The What, Why, and How of Marketing Reporting

A McKinsey survey reveals that 83% of global CEOs consider marketing a prime driver for an organization’s growth. 

And undeniably - data plays a pivotal role in uplifting marketing efforts. 

But despite the availability of vast data, the prime concern of marketing leaders remains -

“How to leverage data and extract insights that can inform my marketing strategies?”

‍

‍

Unorganized data makes it challenging to -

• Understand customer behavior and emerging market trends.

• Measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts.

• Maximize returns on marketing investments.

• Align team members with current goals and progress.

• Make informed decisions.

The solution? Marketing reporting!

Marketing reporting is an organized process that collects, compiles, and analyzes marketing insights and metrics to help improve overall marketing performance.

It helps marketing leaders crunch available analytics to identify actionable steps to meet marketing goals, such as increasing online visibility, lead generation, building customer relationships, earning more revenue, and more.

In this post, we will discuss everything about marketing reporting, including the best practices to create effective reports. 

Let’s get started.

But why Build Marketing Reports?

Marketing reports help extract, compile, visualize, and analyze data from various sources. 

They offer valuable insights and help understand how marketing efforts pan out by analyzing ever-evolving audience behavior, preferences, and industry trends informed by vital success KPIs. 

Marketing reports thus empower marketing leaders to prioritize data-driven decision-making.

Let’s explore a few more vital functions of marketing reports.

• Competitive Analysis: Marketing reports can help track competitor activities, SaaS product’s market positioning, and more. This can help marketing leaders gauge the target market’s needs and fine-tune their efforts for the best business outcomes.

• Performance Evaluation: Marketing reports can provide a 360-degree view of marketing campaigns, including key performance indicators (KPIs), such as conversion rates, engagement metrics, and ROI. This enables marketing leaders to understand what works and what doesn’t and make informed decisions to create successful strategies for revenue generation.

• Budget Optimization: The data-driven reports help marketers analyze the effectiveness of various campaigns and marketing channels. This allows them to utilize their budget wisely on campaigns and channels that maximize ROI.

So, a marketing report is crucial to build a successful marketing strategy. It highlights the current state of a SaaS business and provides a roadmap to achieve future marketing goals.

With accurate marketing reports, marketers can find answers to crucial questions, such as -

• How do you know if the previous quarter’s B2B SaaS marketing campaign worked?

• What strategies can prove the impact of marketing on revenue and help gain approval for increased budget allocation from the C-suite?

• What steps can help when marketing campaigns are not achieving the desired outcomes?

What Does a Marketing Report Comprise?

A marketing report can comprise various elements depending on the intended audience and purpose. 

However, there are several essential elements that every marketing report should include regardless of its type and goal. It should communicate key insights and help marketers understand the impact of their marketing efforts and outcomes. 

A standardized approach can help achieve streamlined reporting practices across multiple marketing initiatives.

‍

What Should It Include?

Here are the main components of a marketing report that every marketing report should include.

#1: Summary of Findings: An effective marketing report should begin with a summary of the most crucial information or findings. This will make it easier for the marketing team to understand the insights and take action. They won’t have to waste time and effort searching for vital insights.  

#2: Brief Background: Include background information about the report depending on the purpose and the audience. 

For instance, highlight the key goals the metrics (included in the report) aim to monitor and define why you have included specific metrics or other relevant information.

#3: KPIs and Success Metrics: The marketing report should include success metrics to help the marketing team extract actionable insights. 

For instance, a social media marketing report should include KPIs like impressions, engagement rate, conversions, and ROI. 

#4: Visualization Analysis and Insights: The marketing report should offer data analysis. 

For instance, a marketing report focused on a website’s SEO performance should not be limited to information like keyword rankings. 

It should include visualized data highlighting the traffic growth over months, conversion rates from organic search, and more. 

This can help marketers refine SEO strategies for improved ROI.

#5: Goal Progress: Often, marketing reports show the outcomes and exclude information on the progress of these goals. However, it should highlight the journey towards these goals. 

For instance, if the goal was to improve conversion rate or enhance brand awareness, the report should include metrics like engagement rate, clicks, and more combined with month-by-month comparisons of how the strategies progressed over time.

#6: Conclusion or Final Remarks: An actionable conclusion that reiterates key takeaways, reviews relevant information, and offers the next-best actions (NBAs) is crucial. This can make the marketing report relevant, valuable, and helpful. 

What It Shouldn’t Include 

Here’s what a marketing report should not have.

#1: Data Overload: A recent research by Harvard Business Review confirms that excess information or data can make it difficult to focus on crucial insights. It makes it overwhelming for the audience to grasp the main point. 

So, ensure the marketing report is free from unnecessary data, including visuals and statistics. It should have data that’s relevant to the goal of the report. 

#2: Irrelevant Metrics: Focus on the core metrics that resonate with the goal of the marketing report.

For instance, if the goal is to analyze social media engagement, include metrics like shares, reach, and comments. Here, metrics like website traffic or visitors are irrelevant and should be avoided.

