Plenty of small business owners get a marketing report every month and still can’t say whether the money is working. The report is long, the charts go up and to the right, and the phone is no busier than it was.
A useful marketing report for a small business is shorter and plainer than that. This guide covers what it should show, which numbers can mislead you, the tracking that makes it honest, and the questions to ask when you read it.
What should a small business marketing report show?
It should answer three questions in plain words. What did we spend? What did it bring in? What are we doing next, and why? If a report can’t answer those on its first page, it’s describing activity rather than results.
Everything else, from charts to screenshots, is supporting detail. Useful, but only once the three answers are clear.
The numbers that matter
These are the numbers that connect marketing to the business:
Enquiries: calls, forms, bookings and messages, counted by where they came from, such as Google search, Google Ads, your Google Business Profile, Facebook and Instagram, email or a referral.
Cost per enquiry for each channel, so you can see where a dollar works hardest.
Spend by channel, shown beside what each channel brought in, not on a separate page.
Jobs or sales won, wherever an enquiry can be traced to one.
Reviews: how many came in, the average rating and whether every one got a reply.
Comparisons: this month against last month, and against the same month last year if your business is seasonal.
The numbers that can mislead
Some numbers look impressive and tell you very little on their own:
Impressions and reach: how many times something was shown, not whether anyone cared.
Followers and likes: nice to have, but they don’t ring the phone.
Clicks: a click that bounces off your website costs money and brings nothing.
Rankings: position three for a phrase nobody searches is worth less than position eight for one that brings calls. Rankings also change with the device and location, so a single screenshot proves little. Our guide to local SEO for regional businesses explains why calls are the better measure.
These are fine as context. They just shouldn’t be the headline.
Rule of thumb: if a number in your report can’t be traced to a call, a form, a booking or a sale, treat it as context, not a result.
What was done, and what’s next
Results tell you what happened. The work tells you why. A good report lists what went out: the posts, emails, ads, landing pages, designs and print, with links or pictures so you can see them. That way you can connect a busy week of enquiries to the campaign that caused it, and spot when a month was quiet because less went out.
The best reports look forward as well as back. What’s planned for next month, and what’s it timed around? Your busy season, a local event, a new product, school holidays or the end of the financial year. A plan with reasons lets you add what only you know, such as a new staff member starting or your own costs going up.
Getting the tracking right
A report is only as good as the tracking underneath it. The basics:
Call tracking, so calls from ads, your website and your Google profile are counted separately.
Form tracking, so every enquiry is recorded with the page it came from.
Asking “how did you hear about us?” and writing the answer down, especially for walk-ins and referrals.
One place for leads, rather than enquiries scattered across inboxes, phones and message apps.
Then look at it on a rhythm: the full report monthly; a quick check of ad spend and enquiries weekly or fortnightly so nothing runs off course for a whole month; and a proper review each quarter of what’s working, what to stop and where to put more.
Mistake to avoid: switching off a channel after one quiet month. Seasonality, holidays and one-off events all move the numbers. Look at the trend over three months or more before cutting anything that has been working.
Questions to ask when you read it
A report is a conversation starter, not a verdict. Each month, ask:
Which channel brought in the most enquiries, and which brought in the best ones?
Where did the cost per enquiry rise, and is there a clear reason, such as a competitor, a season or a change we made?
What did we try this month that we haven’t tried before, and what did it show?
Is there anything customers keep asking about that should become a post, an ad or a page?
What should we stop doing?
If your provider can’t answer these, or the answers never change what happens next month, the report isn’t doing its job. When you are comparing providers, our guide to choosing an agency, a freelancer or your own hire has more questions to ask, and Google Ads vs Facebook ads explains why cost per enquiry beats cost per click.
Is your marketing report doing its job?
Three questions to ask of the report you get now.
See every answer
Your report is doing its job. Keep reading it monthly, check ad spend and enquiries weekly or fortnightly, and look at the trend each quarter before cutting anything.
Ask for spend beside results. Each channel's spend should sit beside what it brought in, with the cost per enquiry, on the first page. Ask for that before anything else.
Fix the tracking first. Reach, clicks and followers are context, not results. Set up call and form tracking, ask how people heard about you and keep every lead in one place.
Ask what happens next, and why. A good report looks forward: what is planned for next month and what it is timed around, so you can add what only you know.
How the customer portal shows it
We built our customer portal so Marketing Plan clients don’t wait for a PDF to see where they stand. It shows:
Results: enquiries, calls, leads and reviews beside what they cost, month by month.
Spend tracking: Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram ads and your plan in one view, beside the enquiries each dollar brought in.
Lead tracking: every call, form and booking traced to the channel that sent it.
What we’ve done: the campaigns, posts, emails and designs that went out.
Your plan: what’s coming next and why.
See your own numbers in one place
The customer portal comes with our Marketing Plans: results, spend, leads, approvals and everything we’ve done for you, in one login.
