Ask for the reporting period, the work completed and the costs involved. Advertising spend and agency fees should be distinguishable. If the report compares months, check whether the dates, tracking setup or budget changed before drawing a conclusion.
Look for what happened after a click or form submission. How many enquiries were relevant? How many became conversations, quotes or sales? Where the team cannot connect those stages, the report should explain the gap rather than treating all enquiries as equal.
Finish with decisions. What will continue, what needs changing and what requires your input? Ask the team to explain unusual movements in ordinary language. A useful report should help you decide what to do next, without requiring you to interpret a dashboard alone.
At a glance
- Start with the reporting period and costs
- Connect activity with business outcomes
- Explain what changed and what remains uncertain
- Make the next actions visible
- Keep a record you can compare later
Start with the reporting period and costs
State the dates, channels and work covered. Separate agency fees, advertising spend and other production costs. Note changes in budget, availability or tracking that affect comparisons.
Use the same definitions each month. If a metric changes, explain the change. A neat upward arrow is not useful when last month counted enquiries differently or the comparison period contained fewer trading days.
Connect activity with business outcomes
Report suitable enquiries, quotations or orders where that information is available. Keep an explanation of the steps between them. A submitted form is not automatically a qualified sales opportunity.
If sales outcomes are recorded elsewhere, agree a practical way to share them. A small team can begin with a simple, consistently maintained record. State where attribution is incomplete instead of making the reporting look more precise than it is.
Explain what changed and what remains uncertain
Ask for commentary on unusual movements. Did a campaign launch, a service become unavailable or a priority page change? Are you comparing enough activity to draw a useful conclusion?
Avoid explanations that could fit any month. “Seasonality affected performance” needs a reason and supporting context. Where the cause is unknown, say what will be checked rather than treating a plausible story as an established fact.
Make the next actions visible
End with a short action list: the change, owner, reason and review point. Separate decisions requiring your approval from tasks the team can already complete within scope.
If the recommendation is more spend, ask what evidence supports it and what must be ready first. If a test is proposed, state what it is intended to answer. Reporting should help organise the next month’s work, not only describe the previous one.
Keep a record you can compare later
Store reports and important decisions together. Note when goals, page addresses or campaign structures change. Keep access to the underlying accounts in the business’s name where appropriate.
Review whether the report is still serving its purpose. Remove charts that nobody uses and add the information that changes decisions. A shorter explanation with sound definitions is better than a large dashboard that the business cannot interpret.
Common questions
Should our report include return on investment?
Only where costs and outcomes are defined and supported by the available data. Explain assumptions and distinguish revenue from profit.
What if we cannot attribute every sale?
State the limitation and improve the record where practical. Do not present an exact attribution figure that the data cannot support.
