Advertising Reports: How to Prepare Them

Every marketing agency knows the value of a clear and well-structured advertising report. These reports help track performance, understand audience behavior, and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. 

An advertising report serves several purposes:

• It describes the work process—what has been done over a specific period.
• It records results over time, allowing you to compare different periods and track progress.
• It helps assess the efficiency of resources spent.
• It provides data that can be used for future budget planning.
• It helps optimize performance to achieve the best possible results.
• It presents arguments that will assist in planning future actions.

Tip 1: Agree on the report format before you start

This way, you won’t have to spend extra time assembling the report in parts before the deadline or worry that the client won’t understand something. Find out if the client currently has a reporting system and whether it suits them. Decide whether to update an existing report or create a new one. Agree on the report's level of detail—should it be concise or detailed? Determine how often the client needs the report—daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Choose only the key metrics that are necessary for both your client and yourself while excluding unnecessary ones.

Key metrics for an advertising report:

• Costs – How much money was spent on advertising in a given period.
• CPA – The average cost per target action.
• CR (Conversion Rate) – The percentage of users who completed the target action compared to the total audience.
• Clicks – The number of people who clicked on your ad.
• Impressions – The number of people who saw your ad.
• ROMI – Return on Marketing Investment.
• ROAS – The profit for every unit of currency spent on advertising.

Naturally, there are many other important and useful metrics, and the final list depends on the specific business and client preferences. The result of this stage should be a ready-made report template that the client approves without hesitation. However, even at this stage, challenges may arise, which brings us to the second tip.

Tip 2: Always write accompanying emails

Even if the client has stated that the report format and metrics are clear, this is not enough. Accompanying emails and comments are always necessary. These provide explanations of the data and a summary of the results, helping you quickly understand the report—even months later or in the absence of a specialist. Essentially, this serves as a summary of the report, including achievements, plans, goals, challenges, and recommendations.

A well-made report is not just data—it's a roadmap to smarter marketing decisions.