Reached the bottom of a page	13 (18%)	3 (11%)
Started the form	5	0

How firm this is. These are small numbers, so read them as direction and not as proof. Quality looks steady: engagement was 54.2% since Oct 16 against 55.1% in the prior 17 days, though engaged time per session fell from 48s to 26s and form starters from 4 to 1. 5 visitors started the form and 2 reached the thank-you page. GA4 can't yet show which step loses the others. GA4 logged a lead event for only one of the two requests Google Ads counts, and no booked-call event from paid sessions.

Ad group split

Where the clicks came from.

One campaign, four ad groups. Influencer & Creator has been paused since launch day.

Management Services 54 clicks · 4.6% CTR

$968

DFW Local 43 clicks · 11.6% CTR · 2 strategy-call requests

$855

Core 22 clicks · 8.5% CTR

$416

Ad group	Status	Impr.	Clicks	CTR	CPC	Spend	Conv.
DFW Local Best CTR	Active	371	43	11.6%	$19.88	$855	2
Management Services	Active	1,183	54	4.6%	$17.92	$968	0
Core	Active	260	22	8.5%	$18.93	$416	0
Influencer & Creator	Paused	0	0	-	-	$0	0
Total		1,814	119	6.6%	$18.82	$2,239	2

Same leak as last report. "Social media marketing for businesses" has now cost $558 for 35 clicks and no conversion, $106 of that since Oct 16. Core's "social media marketing agency" keyword carries a Quality Score of 2 out of 10, which drags on ad rank.

Search terms

What people actually searched.

Google shows the search behind 88 of the 119 clicks ($1,653 of the $2,239). We sorted them by intent.

Generic topic 30 clicks · "social media marketing", "smm"

$553

Local DFW search 21 clicks · "agency dallas", "near me"

$443

Hiring an agency 22 clicks · "social media agency", "marketing agency"

$411

How-to / DIY 15 clicks · "how to promote a business", "smma"

$246

Search	Intent	Clicks	Spend
social media marketing	Generic	15	$233
social media agency	Hiring	5	$84
social media managers	Generic	2	$76
smm	Generic	4	$75
dallas social media	Local	4	$73
social media marketing agency	Hiring	4	$66
social media management	Generic	4	$65
social media experts near me	Local	1	$63
social media marketing agency dallas	Local	3	$57
social media marketing dallas	Local	2	$48
social media agency near me Converted	Local	2	$38

Top ten searches by spend, plus the visible search that converted. Google hides low-volume searches for privacy, so 31 clicks ($586) have no search term attached, including the search behind the second request.

→

Hiring and local searches took $854 of the visible spend. That is 43 clicks. The other 45 clicks ($799) went to generic or how-to searches, which is still the first place to tighten.

Since launch

What we changed.

Every change made in the account from build day through Nov 1, in order.

Date	Change
Sep 14	Campaign built. One Search campaign, "NAT \| Search \| DFW \| Social Media Services", on Google Search only (no search partners, no Display), targeting people physically in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. Four ad groups (Core, Management Services, DFW Local, Influencer & Creator) with 18 exact-match keywords and one responsive search ad each. Bidding set to maximize clicks. AI Max and auto-generated ad text left off so every line of copy is one we wrote.
Sep 14	Ad extensions added. Sitelinks to seven service pages, a structured snippet and a call button with call tracking.
Sep 14	Paused for a copy review before serving. DFW Local ad copy corrected (a suburb headline swapped for "Single In-House Team In Dallas", "Signed To Shooting" changed to "Signed To Posting", descriptions rewritten). Influencer & Creator ad group paused. Ad group names cleaned up.
Sep 15	Relaunched. Daily budget reduced to pace to the monthly plan. Tracking parameters added to the DFW Local ad.
Sep 15	13 negative keywords added to keep out job seekers and learners: job, jobs, hiring, career, careers, salary, internship, course, courses, certification, template, templates and "how to become".
Sep 15	Bid cap set at $20 per click so no single click could run away with the day's spend.
Sep 15	Ads rewritten for Management Services and Influencer & Creator (15 headlines and 4 descriptions each, landing on the matching service page). Two influencer keywords ("ugc creator", "marketing influencer") paused.
Sep 15	Business name and logo added to the ads.
Sep 21	Bid cap raised from $20 to $25 per click to win more auctions in the DFW market.
Sep 22 - Oct 1	No changes. The campaign was left to gather data.
Oct 2	Six how-to searches blocked as exact-match negatives, based on the search terms report: "how to do marketing on social media", "how to market your business on social media", "how to post on social media for business", "how to grow a business through social media", "learn how to use social media for business" and "how can i do social media marketing".
Oct 3 - 11	No changes to the main campaign. The first strategy-call request came in on Oct 6.
Oct 12	Competitor campaign built, paused. A separate Search campaign for people in the Dallas-Fort Worth market who search for Thrive or LERMA/ by name, on exact-match keywords only, with job-seeker and customer-service searches excluded. The ads never name either agency. It has not served yet.
Oct 13	Competitor campaign finalised and kept paused. Bidding set to maximize clicks with a $35 click cap, one headline swapped and ad assets added, ready to switch on.
Oct 13	Bid cap raised on the main campaign from $25 to $35 per click to win back ad position.
Oct 14 - 21	No changes.
Oct 22	Bidding moved to Maximize Conversions on the main campaign, and the $35 click cap was removed.
Oct 23 - Nov 1	No changes. The second strategy-call request traces to an Oct 28 click.

In short: the bidding switch on Oct 22 is the only change since the last report. The competitor campaign is still paused and has not served.

What's next

Where we take it from here.

The site now comes first, because that is where GA4 shows the biggest loss.

Operating plan

The next window.

Bring the form up the page. Put the first form step, or a short version of it, near the top of the social media management page, on phones first. It sits 11.4 screens down today.
Move the Core ad off the homepage. Point it to a service or Dallas page. No paid visitor who started on the homepage has begun the form.
Rein in Management Services. Pause or replace "social media marketing for businesses" ($558, 35 clicks, no conversion).
Give DFW Local more room. It has produced both requests.
Attach the negative keyword lists. Nine lists already exist in the account and none is on the main campaign. How-to searches have cost $246 so far.
Review Maximize Conversions by mid-November. Two conversions give it little to learn from, and clicks now run without a cap. If cost per click stays above the $16.73 of the earlier period without more requests, bring a cap back.
Close the tracking gaps. Record which form step people leave on, and fire the lead event on every submission, so the next report can show where the form loses people.
Launch the competitor campaign once you give the go-ahead.

119 DFW clicks. Two strategy-call requests.