A Practical Software Directory for Solo Builders
Understanding what your advertising spend produces
Advertising reports help you compare what campaigns cost with the attention, enquiries and sales they generate.
Review campaign performance, bring results from different platforms together and investigate opportunities to improve. Start with the reports included in your advertising account, then consider an additional tool when you need a clearer comparison, a separate assessment or a connection to customer records. Reliable conversion tracking matters: clicks alone do not show whether an advert produced a useful business result.
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Google Data Studio, previously called Looker Studio, turns connected data into dashboards and shareable reports. Bring advertising figures into charts and tables, choose the measures you want to follow and compare performance over time. A Google Ads connector provides a starting point for reporting on your own campaigns, while other connectors and spreadsheet imports support additional sources. The core service is free, with a paid Pro edition available. Check for separate connector or data-service charges. It offers flexibility, but you need to connect the right accounts, choose useful measures and spend some time building the report.
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HubSpot’s advertising tools connect campaign reporting with the customer records in its CRM. Link supported accounts such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads to review impressions, clicks and spend alongside information about the contacts your campaigns generate. This can help you look beyond traffic and investigate which advertising brings enquiries into your business. Basic advertising tools are available free, with more advanced reporting and other features depending on the subscription. Advertising spend remains separate. Contact-level results require the appropriate tracking setup, making this particularly relevant if you already use HubSpot to manage enquiries and customer relationships.
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Metricool brings results from Google, Meta and TikTok advertising into one dashboard. Compare measures such as impressions, clicks, conversions and costs to review how connected campaigns are performing. It also supports creating Google and Meta campaigns, while TikTok campaigns are created through TikTok and monitored here. An ongoing free plan covers one brand, with paid plans expanding reporting and account features. Downloadable reports require a paid plan. Advertising spend is separate from the software. The combined view is useful when you advertise in more than one place, although each platform’s tracking and attribution settings still affect the results shown.
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WordStream’s Google Ads Performance Grader provides a free assessment of an existing Google Ads account. Authorise read-only access to generate a report covering areas such as account activity, wasted spend, Quality Score and impression share. Its findings highlight possible improvements and give you a starting point for investigating campaign performance. You need an advertising account with activity to assess, along with the required account permissions. This is an audit rather than a replacement for ongoing campaign reporting. Review suggested changes against your goals and customer results; improving an account score does not automatically mean improving business performance.
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