marketing-reporting

Marketing Reporting

When to Activate

• Preparing weekly marketing standup updates
• Creating monthly marketing performance reports
• Building quarterly business review (QBR) presentations
• Defining marketing metrics and KPIs for the team
• Setting up a reporting cadence for a new team or company
• Stakeholders ask "how is marketing doing?" and you need a structured answer
• Forecasting marketing performance for planning

First Questions

1. What is the reporting cadence? (Weekly, monthly, quarterly)
2. Who is the audience? (Team, leadership, board, cross-functional)
3. What are the top 3 business goals marketing supports?
4. What data sources do you have access to? (Analytics, CRM, ad platforms, billing)
5. What metrics does your audience care about most?
6. Is there an existing report to improve, or are you building from scratch?
7. What decisions should these reports enable?

Reporting Cadence Framework

Weekly Standup Report

• Audience: Marketing team + direct manager
• Length: 1 page or 5-minute verbal update
• Focus: What happened this week, what's planned next week, any blockers
• Metrics: Activity metrics (campaigns launched, content published, emails sent) + leading indicators (traffic, sign-ups, pipeline)
• Tone: Operational. Fast. Action-oriented.

Monthly Marketing Report

• Audience: Marketing leadership, cross-functional leaders (sales, product)
• Length: 5-10 slides or 2-3 page document
• Focus: Performance vs. goals, channel effectiveness, key learnings
• Metrics: Outcome metrics (revenue, pipeline, customers) + efficiency metrics (CAC, ROAS, CPA) + trend analysis
• Tone: Analytical. Insight-driven. Forward-looking.

Quarterly Business Review (QBR)

• Audience: Executive team, board
• Length: 10-20 slides
• Focus: Strategic progress, ROI justification, budget implications, next quarter plan
• Metrics: Business impact metrics (revenue contribution, market share, LTV:CAC) + strategic progress (brand awareness, competitive position)
• Tone: Strategic. Narrative-driven. Tied to company goals.

Report Structure: The Headline-Metrics-Insights-Actions Framework

Every report, regardless of cadence, follows this structure:

1. Headline (What happened)

One sentence that captures the most important thing.

• "Marketing-sourced pipeline grew 23% MoM, exceeding target by $200K."
• "CAC increased 15% due to rising paid social CPMs despite stable conversion rates."
• "Email revenue declined 8% as deliverability issues impacted open rates."

2. Metrics (The evidence)

Key numbers with comparison context (vs. goal, vs. prior period, vs. benchmark).

3. Insights (Why it happened)

Root cause analysis, not just description. "CTR declined" is a metric. "CTR declined because we exhausted our core audience and frequency increased 40%" is an insight.

4. Actions (What we're doing about it)

Specific next steps with owners and timelines. "We will refresh creative by March 20 (Owner: Sarah) and expand audience targeting to include lookalike audiences (Owner: Mike)."

Core Metric Definitions and Calculations

Acquisition Metrics

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) CAC = Total Sales & Marketing Spend / Number of New Customers

• Include: Ad spend, content production, tools, team salaries (marketing + sales)
• Variants: Blended CAC (all customers), Paid CAC (only paid-acquired), Organic CAC (only organic-acquired)
• Benchmark: Depends on LTV. Target LTV:CAC > 3:1.

CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) CPA = Campaign Spend / Number of Conversions

• More granular than CAC. Used at campaign or channel level.
• "Acquisition" can be any conversion event (lead, sign-up, purchase).

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) ROAS = Revenue from Ads / Ad Spend

• A ROAS of 4x means $4 revenue per $1 spent.
• Does not include non-ad costs (team, tools, content). Use ROI for full picture.
• Benchmark: 3-5x for e-commerce, varies widely by margin.

