We analyzed 3 billion paid media searches. Here’s how performance marketers are reporting on their campaigns

Supermetrics processes 15% of global ad spend, which gives us a front-row view into how performance marketers report on their campaigns. We analyzed 3 billion paid media searches (or data queries) run through Supermetrics to understand:

• What metrics performance marketers track
• How often they analyze paid media data
• How their reporting behaviors have evolved

Here’s what we found: marketing campaigns are seasonal, but marketing reporting and analysis are always ongoing.

Learning 1: Your reporting doesn't stop when your marketing campaigns do

Here's the first surprise: we expected massive spikes in how often marketers accessed their paid media data during peak advertising seasons, such as Black Friday , Q1 planning, and the back-to-school period.

The volume of data searches for paid media data remains remarkably stable throughout the year, suggesting that the rate of data analysis is constant.

This tells us ad spend might be seasonal, but paid media analysis isn't.

Performance marketers aren’t just reporting when campaigns are live. Teams are also planning next quarter's strategy, forecasting budgets, optimizing current campaigns, and proving your return on investment to leadership.

Reporting for paid media is a baseline requirement year-round because performance marketers are held accountable for advertising spend.
However, this pattern raises an important question: if marketers are checking this much data consistently, how can to avoid being overwhelmed by it?

It's like drinking from a fire hose that never turns off. When everything seems urgent and important, how to find insights that drive decisions? The answer may lie in understanding what your peers are actually tracking and what they ignore.

Learning 2: Roughly 82% of paid media analysis focuses on Google Ads and Facebook Ads

Here are Supermetrics most popular paid media connectors (by data searches):

• Facebook Ads (including Instagram Ads): 47%
• Google Ads: 47%
• TikTok Ads: 6%
• LinkedIn Ads: 4%
• Pinterest Ads: 4%

The most interesting aspect for us is exploring the trends among paid media connectors . First, despite what your internet gurus said, search ads aren’t dead: Google Ads remains a significant platform throughout the year. Google Ads is likely to keep evolving with the integration to AI Mode and AI Overviews.

Second, TikTok Ads is the fastest-growing paid media channel, from only 2% in 2022 to 7% in 2025. This growth is more notable when compared to Facebook Ads, which dropped from 50% in 2022 to approximately 47% in 2025. It looks like TikTok is challenging Facebook’s long-held dominance in social media advertising

Does this match the paid media budget split?

For most teams, yes.

Performance marketers allocate the majority of their spend and analytical attention to the two platforms that deliver the most volume, the best targeting, and the most attention from leadership.

But here's the strategic question: when does a platform like TikTok graduate from "experimental" to "essential"?

The data suggests TikTok has already made that leap for many marketers. If you're still treating it as a side project with manual marketing reporting , you're keeping it in the minor leagues while it's already playing in the majors.

The shift typically happens when three things align:

• You're allocating a consistent budget (not just one-off tests)
• The platform delivers measurable results that justify ongoing investment
• Leadership expects regular updates on performance

Once a platform ticks those boxes, manual exports won't keep up.

You need the data to flow into your dashboards automatically, alongside Google and Facebook, so you can compare performance and make informed decisions.

Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads: Why reporting must differ

Here's another insight from the data: Google and Facebook may receive similar analytical attention, but they shouldn't be treated with the same analytical approach.

Google Ads analysis is keyword-driven. For example, when analyzing Google Ads data, performance marketers usually focus on:

• Keywords
• Search terms
• Quality scores
• Competitive landscape

Facebook Ads analysis is creative-driven. You focus more on which creative approaches work and how different audiences respond, for example:

• Creative fatigue
• Audience segmentation
• Placement performance

Analyzing Google Ads data is like tuning an engine. You're adjusting individual components for performance. Analyzing Facebook Ads data, on the other hand, is more like directing a film. You're testing different creative approaches to see what resonates.

Your Google Ads and Facebook Ads reports look different. That's not a problem. In fact, that's smart. The platforms work differently, so your analysis should too.

But how should you allocate your budget across these different platforms?

The 70-20-10 marketing budget rule still holds

If you're wondering how to approach platform diversification, consider this framework:

• 70% of your budget to proven platforms
• 20% to emerging opportunities
• 10% to experimental channels.

Think of it like an investment portfolio. You wouldn't put everything in high-risk stocks, but you also wouldn't grow without some calculated bets.

This isn't just theory. The data bears it out. That 80/20 split we saw in the data?

It aligns with this framework. Most of your budget is allocated to proven platforms, with room for experimentation and staying ahead of platform shifts.

Of course, "experimental" is a relative term that depends on your business model.

If you're selling beauty products, Pinterest isn't an experimental platform. It's core. If you're targeting business-to-business (B2B) buyers, LinkedIn might be your second-biggest channel. The framework matters more than the specific percentages.

Good ad creatives will separate good marketers from bad ones

Tools have become democratized. AI can now write decent ad copy. Canva makes it easy to create visually appealing and professional-looking visuals. Template libraries provide tested campaign structures.

You no longer need a huge budget or an agency to run effective ads.

That's good news for accessibility. But it also means everyone's baseline has risen.

The advantages that used to come from knowing best practices have disappeared because now everyone knows (or can learn) those practices.

What worked five years ago doesn't give you the same edge today. The bar keeps rising. It's like running a race where everyone else just upgraded to better shoes.

The reality is, you don't need to run faster to keep up. You need to run smarter. If technical skills are now standard, what sets you apart?

Creative quality and strategic thinking matter more than ever.

AI can make many things faster, easier, and cheaper, but it won't substitute for human creativity. You can use AI to generate a hundred variations of an ad concept. It's like having an assistant who can sketch endlessly but can't tell you which sketch is actually worth painting.

