Last updated: August 2026. Part 4 of our Campaign Manager 360 series — written from real trafficking and reporting work, not a rehash of Google’s help docs.
You’ve built a campaign. You’ve set audience targeting. You’ve got Floodlight tracking conversions.
Now comes the part that actually matters to whoever’s paying for the media: did it work?
Campaign Manager 360 reporting organizes all that performance data and turns it into something you can act on. This post covers the three report types you’ll use constantly, and walks through building one from scratch.
The Three Core Report Types in CM360
Most CM360 reporting falls into one of three buckets. Knowing which one answers your question saves you from building the wrong report.
| Report Type | What It Tells You |
|---|---|
| Standard | The essentials: clicks, click rate, impressions, and conversion data for a given date range. Filter by advertiser or campaign, and compare across placements and publisher sites to see what’s performing best. |
| Floodlight | Everything about your conversions. Compare against placements and publisher sites, pull custom Floodlight variable data, and use it diagnostically to confirm your Floodlight tags are actually working as expected. |
| Reach | How many unique users your campaign engaged — through clicks or views — during a given period. Also covers incremental reach: the estimated unique new users who clicked on or saw your ad during that window. |
A quick way to think about it: Standard answers “what happened,” Floodlight answers “did it convert,” and Reach answers “how many different people did we actually touch.”
Instant Reporting vs. Offline Reporting
Inside Report Builder, you’ll see two modes — Google’s own reporting navigation guide covers where to find each one.
Instant reporting generates results in the browser, right away — good for quick checks and one-off questions.
Offline reporting queues the report to run in the background and delivers it as a file — better for larger date ranges, recurring reports, or anything you want automatically emailed to a client or stakeholder on a schedule.
If you’re building something you’ll want to see again next week without rebuilding it, offline reporting is the one to use.
Step-by-Step: Build Your First Standard Report
Here’s the full path, from an empty Report Builder to a scheduled report landing in an inbox.
- From the top right of any CM360 screen, select the Google Marketing Platform app switcher, and choose Reporting and Attribution.
- From Report Builder, switch to the Offline Reporting tab.
- Select New, then choose Standard report from the dropdown.
- Name the report, and select your date range.
- Choose the Advertiser. Select Add filter to narrow the report to a specific campaign — “Winter parkas,” for example.
- Review the metrics and dimensions included, then check the Active checkbox.
- Once active, set the schedule — how often the report should run (weekly, for example).
- Under Delivery, check the Email owner box to have the report sent to your own address, and select Add people to include other recipients.
- Select Save and run.
When the report lands, it opens with the date range, advertiser, and campaign at the top, followed by a line of data for each date in the range you selected.
Repeat the same process for a Floodlight report or a Reach report — the setup flow is identical, only the report type dropdown changes.
Beyond the Basics: Insights and Attribution
Once Standard, Floodlight, and Reach reports feel routine, two more tools are worth knowing exist.
The Insights dashboard surfaces automated, campaign-level performance patterns without you having to build a report to find them — a faster first look before you go build something custom.
The Attribution tab lets you build and compare attribution models — deciding how credit for a conversion gets split across the different touchpoints (impressions, clicks, different platforms) a user had before converting, rather than defaulting to a single last-click view. It’s a deeper topic than a single section can cover fairly, so treat this as your signal to explore it once your reporting fundamentals are solid, not as day-one reading.
Common Reporting Mistakes Worth Avoiding
A few habits separate a report that actually informs decisions from one that just looks busy.
- Picking the wrong report type for the question. If a client asks “did the campaign convert,” pulling a Standard report instead of a Floodlight report will leave you guessing. Match the report to the question first, then build it.
- Ignoring the lookback window. A Floodlight report pulled the day after launch will look weak — not because the campaign failed, but because conversions inside your lookback window haven’t had time to land yet. Give it time before judging performance.
- Comparing Reach across mismatched date ranges. Unique user counts don’t scale linearly with time the way clicks do. Comparing a 7-day Reach report against a 30-day one will make the shorter period look artificially weak.
- Building one-off reports for recurring questions. If you’re pulling the same numbers every Monday, that’s an offline report waiting to be scheduled, not a task waiting to be repeated manually.
None of these are complicated fixes. They just require knowing which report answers which question — which is exactly what the table at the top of this post is for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between a Standard and a Floodlight report in CM360?
A Standard report covers the basics — clicks, impressions, click rate, and conversion counts. A Floodlight report goes deeper into conversion data specifically, including custom Floodlight variables, and is often used diagnostically to confirm your tags are firing correctly.
How do I schedule a recurring report in Campaign Manager 360?
Build your report in Offline Reporting, mark it Active, then set a schedule frequency (daily, weekly, and so on) and enable delivery to have it emailed automatically to you or other recipients.
What’s the difference between Instant and Offline reporting?
Instant reporting generates results immediately in your browser, best for quick one-off checks. Offline reporting queues the report to run in the background and can be scheduled to recur and deliver automatically — better for recurring or larger reports.
Can I export CM360 reports to Excel?
Yes. When setting up delivery for an offline report, you can choose a file format such as CSV, which opens directly in Excel or Google Sheets.
Wrapping Up the Series
That closes the loop: you now know how to build a campaign, target the right audience, track what happens after someone sees your ad, and report on whether any of it worked.
If you’re just getting started, work through this series in order — hierarchy and campaign setup first, then audience targeting, then Floodlight, then reporting. Each one depends on the last.
Comments are closed.