Engagement Metrics

CTR (Click-Through Rate) CTR = Clicks / Impressions × 100

• Search ads benchmark: 3-5%
• Display ads benchmark: 0.5-1%
• Email benchmark: 2-5%

CVR (Conversion Rate) CVR = Conversions / Visitors (or Clicks) × 100

• Landing page benchmark: 2-5% (varies hugely by industry and funnel stage)
• E-commerce benchmark: 1-3%
• SaaS free trial: 2-8%

Revenue Metrics

MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) MRR = Number of Paying Customers × Average Revenue Per Customer Per Month

• Components: New MRR + Expansion MRR - Churned MRR - Contraction MRR = Net New MRR

ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) ARR = MRR × 12

• Only use for subscription businesses. Do not annualize one-time revenue.

LTV (Lifetime Value) LTV = ARPU × Gross Margin × (1 / Churn Rate)

• Or from cohort data: Sum of cumulative revenue per customer over observed lifetime.
• Always pair with CAC. LTV alone is meaningless without acquisition cost context.

Retention Metrics

Churn Rate Monthly Churn = Customers Lost This Month / Customers at Start of Month × 100

• Logo churn (customers lost) vs. Revenue churn (revenue lost) — track both.
• Net revenue churn includes expansion revenue. Can be negative (good!).

NRR (Net Revenue Retention) NRR = (Starting MRR + Expansion - Contraction - Churn) / Starting MRR × 100

• Best-in-class SaaS: >120%
• Good: >100%
• Concerning: <90%

Benchmarking

How to Benchmark

1. Internal benchmarks: Your own historical performance (most relevant).
2. Industry benchmarks: Published averages for your vertical (directional, not precise).
3. Aspirational benchmarks: Best-in-class companies you admire (motivation, not expectation).

Common Benchmark Sources

• Google Ads benchmarks: WordStream annual reports
• Email benchmarks: Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor annual reports
• SaaS benchmarks: OpenView, Bessemer, KeyBanc annual surveys
• E-commerce benchmarks: Shopify, BigCommerce published data
• Conversion rate benchmarks: Unbounce conversion benchmark report

Benchmark Caution

• Benchmarks are averages that hide enormous variation.
• Your own trend line matters more than any external benchmark.
• Use benchmarks for sanity-checking, not goal-setting.

Trend Analysis

How to Identify Meaningful Trends

1. Minimum 3 data points to call something a trend (not just 2 months).
2. Separate signal from noise. Is a 5% change meaningful or within normal variation?
3. Seasonality adjustment. Compare to the same period last year, not just last month.
4. Trailing averages. Use 4-week or 13-week rolling averages to smooth weekly noise.

Trend Visualization

• Show at least 6-12 months of data for monthly metrics.
• Add a trend line or rolling average for noisy data.
• Annotate inflection points (what caused the change?).
• Include the goal line for context.

Forecasting Basics

Simple Forecasting Methods for Marketers

1. Run-Rate Forecast Forecast = Current monthly performance × Remaining months

• Simplest method. Assumes no change in performance.
• Good for: Mid-month or mid-quarter projections when trends are stable.

2. Trend-Based Forecast Forecast = Current value × (1 + average monthly growth rate) ^ months

• Uses historical growth rate to project forward.
• Good for: Metrics with consistent growth trajectory.

3. Funnel-Based Forecast Forecast revenue = Projected traffic × CVR × Average deal size

• Build from the top of the funnel down.
• Good for: Connecting marketing activity to revenue outcomes.

Forecast Presentation

• Always present a range (low, expected, high), not a single number.
• State assumptions explicitly. "This assumes CPMs stay flat and we maintain current conversion rates."
• Update forecasts monthly. Compare forecast vs. actual to improve accuracy.

Reporting Narrative

What Happened (Descriptive)

"In February, marketing generated $1.2M in pipeline, representing a 15% increase from January. We acquired 450 new customers at a blended CAC of $85."

Why It Happened (Diagnostic)

"The pipeline increase was driven by a 30% improvement in paid search conversion rate following the landing page redesign launched January 15. Paid social pipeline was flat despite a 20% budget increase, indicating audience saturation."

