What a useful marketing report should show you
A report full of impressions and clicks can hide a campaign that is not working. These are the questions a good report answers.
Many marketing reports are long, colorful, and hard to act on. Pages of impressions, reach, and click-through rates can make a campaign look busy while hiding the fact that it is not producing customers.
A useful report answers a few simple questions.
What did we spend?
Ad spend and fees, broken down by channel, so you can see where the money went.
What did it produce?
Leads, calls, bookings, or sales, not just clicks. For ecommerce, revenue and return on ad spend. For lead generation, the number of qualified enquiries and, ideally, how many became customers.
What did each result cost?
Cost per lead or cost per sale, compared with the previous period and with what a customer is worth to your business. This is the number that tells you whether marketing is profitable.
What changed, and why?
A short, honest explanation of what went up or down and the likely reason, whether it was a new campaign, a seasonal shift, a competitor, or a problem that needs fixing.
What happens next?
The specific actions planned for the coming month. A report without next steps is a record, not a plan.
Signs your report needs work
- It focuses on impressions, reach, or followers with no link to enquiries
- It never mentions a number you could compare with your sales records
- It shows the same template every month regardless of what happened
- You finish reading it without knowing whether things are going well
Connect marketing to sales
The best reports combine marketing data with what happened after the lead arrived. When your team records which leads became customers, you can see which campaigns bring in the best customers, not just the most enquiries, and invest accordingly.
If your current report does not answer these questions, it is fair to ask for one that does. We are happy to show you how we report.