TL;DR An SEM report tells the people paying for search ads what they got: spend, clicks, conversions, CPA, and ROAS, by campaign, with a line on what changed. Any of the eight tools below will build it. Most of them copy the conversions each ad platform reports and never ask whether those conversions are real. A duplicated purchase, a value sent with tax to one platform and without it to another, or a
gclidlost in a redirect goes into the report as a fact.
SEM reporting is the weekly or monthly report on your paid search campaigns. Building it is mostly plumbing: pull the numbers from Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, put them next to the targets, explain what moved. The tools below automate the plumbing.
What they rarely do is check the numbers. That part is still yours, and it is the part that decides budget.
What an SEM report should include
A good SEM report answers three questions: what did we spend, what did it bring, and why did it change. These are the numbers that answer them.
| Group | Metrics | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Spend, cost per click (CPC) | Where the money went |
| Reach | Impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), impression share | Whether the ads are seen and chosen |
| Results | Conversions, conversion rate, cost per acquisition (CPA) | What the clicks turned into |
| Value | Conversion value, return on ad spend (ROAS) | Whether it paid off |
| Detail | Top campaigns, ad groups, and search terms | Which part of the account moved the totals |
Show each number against the previous period and the target, not on its own. Then add two or three sentences: what changed, why, and what you will do. A report without that note is a data export.
SEM or PPC? PPC reporting covers any pay-per-click channel, social ads included. SEM reporting is about search engines, and some teams fold SEO into it. The metrics and the tools are the same, so everything below applies to both.
The 8 SEM reporting tools, by job
1. Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising reports
The ad platforms report on themselves. In Google Ads you can create, save, and schedule reports from your statistics tables and have them emailed. Microsoft Advertising has its own reports page. Good for: one account, one platform, no budget. Limit: each platform reports only its own campaigns and its own view of conversions.
2. Data Studio
Google’s free dashboard tool, called Looker Studio until recently. It connects to Google Ads natively and to other platforms through partner connectors. Good for: a custom dashboard at no cost, if someone on the team can build and maintain it. Limit: connectors for non-Google platforms are often paid, and the dashboard is only as current as whoever maintains it.
3. Supermetrics
A data connector rather than a dashboard: it moves marketing data into Data Studio, a spreadsheet, your AI chat, or its own Studio. Good for: teams that already have a reporting tool and need the ad data in it. Limit: you still design the report.
4. Swydo
An agency reporting tool that combines SEO and PPC data in one automated SEM report, with 30+ integrations. Good for: agencies that report paid and organic search together.
5. DashThis
Automated dashboards that connect your PPC and SEM tools in one place and are shared as client reports. Good for: a clean recurring dashboard with little setup.
6. AgencyAnalytics
A client reporting platform for agencies, with SEM reporting among its use cases and a client-facing dashboard. Good for: agencies with many clients and many channels.
7. Whatagraph
A cross-channel platform that brings marketing data onto one governed layer for reporting, monitoring, and analysis. Good for: teams that report on many channels, not only search.
8. Trackingplan
Trackingplan reads spend, impressions, clicks, and platform-reported conversions from 11 ad platforms, Google Ads and Microsoft Ads among them, and puts them next to the traffic and conversions your site actually sent. Ask a question and the agent answers it; turn the answer into a report with narrative, charts, and tables that you edit, share, and send weekly. Good for: teams that need the report to say whether the conversions behind it are true. More on that below.
| Tool | Best for | Where its conversions come from |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads / Microsoft Advertising | One account, one platform | The platform |
| Data Studio | A free custom dashboard | The connected platforms |
| Supermetrics | Data into your existing tool | The connected platforms |
| Swydo | Paid and organic search together | The connected platforms |
| DashThis | A quick recurring dashboard | The connected platforms |
| AgencyAnalytics | Many clients, many channels | The connected platforms |
| Whatagraph | Many channels on one layer | The connected platforms |
| Trackingplan | Conversions checked against your site | The platforms, compared with the hits your site sent |
What most SEM reports never check
Every number in the Results and Value rows of your report comes from a tag on your site. The ad platform counts what that tag, or your server through a conversions API, told it. If the signal is wrong, the platform reports the wrong number with full confidence, and the dashboard copies it.
