Contractor guides

What your monthly marketing report should show you

A useful monthly marketing report tells you three things on its first page. How many calls, forms and bookings came in, and where each one came from. What that business was worth. And what will change next month. If your report can't answer those, it tells you what was done but not what it brought in.

That's the short version. The rest of this page goes through each part of a good report, the numbers that look impressive but don't tell you much, and the questions to ask before you hire someone or renew with them.

Why reports can be hard to read

When a report comes straight out of reporting software, it tends to show everything the software can connect to. You get page after page of charts. The charts may be accurate. They just don't answer the question you're paying to have answered: is this bringing in business?

1. Leads, counted by where they came from

This section matters most, and it belongs on page one. For a local business, a lead is usually one of three things:

A phone call
A form someone filled in on your website
A booking in your calendar

Messages and walk ins count too, if you can track them. What matters is that each lead is counted against the place it came from: your Google Business Profile, your website from a Google search, a paid ad, Facebook, Instagram or a referral.

"You got more leads this month" isn't enough. You need the split, because the split tells you where to put next month's time and money.

Before any of this can work, someone has to set up the counting. That means call tracking, so calls from your Google listing and your website show up separately. It means form tracking that records which page each form came from, and a record of bookings. If a source can't be tracked, the report should say so plainly rather than guess.

2. What those leads were worth

Leads are not sales. A good report takes one more step and asks which leads turned into paying work.

Here is a simple way to do it. You tell your marketing provider roughly what a typical job or order is worth. Each month you confirm which leads became customers. The report multiplies the two and shows the result as an estimate.

Two rules keep this line honest:

Only count jobs you've confirmed. A lead that didn't book shouldn't sit in the value line.
Label it as an estimate. It's built on your average job value, not your exact invoices.

If a report shows a large "value" figure and you can't tell where it came from, ask. Your provider should be able to explain the math in a sentence.

3. What was done this month

The lead numbers show what happened. The list of work helps explain why. The report should list what actually went out: website changes, posts, updates to your Google listing, ads that ran. Each item should come with enough detail that you could find it yourself.

Read next to the lead numbers, this list shows what work came before a busy month, and whether a slow month followed a light one.

4. What's working, what isn't, and what changes next

This is the section that turns a printout into a report. A good one says plainly:

What is working, and so will continue
What isn't working, and why the provider thinks so
What they'll do differently next month

Watch for a "next steps" section that reads the same every month. If the plan never changes, nobody is reading the numbers.

Numbers that need context

Some numbers look good on a chart but don't tell you much on their own. They can sit in the report, but they shouldn't lead it.

Impressions and reach. These count how often something was shown, not whether anyone did anything about it.

Likes and followers. Nice to see, but they aren't calls. If a social page gets lots of likes and almost no enquiries, a good report says so out loud and adjusts the plan.

Rankings. A single ranking screenshot proves very little, because results differ from person to person. Google says so in its Search Console help: "Even if a query appears in your list, you might not see your site in results if you run the same query in Google Search. This is because Search results are specific to the time, place, device, and recent history of the person searching." Search Console's own numbers are more useful than a screenshot: clicks, impressions and the queries people used. More useful still are the calls and forms those clicks led to.

What your Google Business Profile numbers actually mean

For a local business, the Google listing is often where calls start. So it's worth knowing what Google counts.

In Google's performance help, "Calls" is defined as "The number of times a customer clicked on the call button on your Business Profile." That's a tap on the button. It isn't proof the call connected or became a job. Treat it as a signal, and check it against the calls you actually received.

Google also says: "Performance data includes views, searches, and actions from both organic search results and Google Ads." If you also run ads, part of your profile activity may come from those ads. A good report keeps that in mind instead of giving all the credit to one channel.

If someone manages your profile for you, Google has a rule about how they report it. Its Business Profile third party policies say: "If your service provides reporting data from other profile management platforms, you must report the Business Profile data separately from the non-Business Profile data." In plain terms, your Google listing numbers should be shown on their own. Google allows a combined total from several platforms only if the Google listing numbers are also easy to find on their own.

A short "how we counted" note

Every report should end with a few lines on method. Where were calls counted? Where were forms counted, and where did bookings come from? And what couldn't be tracked this month, and why?

Many reports skip this part. It's the part that lets you trust the rest. If the method changes, for example because a new call tracking number went live, the report should say so. That way you won't read a jump in the numbers as a jump in business.

Who should be able to see the data

You should.

Google makes this point for Business Profiles in its third party guidance: "You have the right to know your profile’s performance, such as how many users interact with, view, and click on your Business Profile."

Questions to ask about the report you get now

Take last month's report and ask:

Can I see calls, forms and bookings by source on the first page?
Do I know which leads became paying work, and was I asked to confirm them?
Does it list what was actually done, with enough detail that I could check it?
Does it say what isn't working, as well as what is?
Is next month's plan different from last month's, and does it follow from the numbers?
Is there a note on how things were counted, and what couldn't be counted?
Can I log in and see the same numbers myself?

What a report from Finnsight Marketing looks like

Every Finnsight report follows this layout: leads by source, what they were worth, what we did, and what changes next.