Start ad creative testing to determine which concept to test, which creative will resonate with your audience, and which message will break through the noise still requires human judgment.

This might sound philosophical, but it's practical. You develop a taste for advertising by being genuinely curious about it.

• Study what other brands are doing: leaders in your industry and beyond
• Notice what resonates with audiences (what gets shared, what drives engagement)
• Analyze campaigns that work and try to understand why
• Stay curious about cultural trends and how brands tap into them
• Trust your instincts, but stay open to other perspectives

Creativity thrives under restriction. Having an unlimited budget and unlimited options often leads to paralysis. But when you have clear constraints such as deadlines, specific goals, and budget limits, you can be more focused and often more creative in solving the problem.

Learning 3: Marketers track cost, impressions, clicks, and conversions more than any other metrics

Think your reports are too basic? Supermetrics data says otherwise—the most important performance metrics are still the simplest ones.

We looked at dimensions and metrics across the most popular paid media platforms, including Facebook Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Pinterest Ads.

The most used dimensions focus on the hierarchical structure of advertising accounts.

Most common dimensions (by data searches):

• Date: 7%
• Ad campaign name: 6%
• Ad name, adset name, profile: 3% (collections of related ads within a campaign)

The most common metrics:

• Cost: 5%
• Impressions (how many times your ads were shown): 4%
• Clicks (including link clicks, outbound clicks): 4%
• Reach (how many different people saw your ads): 2%
• Conversions (actions people take, like purchases or form submissions): 2%

If you're tracking cost, impressions, clicks, and conversions, you're in the same company as the most successful performance marketers. They're foundational metrics that answer the questions that matter most.

Notice what's missing?

Complex marketing attribution models , sophisticated blended metrics , and theoretical frameworks that look great in strategy presentations but rarely make it into daily decision-making.

The most successful performance marketers aren't tracking the most metrics. They're tracking the right metrics and acting on them quickly.

The core questions performance marketers ask daily

These metrics are practical and operational questions. They're the business questions marketers need to answer:

• Where did my money go? (cost by campaign, ad group, day)
• What am I getting for it? (impressions, reach, clicks per dollar spent, ROAS)
• How many are taking action? (conversions, form fills, purchases)
• Where should I adjust? (which campaigns to scale, which to pause, where to shift budget)

These are practical operational questions. They’re not focused on long-term brand health or customer lifetime value (though those matter too).

Instead, they're about making data-driven marketing decisions quickly and often, daily, to keep campaigns performing efficiently.

Cost and impressions are the foundation of paid media reporting. There isn’t a single advertiser who wouldn't want at least those two metrics. You can't have clicks without impressions, and if you have only impressions without clicks, you're either running awareness campaigns or your ads need work.

When deeper analysis makes sense

This doesn't mean deeper metrics aren't necessary. To understand creative fatigue, you'll need to examine frequency and engagement over time.

If you're optimizing for profitability, consider both the cost per acquisition and customer lifetime value.

But those analyses should be purposeful, not constant. You dig into them when you have a specific question or problem to solve, not because someone told you that "good marketers" track dozens of different metrics.

The data shows that practical beats sophisticated when you need to make fast, daily decisions. Trust that.

7 common performance reports to get started

Based on the platforms, metrics, and dimensions we've seen marketers use most, here are seven essential reports. Each addresses specific questions and provides actionable insights.

1. Budget pacing dashboard

What it tracks: Daily and monthly spend vs. budget allocation across all campaigns

This is your daily pulse check. Budget pacing issues caught early prevent wasted spend and help you maximize your advertising investment throughout the month.

Get the budget pacing template

2. Paid channel mix overview

What it tracks: Performance comparison across all paid advertising channels in one view

This cross-platform view helps you make strategic budget allocation decisions and identify which channels deserve more investment versus which need optimization or reduction.

Get this paid channel mix overview template

3. Facebook and Instagram Ads report

What it tracks: Creative performance, audience insights, and placement optimization for Meta platforms

Meta's ad platform offers rich creative and audience data. This report helps you identify winning creative approaches and audience segments to scale what works and cut what doesn’t.

Get the Facebook & Instagram (Meta) Ads report template.

4. LinkedIn Ads overview

What it tracks: B2B campaign performance, including lead quality, job title targeting, and company demographics

LinkedIn's professional targeting makes it uniquely valuable for B2B. This report helps you refine your audience targeting and prove the value of LinkedIn in your B2B marketing mix.

Get the LinkedIn Ads reporting template

5. Google Ads performance report

What it tracks: Keyword-level performance, search term analysis, quality scores, and competitive metrics

Google Ads success depends on keyword optimization. This report gives you the granular search term data you need to refine targeting, add negatives, and improve quality scores for lower costs.

Get the Google Ads performance reporting template

6. TikTok Ads reporting template

What it tracks: Video creative performance, audience behavior, and TikTok-specific engagement metrics

As TikTok evolved from an experimental to an essential channel, you need structured reporting to evaluate whether it deserves more budget. This report helps you compare TikTok's performance against your other social channels.

Get the TikTok Ads overview reporting template

Final thoughts

Performance marketers are consistent, focused, and platform-specific in their analysis of paid media. They track metrics that drive decisions. They prioritize platforms that deliver volume. They constantly check their data because planning, optimization, and proving value never stops.

If that sounds like you, you're in good company. And if it doesn't quite match your current approach, now you have a benchmark to work from.

The data shows what thousands of performance marketers actually do and not what they theoretically should do. Sometimes the gap between those two things is smaller than you think.

Frequently asked questions