Reporting: which numbers an owner should look at each month
A twenty-page report full of charts gets read once. A working report fits on a screen and answers three questions: what we spent, what we got, what we do next. Here is what belongs in it.
A working report fits on one page and answers three questions: what we spent, what we got, what we do next. The figures you need are spend by channel, enquiries, cost per enquiry, clients, revenue and cost per client. Impressions, clicks and average position do not belong in it: they say nothing about results.
In this article9 sections
The three questions a report answers
- What we spentPer channel separately: ad budget plus the work.
- What we gotEnquiries, clients, revenue. Not impressions and not clicks.
- What comes nextWhat conclusions were drawn and what changes next month.
If a report does not answer at least one of these, it is not a report but a description of activity.
The numbers you actually need
| Metric | What for | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Spend by channel | The basis for every calculation | Monthly |
| Number of enquiries | The channel's output | Monthly |
| Cost per enquiry | Channel efficiency | Monthly |
| Clients and revenue | The link to money | Monthly |
| Cost per client | The headline metric | Monthly |
| Return on spend | Whether it pays back | Monthly |
| Share of organic | Whether budget dependence is falling | Quarterly |
| Positions on key queries | The trend in search | Monthly |
The numbers that mislead
- Impressions. They say nothing about outcomes. They grow on their own when the budget grows.
- Clicks without conversions. A click is an expense, not an achievement.
- Average position across all queries. It blends money queries with worthless ones.
- Total traffic. It can grow on irrelevant visits.
- Time on site in isolation. Long reading can mean interest, or that the person cannot find what they need.
- «Optimisation work performed». Neither a number nor a fact.
The mark of a good report is the presence of bad news. If everything grows and everything is excellent every month, either you are very lucky or you are being shown a selection.
What a working report looks like
A structure that fits on one or two pages and reads in five minutes.
- The bottom line in one sentence: we spent this much and got this many clients worth this much.
- A table by channel: spend, enquiries, cost per enquiry, clients, revenue.
- What changed against last month and why — with an explanation, not just arrows.
- What was done during the month: a specific list of work with dates.
- What did not work out and what is being done about it.
- The plan for next month: three to five tasks with the expected effect.
How to make decisions from a report
| What you see | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per enquiry rising | Competition or ad burnout | Refresh creatives, narrow the queries |
| Many enquiries, few clients | Irrelevant traffic or handling | Check the queries and listen to calls |
| Traffic rising, enquiries flat | Informational traffic | Shift the focus to commercial queries |
| Everything steady for months | The channel has hit its ceiling | Increase budget or add a channel |
| A sharp drop | A technical fault or an algorithm | Check the site and indexing first of all |
The rhythm of checking
- Weekly: requests are coming in, advertising is running, nothing is broken. Five minutes.
- Monthly: the full report, budget decisions. An hour.
- Quarterly: strategy, channel mix, the plan for the next quarter. Half a day.
More often is harmful: daily fluctuations are random and provoke nervous decisions. Less often is dangerous: a problem has time to cost you money.
How to read trends properly
A single value means nothing — direction is what means something. Three rules that keep you from wrong conclusions.
- Compare like with like. February is three days shorter than January — that alone is ten percent less traffic for no reason at all.
- Account for the season. Comparing with the same month last year beats comparing with the previous month.
- Look at the trend, not the point. Two months running in the same direction is a trend; one month is noise.
What belongs in a contractor's report
Separately from your own internal figures. A good report shows the work, not only the result — because the result depends partly on you as well.
- A list of specific work done in the period, with dates.
- What was planned but not done, and why.
- Position trends on the agreed list of queries.
- Traffic and enquiries compared with the previous period.
- Problems found on your side: a broken form, unanswered calls, outdated prices.
- The plan for the next period.
The fifth item is the sign of a contractor working for results rather than for the report. If they stay quiet about your problems, they are either not looking or not willing to strain the relationship.
The annual review
Once a year it is worth looking beyond the monthly figures and answering four questions.
- Which channel brought the most money, not the most traffic.
- How cost per client changed over the year.
- What share of enquiries came from free sources — organic, maps, referrals.
- What part of your investment keeps working without monthly payments.
The last question is the most important: it shows whether you are building an asset or simply renting traffic.
Frequent questions
If we could look at only one metric, which?
Cost per client against what a client brings in. Everything else is detail on that ratio.
What if the contractor will not give figures on requests?
Insist. If they cannot connect their work to enquiries, analytics is not set up — and that is the first thing to fix, before any spending on traffic.
Should we watch positions?
As a secondary metric, yes: they show movement earlier than traffic does. But decisions are made on requests, not positions.
How do we compare months with different seasonality?
Against the same month last year, not against the previous one. If you have no year of data, note the seasonality in a comment on the report.
Who should prepare the report — the contractor or us?
The contractor for their work, you for the money. They have to be brought together: they hold the traffic and position data, you hold the deals and revenue.
What if the figures do not match how things feel?
Check the record-keeping before arguing. Most often part of the enquiries simply is not logged: calls from business cards, messages to personal accounts, repeat clients.
The materials answer general questions. We will look at your specific case — free and without obligation.