How to track Google Ads goals, month by month

Start with what the business is paid for: a sale, a lead, a booking, a call. One result, named the way the client names it. A goal on clicks or impressions measures activity, and a client never pays for activity.

Then give it two goals. A volume goal is a number a month: 70 bookings. A cost goal is the most a result may cost: €70 a booking. Each one alone can be met the wrong way. Volume alone is easy to buy at any price, and a low cost alone is easy to reach by spending almost nothing.

Other figures can carry a goal too, such as impression share or conversion rate. Treat them as signals that explain the main goal, not as goals in their own right.

A goal is only as good as the count under it. Open Goals, then Conversions, then Summary in Google Ads and read what the account really counts.

Only primary conversion actions in the goals a campaign uses go into the Conversions column and into Smart Bidding. Secondary actions are recorded in All conversions and do not drive bids. A form fill left secondary by mistake is invisible to the goal and to the bidding.

Campaigns can also use their own goals instead of the account default. A campaign set to a custom goal counts only that goal's actions. The account's Conversions total then adds up different definitions, and a goal on that total measures a mix.

Calls need a deliberate choice. The Phone calls column counts every call from your ads and call assets, however short. Only calls past the threshold you set become conversions. A plumber who books jobs on two-minute calls may want every call counted. A law firm whose real enquiries take ten minutes may want a longer threshold.

Pick one and write it down. A goal of 80 calls means nothing if the client counts every ring and the account counts calls over a minute.

If the business is paid for qualified leads or signed deals, count those. Import them from the CRM by click ID, or with enhanced conversions for leads, or keep them in a spreadsheet the client already updates. Imported results arrive late, so this month's count will rise for weeks after the month ends. Judge the pace on days old enough to be complete. The offline conversion import page explains the mechanics.

A cost goal comes from what a result is worth. Take Calder Physio, a made-up clinic. A patient who completes a course brings about €360 in margin, and 60% of online bookings turn into such a patient. A booking is worth €216, so a maximum of €70 leaves room for overheads and profit.

A volume goal has to fit the budget. Divide the monthly budget by the cost goal, and you have the most the budget can buy at that cost.

Calder spends €4,900 a month. At €70, that buys 70 bookings. If the clinic wants 100, it needs €7,000 or a cost of €49, and the time to say so is the first week, not the last.

Then check the goal against history. Over the last three months Calder took 58, 64 and 61 bookings at €74 on average. At €74, €4,900 buys about 66. A goal of 70 at €70 is reachable, but only if the cost falls. Write that down beside the goal, so a short month is read against the right expectation.

For a shop, the cost goal is usually a return. Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by the margin: at a 30% margin, €3.33 of revenue per euro spent only breaks even.

Comparing month-to-date with the full goal tells you nothing on the 9th. Compare it with where the month should be by now.

On the morning of 14 October, Calder has 13 complete days and 24 bookings. The pace to date is 70 × 13 ÷ 31 = 29.4. The clinic sits at 82% of pace. A practical rule is to call a goal behind under 90% of its pace to date, and on plan above it.

Then turn the gap into a daily need. Calder needs (70 − 24) ÷ 18 = 2.6 bookings a day for the rest of October, against 1.8 a day so far. That one figure tells the client how far off the month is better than any percentage.

If your days are uneven, weight the pace. Calder is closed on Sundays, so October has 27 open days and 11 of them have passed. The weighted pace is 70 × 11 ÷ 27 = 28.5, and the need is 2.9 a day on each open day left. The same works with weekday shares when weekends bring half as much.

A cost goal does not build up through the month. It is a level, and you check whether the account sits above or below it.

Work it out from totals: month-to-date cost divided by month-to-date results. Never average daily costs. Say one day spends €160 for 4 bookings and the next €150 for 1. The two daily costs average €95, while the real cost is €310 ÷ 5 = €62.

Calder has spent €2,050 for 24 bookings, or €85 each. With a €70 goal and a 5% tolerance, anything over €73.50 is off target. Compare the last 7 complete days with the 7 before to see whether it is getting better or worse.

Leave out the newest days when results arrive late. Recent days carry their full cost but only part of their conversions, so they always look expensive.

Pace to date says where you are. A projection says where you will be. Add a forecast of the days left to what is already achieved, and set that against the goal. The forecasting guide shows how to build one by hand, with its range.

If the goal sits inside the projection's range, hold your nerve: the month is on course. If it sits outside, find the cause before you touch anything.

• Spend is under pace. The budget is not being spent, so results cannot follow. The budget pacing guide covers this.
• Clicks are steady, results fell. Look at conversion tracking and the landing page first, then the searches.
• Clicks fell. Read impression share lost to budget and to rank, then Auction insights.

Check the goal on a set day each week, on complete days. Read pace to date, the daily need, the cost level and the projection, then make at most one decision. Two changes in the same week make both impossible to read.

Agree any change to a goal with the client before the month starts, and note it beside the figures. A goal moved in the middle of a month makes the chart look like a miss when it was a decision.

In Optizads the account's goals live on the Goals page and in Settings, Goals.

• A main goal in two parts: a number a month of the account's result, and a maximum cost per result. The result is named in the account's own words, from the kind of conversion it recorded most over 30 days. The cost is Oppy's reference for judging budget raises, not a bid target. Until it is set, Oppy uses the 30-day average.
• Counted from the right source. For calls, the picker asks Which calls to count? and offers All calls or Calls counted as conversions. Other results can come from Google Ads conversions or from Your table, a Google Sheet or Excel file the client keeps. A day the table does not hold is counted from Google Ads.
• Other goals on any of the 157 built-in metrics, or on the account's own sheet and calculated metrics. Counts get a goal a month, rates and costs a level.

On the Overview, the This month card sets each goal against an even pace to date, today counted. A count is behind under 90% of that pace. A cost is off target more than 5% over its goal. Each goal shows where it will likely end the month and what it needs a day. On the Goals page, the chart sets the result against Oppy's plan, with the Forecast line ahead. A campaign set to its own custom goal is counted apart, and the table says so.