A few weeks ago I posted a series on ROAS (first, second, third, fourth) which focused on the fact that ROAS isn’t really a very good metric and calculating and using true ROI is far more powerful. A few days later, Google’s InsideAdwords started a series on the same topic.

Yesterday they concluded their series (first, second, third) which I’m sure will introduce the idea of ROI-based SEM analysis to a good number of people, but inadvertently makes it clear how poorly ROI is supported in Adwords and highlights the fact that that ROI visibility isn’t even offered in Google Analytics.

To get ROI reports in Adwords you have to enable conversion tracking and enter your cost data when you first setup conversion tracking. From what I can tell there is no way to access or edit the data after you complete the initial setup. (This seems strange, so if anyone knows how, please comment below).

And the only way to see the true ROI calculation results is by running an Adwords Site/Performance report, meaning it isn’t visible in an interactive interface. This makes it very very difficult to use in real-time campaign management decisions. And this data is only available by adgroup/purchased keyword — you can’t get an ROI report based on the search queries entered by your site visitors. Since each purchased keyword result is in this case an average of many possibly disparate search queries, this may or may not be the best way to consider the data.

But at least they’ve shown how to get some ROI data directly out of Google Adwords, and I have hope that this focus and recognition will lead to far better support in both Adwords and Google Analytics in the future.

Unfortunately, they conclude with the series with some rather incomplete and questionable recommendations on what to do with and because of this ROI data once you have it. Thoughts on that, and tips for creating ROI-based SEM reporting in Omniture SiteCatalyst/SearchCenter, in upcoming posts.