Many marketing dashboards show everything: impressions, clicks, CTR, sessions, bounce rate, dozens of charts. For the first few weeks everyone looks at them with enthusiasm. Then nobody opens them anymore. Not because the numbers are wrong, but because they do not answer the only question that matters: what did our marketing deliver?
In this article you read how to make a report that does get read. A report in revenue and leads, on one page, with the context needed to make a decision.
Why most dashboards do not work
A dashboard is often built from what you can measure, not from what you want to know. Google Ads, Meta and Analytics each provide hundreds of metrics. It is tempting to show them all. The result is a screen full of numbers without a story.
On top of that, platform numbers contradict each other. Google Ads counts a conversion differently from Meta, and GA4 counts differently again. Put three sources side by side without explanation and you mainly get questions.
Start with the reader’s question
A director wants to know whether the money is well spent. A sales manager wants to know how many leads come in and whether they are good. A marketer wants to know what to do differently next month. Three different questions, but they all start with the same thing: results in money or leads.
So ask three questions up front:
- Who reads this report?
- Which decision do they make with it?
- Which number do they need for that?
At the top: three numbers in money
Put at most three numbers at the top of the report. For most businesses these are:
- Result: revenue, or the number of leads, quotes or bookings
- Cost per result: what a lead or customer cost on average, including ad spend
- Return: what each euro brought in, or how many leads became customers
Everything below supports these. Someone who reads only these three numbers should already know whether things are going well.
Then: the same three numbers per channel
Second, show the same three numbers per channel: Google Ads, social, SEO, email. That way you see at a glance where it works and where it does not. Keep it simple: one row per channel, no chart per channel.
Where possible use the numbers from your own system, such as your CRM or shop, instead of the ad platform’s numbers. They are closest to reality.
Always give context
A number without comparison says nothing. Are 42 leads a lot or a little? You only know when you see it was 35 last month and 28 in the same month last year.
- Show last month next to it
- Show the same month last year, because of seasons
- Show the target if you have one
Add two or three sentences under the numbers: what changed, why, and what we do next month. That bit of text is often the most read part of the report.
What to leave out
Impressions, clicks and CTR are useful for whoever builds the campaigns. For the rest of the business they are noise. Put them in an appendix or a separate tab for the specialist. The same goes for sessions, bounce rate and time on page: only show them when they explain something.
The technical side: how to build it
You do not need expensive software. A good set-up looks like this:
- Measure the right conversions. Make sure leads, quotes and sales arrive correctly in GA4 and your ad platforms, preferably also via the server.
- Connect your CRM. Only when you know which lead became a customer can you report in revenue.
- Build one page in Looker Studio. Free, connects to Google Ads, GA4 and Google Sheets, and updates itself.
- Set a fixed moment. The same day every month, with a short explanation.
An example
Say an installation company advertises on Google and Meta. The old report had eight pages of charts per campaign. The new report has one page. At the top: 64 quote requests, 31 euros per request, 18 jobs. Below that the same per channel. Below that three sentences: Meta brought more requests but fewer jobs, so next month budget shifts to Google.
The director reads it in two minutes and knows what is happening. That is the goal.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I report?
For most businesses once a month is enough. Looking weekly is useful for whoever adjusts the campaigns, but not for leadership.
Which numbers are right: Google Ads or GA4?
Neither is perfect. Choose one source as the basis, preferably your own CRM or shop, and use the rest to explain.
What if I do not have a CRM?
Start with a simple spreadsheet where you track which lead became a customer. That alone gives far more insight than clicks and impressions.
Want a report that actually gets read?
In a free thirty-minute intro call we look together at your current tracking and reporting. You hear which numbers you are missing and how to get them on one page.
