Published November 1, 2026 · Updated November 4, 2026 · By Ailumic # How do I read an ad report? Read an ad report in this order: how many times the ad was shown, how many of those viewings led to a click, what it cost, and where and when it ran. The share of viewings that became clicks — the click-through rate — tells you whether the ad itself works; where and when it ran tell you what to change next. ## The four numbers - **Times shown** — often called impressions. Each one is an auction your ad won and a screen it appeared on. More is not better by itself; it says how far the budget reached. - **Clicks** — how many of those viewings led someone to tap or click through to your link. This is the first number that measures the ad rather than the budget. - **Spend** — what the viewings cost. You pay only for ads that are actually shown. So spend and times shown rise together, and the difference between them from one placement to the next is the price each placement commanded. - **Where and when** — by placement, by area and by day. This is the part that tells you what to change, so it is the part to read slowly. ## The one ratio worth computing Divide clicks by times shown and you have the **click-through rate**: the share of people who saw the ad and acted on it. It measures the ad — the picture, the words, the offer — and the fit between the ad and the place it ran, not the size of your business or budget. Use it to compare like with like: the same ad in two placements, or two ads in the same placement. A rate on its own, with nothing to compare it to, tells you little; a rate that doubled when you changed the headline tells you a lot. ## What a report cannot tell you - **Whether a click became a customer** — unless you tell it. A report sees the click; what happens on your site afterwards is yours, and only reaches the report if you send those events back. - **Anything from a handful.** A few clicks are not a trend, and a quiet day is not a verdict. Read the week, not the day, and compare placements that each had a fair share of viewings. - **Who the people were.** The report's figures are counts by placement, area and day, and the conversion report lists conversion events, not people: it has no device identifier, name or email address. The signals an app or page sends with a slot never include a name or an email address either. ## How Ailumic’s report reads One sentence first: what your ad did and what to try next, written by Ailumic from the numbers above. The numbers themselves — times shown, clicks, spend and where it ran, by day — are one click away. Suggestions are yours to accept or ignore; nothing changes without you. ## What to do next Change one thing for the next run, so you know what made the difference: the placement that did best gets more of the budget, or a new headline runs in the same placement, or the same ad runs in a new area. Our guides on [how long an ad should run](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/how-long-should-an-ad-run/) and [which format to choose](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/banner-native-or-full-screen/) pick up from here. Read next - [How long should an ad campaign run?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/how-long-should-an-ad-run/) - [Banner, native or full-screen: which ad format should a small business choose?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/banner-native-or-full-screen/) - [How Ailumic works](https://www.ailumic.com/platform/) Ready to try it? Ailumic is opening to its first advertisers in the United States. [Get early access](https://www.ailumic.com/start/) Guides ## More questions, answered first. - ### [How do real-time ad auctions work?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/how-real-time-ad-auctions-work/) Every ad slot is sold in an auction that lasts a fraction of a second. Who bids, what decides the winner, who pays, and what it means for a small budget. Updated November 1, 2026 - ### [What is a CPM in advertising?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/what-is-a-cpm/) CPM is the price of showing an ad one thousand times. Why ad space is priced per viewing, what moves the price, and why Ailumic publishes no price list. Updated November 1, 2026 - ### [Banner, native or full-screen: which ad format should a small business choose?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/banner-native-or-full-screen/) A banner runs beside the content, a native ad sits in the feed, a full-screen ad fills an app between pages. How to pick one for the ad you have. Updated November 1, 2026 - ### [How much should a small business spend on ads to start?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/how-much-to-spend-on-ads/) Size a first ad budget by what you can afford to learn from, not by a rule of thumb: enough to run a full week, small enough that a lesson with no sale is fine. Updated November 1, 2026 - ### [How long should an ad campaign run?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/how-long-should-an-ad-run/) Run a first ad for a full week and no longer than it takes to learn one thing. Why a week, why not months, when to stop early and when to add budget. Updated November 1, 2026 - ### [What is programmatic advertising?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/what-is-programmatic-advertising/) Programmatic advertising is ad space bought by software, one viewing at a time, in an auction. What it replaced and what it means for a small business. Updated November 7, 2026 - ### [What is a DSP, or demand-side platform?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/what-is-a-dsp/) A DSP is software that bids for ad space on an advertiser’s behalf. How it differs from an ad exchange and a supply-side platform, and where Ailumic fits. Updated November 7, 2026 - ### [How do ads in mobile apps work?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/how-mobile-app-ads-work/) An app sets aside ad slots, sells each one in an auction as it is about to appear, and draws the winning ad. What an advertiser chooses and sees afterwards. Updated November 7, 2026 - ### [How do I write an ad for my small business?](https://www.ailumic.com/guides/how-to-write-an-ad/) Write one message for one kind of person, say what to do next, and cut the rest. How to fit it to a banner, native or full-screen ad, and when to rewrite. Updated November 7, 2026