PPC reporting guide · Synthetic example
Turn a PPC report into a client video that can be checked.
A short video helps a client follow the story of a reporting period. The difficult part is deciding which claims belong in that story and showing where each one came from.
Worked example: one report, one clear tension
This example uses the public synthetic September 2026 benchmark report (PDF, page 1). Its comparison table reports August and September values. The video should lead with the conflict a client would notice: spending increased while tracked revenue decreased. It can then show supporting funnel changes without claiming that one metric caused another.
| Measure | August | September | What can be said |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | $18,400 | $20,700 | Up $2,300, or 12.5% |
| Tracked revenue | $123,000 | $105,400 | Down $17,600, or about 14.3% |
| Leads | 428 | 401 | Down 27 |
| Landing-page conversion | 8.9% | 7.1% | Down 1.8 percentage points |
Build the video as a sequence of decisions
1. What changed
Show the two comparison periods, the spend and tracked revenue values, and the direction of change. Keep units and dates on screen or in narration.
2. Why it matters
Move to leads and conversion rate. These support the statement that the reported funnel weakened; they do not identify the cause.
3. What to examine next
Ask whether the conversion decline is concentrated by device, campaign, or traffic source. Present this as a question for investigation.
A client-facing script can be concise without being vague. In the synthetic example, a source-backed opening would be: “September ad spend rose from $18,400 to $20,700 while tracked revenue fell from $123,000 to $105,400. Leads and landing-page conversion also declined. The report does not establish why. We will check where the conversion change occurred before assigning a cause.”
A practical report-to-video workflow
- Check the report format. Use a PDF with selectable text and confirm that the comparison periods and units are readable. The current report parser does not extract evidence from scanned or image-only PDFs.
- Pick a small number of material claims. Record the exact source location for every figure and distinguish a reported value from a calculation you made from it.
- Flag unsupported explanations. The synthetic report mentions possible creative or audience issues, but it does not establish either as the reason for the revenue decline.
- Review and approve the wording. Check numbers, qualifications, recommendations, and the final script before creating client output.
- Watch and listen to the rendered video. Compare it with the approved script and keep the written summary alongside it for clients who prefer text.
Where this approach has limits
A video cannot repair missing tracking, incomplete attribution, or a report that does not explain causation. A trend observed in the PDF is not proof of why it happened. If a source cannot be extracted or a claim cannot be supported, fix the source or keep the uncertainty visible before publishing.
Continue with the next problem
See the approved synthetic example.
The demo shows the source figures, the unresolved-causation warning, and the resulting video. No upload is needed to watch.
Explore the prospect demo