#3: Technical Jargon: The main goal of creating the marketing report is to make marketers’ jobs hassle-free. Including jargon that reflects terminology that is difficult to comprehend can make their task challenging. So, ensure your marketing report is easy to digest and does not contain technical jargon. 

#4: Unnecessary Visuals: Adding visual elements can make the marketing report stand out. However, adding visuals merely for aesthetic purposes is a bad idea and should be avoided.

Incorporate visuals, such as images, graphs, and tables, only when relevant to the report’s context and easy to understand.

Best Practices for Creating Effective Marketing Reports

Here are the top best practices to help you build effective marketing reports. 

1. Keep the Target Audience in Mind

Meeting the target audience’s expectations is crucial to creating effective marketing reports. 

So, highlight the most essential information upfront. For instance, a report for marketing leaders should pinpoint the key insights and metrics impacting sales revenue, conversion rates, and more. Similarly, a report for the marketing team should reflect specific campaign performances, audience segmentation effectiveness, and more.

This enables the target audiences to quickly find what they need, improving the overall accessibility of the marketing report.

Besides, structure the report based on relevance to the audience’s interests and concerns. Create easy-to-understand sections to address their needs effectively. 

For instance, a marketing leader (CMO) and team can structure a report for the CFO as -

Report - Q3 Marketing Performance Assessment 

2. Simplify Reports for Clarity and Presentation

Craft marketing reports that condense complex data into easily digestible information. Use simple language and avoid jargon. 

Additionally, include clear headings, bullet points, and visuals like infographics, graphs, charts, and more to help the audience navigate the report seamlessly.

Ensure consistency in font size, styles, and color schemes to enhance the overall readability of the marketing report.

What’s more? Adding interactive elements, such as clickable links or tables of content, can further help simplify the report for clarity and presentation.

3. Determine Report Generation Frequency

How often should you create reports for tracking marketing goals and data?

Well, there’s no specific answer to this question. 

Creating daily reports can help you zoom in on immediate changes like daily website traffic or sales. On the other hand, quarterly reports can help you analyze progress towards long-term goals, reflecting the big picture.

The different frequencies of generating marketing reports offer distinct benefits. Choose a frequency that suits your business needs.

Here are a few crucial benefits to consider.

• Daily Reports: Ideal for tracking immediate changes and issues like website traffic or sales data.

• Weekly Reports: Beneficial for marketing teams seeking granular insights and goal-pacing updates.

• Monthly Reports: Ideal for tracking goals, comparisons, trend visibility, and more.

• Quarterly Reports: Valuable for planning for seasonal fluctuations and reviewing long-term trends.

KPIs That Matter 

KPIs can vary depending on the type of marketing reports. Here’s a breakdown of KPIs according to the report type. 

1. Social Media Marketing Report

Key Goal - To assess social media campaign effectiveness to enhance engagement and drive brand visibility and growth

Crucial Social Media KPIs - 

• Number of likes

• Organic posts reach

• Number of new followers

• Other engagement KPIs, such as comments and direct messages

2. Advertising Marketing Report

Key Goal - To track and evaluate advertising campaign performance for optimizing strategies and maximizing ROI

Crucial Advertising KPIs - 

• Total ad spend

• Ad revenue

• Impressions

• Return on ad spend (ROAS)

• Conversion rates

Note: Specific advertising report types can include distinct metrics. 

For example, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising marketing reports may include the metrics shared below:

• Impression share

• Cost per click

• Click through rate

• Number of clicks

On the other hand, display advertising marketing reports might include the KPIs shared below -

• Cost per acquisition

• Number of clicks

• Reach

• Conversion rates

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing Report

Key Goal - To analyze and optimize SEO strategies for enhanced visibility, relevant organic traffic, and top rankings in SERPs

Crucial SEO KPIs -

• Bounce rates

• Internal links

• Keyword rankings

• Organic search traffic

• Time per session

• Outbound links

• Page views

4. Email Marketing Reports

Key Goal - To assess email campaign performance and achieve high engagement, conversion rates, and customer retention‍

Crucial Email Marketing KPIs - 

• Clickthrough rates

• Conversion rates

• Open rates

• Bounce rates

• Unsubscribe rates

• Conversion by device

5. eCommerce Marketing Reports

Key Goal - To analyze eCommerce marketing performance for enhanced sales, customer acquisition, retention, and revenue generation 

Crucial eCommerce KPIs - 

• Traffic

• Total sales

• Conversion rates

• Cost per acquisition

• Click-through rates

Crucial Funnel KPIs to Consider

Now, let’s understand the most crucial funnel KPIs to help you assess sales and marketing performance across different report types.

1. Lead Generation Reports

Key Goal - To measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts in acquiring and nurturing qualified leads for potential conversion

Crucial KPIs to Consider - 

• MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead): Leads likely to become customers and meet marketing-defined criteria for potential conversion.

• SQL (Sales Qualified Lead): Leads that have been researched and vetted - first by the marketing and then the sales team and deemed ready for the direct sales process.

• Cost per MQL: It indicates the efficiency of lead generation campaigns and measures the average cost of acquiring a marketing-qualified lead.

