Google Analytics and Google Ads come with a wide variety of tools that allow you to track various information.
That’s both good and bad.
It’s good because you get an accurate description of how your ads are performing. But, at the same time, it can also be difficult to filter through all the noise and focus on the information that is relevant to you.
That’s why it’s crucial to learn how to organise your reports so that you really get to the data you need. Once you are familiar with filters and how to use them, your reports can help you see the big picture and the steps you need to take to improve your campaigns.
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What Are Filters?
One of the most common reporting issues is not organising your data in order for it to make sense quickly and easily. This can make your marketing plan slow and clumsy, as you would always have to browse through large, stuffed reports with a large number of variables in them.
You can easily add filters to your view in the Google Adwords account. Moreover, they are highly customisable, can be saved for later optimisations, and are easy to implement and edit.
How to Create a Filter in Google Ads
Google Ads filters are applicable at different levels of your data: campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ad text, etc. Filtering by ISP or location is less used by regular users, but it might make sense for some companies that need a clear differentiation between the user groups.
To create a filter in Google Ads, go to the campaign or ad group you’re interested in, and click the filter button (funnel icon) above your statistics table. You can choose the filter from the drop-down menu or add it as a text, then apply it to see the matched data.
If the filter is working properly and you think you might need it later, name it and save it for later use. You can also apply multiple filters or narrow the data down by adding conditions to a pre-defined filter.
Filtering by ISP
Filtering your visits by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) doesn’t make sense unless you are a big company with its own dedicated internet. Or you might need it in case the ISP is relevant to your marketing strategy.
A filter based on ISP can be easily done with a pre-defined filter that can exclude or only include traffic from a certain ISP.
For most companies, using an exclude filter based on IP addresses makes more sense, because it does an important task: it excludes internal traffic from your reports. For this, you have to have a static IP address used throughout the whole company.
Filtering by Location
Adding filters by location can help you increase your conversion rates by filtering out locations where your ads are shown, but there are no impressions or no clicks. It also shows where to keep your marketing efforts.
It’s not always that easy to narrow down your results by location, since you can’t directly filter these reports in the Google Ads platform. But you can export data that contains regional information, and do your own filters and pivots for the best results possible.
Do You Need Help with Google Ads?
If adding and managing filters in your Google Ads account is not working for you as you would want to, if you’re stuck in one of the little things or just don’t have the availability to do it yourself, don’t hesitate to delegate this job to professionals.
We at Australian Internet Advertising have many years of experience with the Google suite, and we do reporting using them for each and every client we have. We know what filters to apply and how to optimise your data so that reporting becomes helpful instead of a decrypting mission. Contact us to discuss your needs and find out how we can help.
