What a good monthly marketing report looks like

Most marketing reports are too long, too colourful and too hard to act on. Pages of charts, a few percentages in green, and a vague sense that things are "trending positively". You read the first page, if that, and file it.

A good report is different. It answers three questions in under five minutes: did the marketing bring in work, what changed, and what happens next. Here's what that looks like.

Page one: the number that matters

Start with the result that matters to the business, compared with last month and the same month last year. For most service businesses, that's qualified enquiries: calls, form submissions and bookings from people who might actually buy.

If the report can't show this, the tracking isn't set up properly. Fixing that comes before anything else.

Where the enquiries came from

A simple breakdown by source: Google search, Google Maps, paid ads, social, referrals, direct. This tells you where to put more effort and where to cut. Keep it to a short table. Nobody needs a pie chart with fourteen slices.

What was spent, and what it returned

If you're paying for ads, show the spend next to the enquiries and customers it produced. Cost per enquiry is far more useful than cost per click. If you know roughly what a customer is worth, show the return too, even if it's an estimate.

What changed this month

A few plain sentences. "We added a booking button to the mobile site. Enquiries from phones went up." "Two competitors started running ads on our main search terms, so cost per click rose." This is where the reasoning lives. If the numbers moved, the report should say why.

What didn't work

An honest report includes the things that didn't pay off. It builds trust, and it stops money being spent on the same thing next month. If a report has never had anything in this section, be suspicious.

What happens next

Two or three specific actions for the coming month, each tied to the number on page one. Not "continue to optimise". Something you could check off.

What to leave out

• Impressions and reach on their own. They're inputs, not results.
• Every keyword ranking. A handful of the terms that bring in work is plenty.
• Unexplained percentages. "Up 34%" means nothing if the starting number was three.
• Jargon. If you need a glossary to read your report, the report has failed.

A test you can run today

Pick up your last report and try to answer these three questions in five minutes:

1. How many real enquiries did marketing bring in last month?
2. Which channel brought in the most, and what did each one cost?
3. What is being done differently this month, and why?

If you can't answer them, the problem isn't you. Ask for a report that can, or talk to me about reporting that does.