• Revenue per MQL: It reflects the value generated from leads and the return on marketing investment.

2. Sales Pipeline and Conversion Reports

Key Goal: To track and optimize the progression of leads through the sales funnel, measuring conversion rates and identifying opportunities for improvement in the sales process

Crucial KPIs to Consider - 

• Demos: It indicates the number of product demonstrations that sales reps offer to potential customers.

• Win Rates: It reflects the percentage of successful deals won compared to the number of opportunities.

• Close Rates: It depicts the percentage of closed deals compared to the total opportunities.

3. Revenue and ROI Reports

Key Goal: To evaluate the revenue generated from sales efforts and measure the return on investment across marketing and sales activities

Crucial KPIs to Consider - 

• Pipeline Value Generated: This reflects the total value of potential deals within the sales pipeline.

• Closed Pipeline Value: It depicts the total value of deals that are successfully closed from the sales pipeline.

• Average Value per Deal: It highlights the average value of each closed deal.

4. Customer Acquisition Reports

Key Goal: To analyze the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing strategies in acquiring new customers and their impact on revenue generation

Crucial KPIs to Consider - 

• ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) by CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) Ratio: This ratio compares the revenue generated per customer against the cost of acquiring that customer.

• Payback Period: This metric reflects the total time to recover the customer acquisition cost through generated revenue.

• Burn Multiple: This indicates the revenue generated per dollar burned.
  
  
• WAU/MAU (Weekly Active Users/ Monthly Active Users): The WAU/MAU ratio reflects the number of unique users that engage with a company’s product or service in a month compared to their weekly engagement. 

How to Identify Which Metrics Are Relevant? 

Selecting the right KPIs can feel overwhelming. 

However, it all boils down to two key ideas: goals and focus.

First, identify the metrics that align with the marketing goals. Next, filter out the most relevant metrics out of the list.

Use the questionnaire format shared below to streamline the assessment of relevant metrics -

‍

The answer to these questions will help you identify crucial metrics you should track. This can save you from confusing your team by including irrelevant data.

For instance, if your goal is to improve organic search visibility and traffic volume to the website, consider metrics like traffic volume, keyword rankings, click-through rate (CTR), etc.

Now, use the questionnaire format for each metric, like this - 

• Does the organic traffic align with your marketing goal?

• Can you measure organic traffic consistently over time?

• Does the organic traffic directly impact your report outcomes and campaign success?

• Can you compile accurate data for organic traffic in the coming weeks or months?

• Does organic traffic reflect customer engagement and revenue growth?

The answer to all of these questions is - Yes! 

So, this metric is highly relevant. Similarly, test the other metrics using the shared questionnaire format.

Revlitix: Your Reliable Partner in Marketing Reporting

Creating effective marketing reports requires several hours of manual spreadsheet work, which you can otherwise invest in strategic decision-making. 

Streamline your reporting process with Revlitix Reports - focus on what truly matters. 

It is a fully automated setup that allows you to eradicate tedious manual work while offering data-driven insights on market trends and customer behavior.

‍

‍

With Revlitix Reports, you can - 

• Track Marketing Funnel Progress: It provides a centralized data analytics platform, enabling you to track your marketing funnel from awareness to the conversion stage. 

It provides a comprehensive marketing funnel overview, covering MQLs, demo rates, completed demos, pipeline values, and average pipeline values. This can help your team gain a comprehensive view of marketing goals and progress, allowing them to make data-driven decisions.  

• Assess Marketing Channel Performance: It offers in-depth insights into marketing channel performance across categories such as website, email, paid search, events, and partnerships. 

You can track crucial funnel KPIs, including MQLs, SQLs, CAC, leads generated, demos, revenue, cost per MQL, ARR/CAC, burn rate, win rate, close rate, and pipeline value. 

• Analyze Period Performance Trends and KPI Forecasts: It helps you gain a competitive edge by allowing you to monitor period performance trends and provide predictive KPI forecasts. This way, your team can identify patterns and marketing opportunities to tailor marketing campaigns for the best outcomes.

What’s Unique? As mentioned, Revlitix offers an all-in-one solution for end-to-end funnel reporting, fully automated and completely customizable based on specific requirements. You can add and break down metrics by categories, channels, product types, or demographics as needed.

There is currently no other platform in the market offering end-to-end funnel reporting, integrating marketing spend, outcomes, and various metrics into a singular, automated, and customizable interface as Revlitix does.

Revlitix Reports can thus turbocharge your marketing strategies and help you achieve goals. 

Connect with team Revlitix for a free demo today!

Summing Up

Marketing reporting is crucial to scaling your marketing efforts and the company’s growth. It can help you analyze how effective and efficient your marketing strategy is and what steps to take for optimization.

Leveraging Revlitix Reports can help you create accurate, reliable, and easy-to-understand reports with a few clicks. 

It can simplify your journey by compiling data from various sources, offering real-time performance insights, and cross-channel performance analysis.

So, connect with us today to achieve your marketing reporting goals! 

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