Ads & SEO

Your agency's monthly report: what it should show (and what it hides)

What a useful monthly marketing report contains, the numbers that make weak results look good, and the questions to ask your agency before the next invoice.

October 21, 20266 min read

A useful monthly report from your marketing agency answers four questions on the first page: how many real leads you got and from where, what each one cost, how many turned into customers, and what the agency will change next month and why. Everything else (impressions, clicks, click-through rate, "engagement") is supporting detail. If your report opens with charts of impressions and ends without a plan, it is built to look busy, not to help you decide. Here is what a good report contains, how weak reports hide problems, and what to ask for.

What a good report shows

Leads, counted the way you count them

The first number should be leads: calls, form submissions, bookings and chat conversations from real potential customers, broken down by source (Google Ads, Meta ads, organic search, Google Business Profile, referrals). The agency should define each one in writing. A "call" should mean a call that lasted long enough to be a conversation, not any tap on the phone number.

Cost per lead, by channel

Spend divided by leads, for each channel separately. A blended number hides the channel that's losing money behind the one that's working.

What happened to those leads

This is the line most reports leave out, because it requires your sales data. How many leads were qualified, how many got a quote, how many signed? An agency that only reports what happens before the lead reaches you can claim success while your phone rings with the wrong people.

If you use a CRM, the agency should pull these numbers from it. If you don't, a simple monthly count from you is better than nothing.

Spend against budget, including fees

Ad spend, management fees and any tool costs, each on its own line. You should be able to see the total cost of the program, not only the media budget.

Search terms and audiences that changed

For Google Ads, a short list of the real searches that triggered your ads, the irrelevant ones excluded this month, and the new ones added. This is the clearest evidence that someone is actually working on the account.

What changed, what happened, what's next

Three short sections in plain language:

What we changed this month (and the date).
What happened after the change.
What we plan next month, and what result would tell us it worked.

Tracking health

A line confirming that conversion tracking was tested this month: a test form, a test call, a test booking. Tracking breaks quietly after website edits, and every number in the report depends on it.

How weak reports make results look good

Most misleading reports don't contain false numbers. They contain real numbers chosen to impress. These are the common ones.

Counting "All conversions" instead of "Conversions"

Google Ads has two columns. The "Conversions" column counts only primary conversion actions, the ones you decided matter. The "All conversions" column also includes secondary actions, which Google describes as "for observation only". If the report quotes "All conversions", it may include page views, clicks on a map, or video plays alongside real leads.

Marking soft actions as key events

In Google Analytics 4, any event can be marked as a key event. Some accounts mark "scrolled 90%" or "viewed contact page" as key events, then report the total as conversions. Ask for the list of key events and what each one means.

Leading with impressions and clicks

Impressions and clicks show activity, not results. A report that celebrates a jump in impressions after a campaign switched to a broader target is describing spend, not success.

Reporting a ROAS nobody can check

Return on ad spend means something for an online store that records sales. For a service business, ROAS is only meaningful if real revenue from closed deals is imported. If the agency reports a ROAS without access to your sales, ask where the revenue figure comes from.

Modelled numbers without saying so

When visitors refuse analytics cookies, Google can model some of the missing conversions. With consent mode, Google uses cookieless signals to estimate conversions that would otherwise be missing. That's legitimate, but the report should say which figures include modelled data, especially when they are compared to your CRM.

Hiding the search terms

Google already hides low-volume search terms for privacy reasons. A report that shows none at all, or only the top five, makes it impossible to see whether your budget pays for irrelevant searches.

Changing the comparison period

Comparing this month to a weak month last year, then to the previous month when that looks better, is a classic. Ask for the same comparisons every month.

Bad report vs good report, side by side

The bad version:

Page one: "Impressions up 48%! Clicks up 22%!"
"Conversions: 214" (from the All conversions column, including 160 contact-page views)
One blended cost per conversion across Google, Meta and SEO
No mention of how many leads became customers
No list of changes made
"Next month: continue optimizing"

The good version:

Page one: "41 leads (27 calls over 60 seconds, 11 forms, 3 bookings). Cost per lead: Google Ads $78, Meta $112."
"From your CRM: 19 qualified, 9 quotes sent, 4 signed so far."
"Paused the Meta lookalike audience on the 12th: it produced 9 leads, none qualified."
"Added 34 negative keywords, mainly job searches and DIY questions."
"Tracking tested on the 3rd: form, call and booking all recorded."
"Next month: test a dedicated landing page for commercial clients. We'll judge it on qualified leads per $1,000 spent."

The good version is shorter, and it is uncomfortable sometimes. That's the point: you can make decisions with it.

Make sure you own the accounts

A report is only as trustworthy as your ability to check it. You should own your Google Ads account, your Google Analytics property, your Google Tag Manager container, your Meta ad account and your Google Business Profile, with the agency added as a user.

In Google Ads, the admin access level is the one that can give account access, change access levels and link other products. You should hold admin access yourself, through your own Google account, even if you never log in. If the agency created the account under its own manager account and controls ownership, ask for it to be transferred before there's any disagreement.

With admin or read-only access, you can open the account at any time and check that the numbers in the report match what's there.

Questions to send your agency this month

Which conversion actions are counted in the report, and which are primary in Google Ads?
Which GA4 events are marked as key events?
How is a phone call counted (minimum duration)?
Do the figures include modelled conversions?
Can we add qualified leads and signed customers from our CRM to the report?
Can I see the full search terms report for last month?
Do I have admin access to every account in my own name?
What did you change this month, and what's the plan for next month?

A good agency will answer these in an email without fuss. Hesitation on the last two is the clearest warning sign.

When the report is fine but the results aren't

Sometimes the report is honest and the results are still poor. Before blaming the agency, check the parts they don't control: how fast your team responds to leads, whether the website loads well on a phone, whether your prices or availability changed. A good report should point these out too, even when it's awkward.

Where PNE fits

PNE's analytics service starts by auditing what's tracked today, then sets up conversion events for forms, calls and bookings, links the ad accounts, connects lead sources to your CRM and builds a dashboard you can read in five minutes. Every client keeps ownership of their ad and analytics accounts, and the monthly report includes a review call to go through it together.