Analyze paid search performance

Prepare the paid search performance packet for the finance director: pull last 30 days of cost, clicks, conversions, CPA, ROAS by campaign and by keyword for campaigns running in Google Search. Exclude display and video. Confirm billing attribution matches invoices, then send to Anita and Sam with a Friday noon deadline to approve or request changes before the monthly ad reallocation meeting.

Before I show paid search to the marketing director, make it easy to approve: put cost per acquisition and ROAS top‑left, list the three campaigns with rising CPA, and for each campaign show the top two keywords causing the rise. Flag any keywords with conversion rate under 1% that are consuming over 10% of spend and note possible fixes (bid, negative keywords, landing page).

Our top search campaign's CPA jumped from $45 to $90 in seven days; spend stayed flat and impressions rose. I do not know whether search intent shifted, competitors raised bids, or our landing page lost relevance. What are the cheapest, most revealing checks I should run now to tell whether to cut spend, add negatives, or pause keywords?

Each month we shift budget toward the previous month's winners and then performance reverts. This costs time and credibility with finance. Which recurring habit is most likely causing the churn — overreacting to short windows, not segmenting by match type and audience, or weak post‑click experience — and what single change will reduce this thrash permanently?