Insight · Working with agenciesBOFU
How to read your agency's monthly report
The short answer
A monthly report should tell you three things in the first minute: is marketing producing profitable customers or qualified pipeline, what changed this month, and what happens next. If you have to read ten slides of impressions and click-through rates to find the answer, the report is built to impress, not to inform.
Start with the business numbers
The first page should show results you can check against your own systems:
| Metric | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Total marketing spend | The denominator for everything else |
| Revenue or qualified pipeline (from your store or CRM) | What the business actually got |
| MER (revenue ÷ total spend) | Efficiency that can't be double-counted |
| New-customer CAC or cost per qualified lead | What growth costs |
| Contribution after marketing, if available | Whether growth is profitable |
| Change vs last month and vs baseline | Direction, not just a snapshot |
Then the channel numbers
Channel metrics — platform ROAS, conversions, cost per result — come second. They are useful for deciding where budget goes, but they overlap: Meta and Google often both claim the same sale, and view-through conversions count people who only saw an ad. If channel totals add up to more than your real sales, that's normal — which is why they shouldn't be the headline. See why your ROAS lies.
What every report should include
- Business results first, from your own data
- Spend and results by channel, with brand and non-brand separated
- New versus returning customers
- What changed this month — budget moves, new campaigns, paused campaigns — and why
- Tests run, results and what was learned
- Creative: which concepts are working and which are fatiguing
- Lead quality for lead businesses: qualified rate, sales outcomes
- Next month's plan and decisions needed from you
Numbers that flatter
- Impressions and reach as the headline for a performance account
- Clicks and CTR without what happened after the click
- Blended ROAS that includes brand search — people who were already looking for you
- Retargeting ROAS without any test of incrementality
- Cost per lead without lead quality
- Comparisons to the worst month rather than the baseline
Five questions to ask every month
- "Do these numbers match our sales or CRM?" — reconcile at least the totals.
- "What would have happened without this spend?" — ask about incrementality tests for big channels.
- "What did we learn this month?" — tests and results, not just activity.
- "Where would you put the next ₹1 lakh, and why?" — tests the agency's understanding of marginal returns.
- "What do you need from us?" — creative approvals, lead feedback, pricing decisions.
How often to report
A short weekly scorecard keeps everyone aligned and catches problems early; a monthly review covers trends, tests and plans; a quarterly review resets strategy and targets. At PMG, the weekly scorecard is one page — see how we work.
A one-page scorecard (illustrative)
| This week | Value | vs last week | vs baseline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total spend | ₹3.2 lakh | +5% | +18% |
| Store revenue | ₹12.8 lakh | +3% | +26% |
| MER | 4.0x | −0.1 | +0.3 |
| New-customer CAC | ₹980 | −2% | −12% |
| Returning revenue share | 34% | — | +4 pts |
| Top test | Creator video vs studio video | Creator video −18% cost per purchase | — |
| Decision needed | Approve two new concepts for Diwali | — | — |
One page, business numbers first, a test and a decision. Detail lives behind it for anyone who wants it.
Reports for lead businesses
For services, education and real estate, the first page should follow the funnel: leads, contacted, qualified, visits or meetings, and sales — with cost per stage. That shows where the problem is. A campaign with cheap leads but no sales needs different fixes from one with expensive leads that close well.
Red flags in reporting
- The metrics change from month to month
- Results are shown without spend
- No comparison with a baseline
- Platform data is never reconciled with your own
- Bad months come with longer reports and fewer numbers
Frequently asked questions
What should be on the first page of a marketing report?
Total spend, revenue or qualified pipeline from your own data, MER or cost per qualified lead, new-customer CAC, and the change against last month and the baseline.
Why don't platform conversions match our sales?
Each platform uses its own attribution and counts conversions it influenced, including views, without deduplicating against other platforms. Use your own sales data as the truth.
Should reports include creative performance?
Yes — creative is the biggest lever on Meta and YouTube. Reports should show which concepts work and which are fatiguing.
How long should a monthly report be?
Long enough to explain results, changes and plans — often a few pages. Length isn't the goal; clarity is.
What if we don't understand the report?
Ask for a walkthrough and a simpler first page. A good agency will adapt the report to how you make decisions. Our marketing analytics team builds shared dashboards for this.
Should we have access to live dashboards?
Yes. A shared dashboard you can open any time, with the same definitions as the report, builds trust and saves time.
How do we compare months with festive seasons?
Compare with the same period last year as well as the previous month, and adjust targets for known seasonal effects.
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