What It Means (Interpretive)

"At our current trajectory, we are pacing ahead of Q1 pipeline targets by 12%. However, rising paid social CPMs suggest we need to diversify acquisition channels to maintain efficiency."

What We'll Do (Prescriptive)

"Next month we will: (1) Scale paid search budget by 20% to capitalize on strong performance, (2) Begin testing programmatic display as a new awareness channel, (3) Launch a referral program to reduce blended CAC."

Executive Summary Writing

The 3-Sentence Executive Summary

1. The headline result (performance vs. goal).
2. The key driver or concern (what's working or what's not).
3. The action or ask (what you're doing or what you need).

Example: "Marketing exceeded Q1 pipeline target by 18%, generating $4.2M against a $3.5M goal. This outperformance was primarily driven by organic search, which grew 40% following our SEO investment in H2 last year. We recommend increasing content production budget by $50K/month to sustain this momentum and request approval for a new content writer hire."

Writing Tips for Marketing Reports

• Lead with the conclusion, not the process.
• Use active voice. "We generated $1M" not "Revenue of $1M was generated."
• One insight per paragraph. Dense paragraphs get skimmed.
• Round numbers for readability. "$1.2M" not "$1,234,567."
• Always tie metrics back to business impact. "CAC decreased 12%, saving $180K annually" not just "CAC decreased 12%."

Report Templates by Cadence

Weekly Report Template (Slack/Email)

MARKETING WEEKLY UPDATE — Week of [Date]

HEADLINE: [One sentence summary]

KEY METRICS (vs. prior week):
- Traffic: X,XXX (↑/↓ X%)
- Leads/Sign-ups: XXX (↑/↓ X%)
- Pipeline Created: $XXK (↑/↓ X%)
- Spend: $XXK (on pace / over / under budget)

WINS THIS WEEK:
- [Win 1]
- [Win 2]

CONCERNS:
- [Issue + action being taken]

NEXT WEEK PRIORITIES:
- [Priority 1]
- [Priority 2]

Monthly Report Template (Slides)

Slide 1: Executive Summary (3 sentences)
Slide 2: Performance vs. Goals (scorecard with RAG status)
Slide 3: Revenue & Pipeline (trend + this month detail)
Slide 4: Channel Performance (comparison table or chart)
Slide 5: Key Campaign Results (top 2-3 campaigns)
Slide 6: Efficiency Metrics (CAC, CPA, ROAS trends)
Slide 7: Insights & Learnings (what we learned)
Slide 8: Next Month Plan (priorities, experiments, budget changes)

QBR Template (Slides)

Slide 1: Title + Quarter Summary (1 sentence)
Slide 2: Executive Summary (5 key takeaways)
Slide 3-4: Performance vs. Goals (full scorecard)
Slide 5: Revenue Attribution (marketing's contribution to revenue)
Slide 6: Channel Deep Dive (what worked, what didn't)
Slide 7: CAC & LTV Trends (unit economics health)
Slide 8: Competitive & Market Context
Slide 9: Key Experiments & Learnings
Slide 10: What's Not Working (honest assessment)
Slide 11: Next Quarter Strategy & Priorities
Slide 12: Budget Request / Allocation Changes
Slide 13: Appendix (detailed data tables)

Quality Gate

Before sending any marketing report:

• Does every metric have a comparison context (vs. goal, vs. prior period)?
• Is there a clear headline that a busy executive can read in 5 seconds?
• Have you explained "why" for every significant change, not just "what"?
• Are there specific action items with owners and timelines?
• Have you verified the data? (Spot-check key numbers against source systems)
• Is the report the right length for the audience? (Don't send 20 slides for a weekly update)
• Have you used consistent metric definitions throughout?
• Does the narrative connect marketing activity to business outcomes?
• Have you included anything the audience needs to decide or approve?