This is where SEM reports go wrong without anyone noticing:
- The same purchase, counted twice. A browser tag and a server-side event both send the conversion without a shared ID, and conversions jump on the day the server-side setup shipped.
- Different values on different platforms. Google Ads receives the purchase value without tax and shipping, another platform with them. ROAS stops being comparable across channels.
- Lost click IDs. A redirect or a consent change drops the
gclid, so conversions stop being attributed to the click that bought them. CPA rises on campaigns that did not change. - Broken UTMs. A campaign tagged with the wrong source shows up in your analytics as another channel, and the platform report and the analytics report stop agreeing.
- A tag that stopped firing. A release removes the conversion tag from the thank-you page. Spend continues, conversions fall to zero, and the report blames the campaign.
Say Google Ads reports 412 conversions this month and your analytics 371 from the same campaigns. Some gap is expected: the two count differently. A gap that doubled since the last report is a tracking problem, and you want to know before the report goes out, not after the budget moved.
How Trackingplan builds an SEM report
Trackingplan starts from the other end. It already watches the hits your site sends to every analytics and ad platform, on real traffic: the conversion event, its value, its gclid, and its consent state. Connect your ad accounts in Settings & Members > Connect and the agent sees each platform’s spend and reported results next to that traffic, campaign by campaign.
So you can ask the questions an SEM report should answer, and the one it usually skips:
- “Spend, clicks, conversions, and ROAS by campaign for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, last week against the week before.”
- “Which campaigns have spend but no tracked conversions?”
- “Are we sending the same purchase value to every ad platform?”
The answer becomes a report: the numbers, the chart, and what changed, written for the people who read it. You add your reading before it goes out, share it by link, or have it emailed every week. When a number moves because the tracking broke, the report says so, with the evidence. That is the difference between reporting on your ad spend and protecting it.
A note on definitions: a conversion in the platform columns is the conversion as each platform defines it. Trackingplan reports it as the platform does and shows you where it disagrees with your site.
How to choose
- One account, no budget: the platform’s own reports, or Data Studio.
- You already have a BI or reporting tool: Supermetrics.
- An agency sending many client reports: Swydo, DashThis, AgencyAnalytics, or Whatagraph.
- The numbers decide budget and you need to trust them: Trackingplan, alone or next to any of the above.
Whichever you pick, read the conversion rows with one question in mind: did the campaign change, or did the tag? Our PPC audit checklist is a good place to start answering it.
Frequently asked questions
What is SEM reporting?
SEM reporting is the regular report on paid search campaigns: spend, impressions, clicks, conversions, cost per acquisition, and return on ad spend, by campaign and compared with the previous period. Some teams include SEO in it, because SEM is sometimes used for all search marketing.
What should an SEM report include?
Spend, impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and cost per click; conversions, conversion rate, cost per acquisition, conversion value, and ROAS; the campaigns and search terms behind the change; and a short note on what changed and what you will do about it. Compare each number with the previous period and the target.
What is the best SEM reporting tool?
It depends on the job. Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising reports are enough for one account. Data Studio is free and flexible if someone can build the dashboard. Swydo, DashThis, AgencyAnalytics, and Whatagraph suit agencies that send many client reports. Supermetrics moves the data into the tool you already use. Trackingplan fits when you need the report to say whether the conversions behind it are true.
What is the difference between SEM reporting and PPC reporting?
In practice, very little. PPC reporting covers any pay-per-click channel, including social ads; SEM reporting is about search engines, usually Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, and sometimes includes SEO. The metrics and the tools are the same.