Marketing Reporting: How To Build, Examples, and Types

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Marketing Reporting: How To Build, Examples, and Types

marketing-reports

Marketing reporting involves collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data to evaluate the performance of your marketing efforts. But so much of marketing seems difficult to measure. How can you quantify brand awareness? Or analyze customer sentiment? What tool looks at creative genius as an output? 

Marketing sits in a unique position in your business. Though it can be hard to quantify some aspects of your marketing team’s goals and output, this department gets a large portion of discretionary budgets, is integral to business growth, and is therefore closely watched and monitored. 

Fortunately, brilliant minds in data have developed tools and ways to measure marketing and its impact. These measurements create a ton of data that needs to be organized, visualized, and analyzed so teams can understand what’s working, what needs improvement, and how to align current strategies with business goals. Though not everything in marketing may be quantified yet, there is a ton of data that can help your team grow, improve sales, and reach critical goals. 

By tracking key metrics, well-organized marketing reports help you make informed decisions, ensuring your resources are being used effectively. Using data tools to help with marketing reporting will definitely help streamline the process, making it easier to visualize trends, uncover opportunities, and share insights with your team. These tools save time and reduce errors, ensuring data is reliable, accessible, and ready for your team to act on.

What is a marketing report?

A marketing report is a document or dashboard that summarizes the performance of your marketing activities. It shows data about your campaigns, channels, market, and overall strategies, helping you understand how your efforts are performing. A marketing report can help your team answer important business questions, such as:

  • Where should I spend my time and budget? 
  • What campaigns have the best return on investment (ROI)?
  • Am I connecting with the right audience? 
  • How effective are our efforts in driving conversion to sales?
  • What messaging is resonating most with my target audience?
  • How much do I need to spend to get a new customer?

A well-crafted marketing report doesn’t just share information or list metrics. It needs to be designed with action in mind and highlight key insights, making it easier to assess whether goals are being met and where adjustments are needed. Knowing the target audience of your report and the context of why people want to view reports will help you share the most relevant information to help viewers make informed decisions. 

Reports can focus on specific campaigns and broader trends or compare performance over time. They can also look at spend and ROI, measure how different platforms perform, and see where marketing efforts impact sales. Or, if you have the data and resources to measure these things, they can track customer sentiment over time, brand awareness, and intent to buy. 

That benefit is part of the problem: Once you start looking for marketing data, the sheer amount you can track can quickly become overwhelming. So, where do you get started? What information do you need? 

We’ll use this article to look at the types of marketing reports you can build, share how to write a marketing report, and look at the pieces of data that can be included in some or all of your marketing reporting.

Types of marketing reports

Marketing has become highly segmented with many specialties and focus areas, ranging from content marketing to digital advertising, events, and more. Even within these broader areas of marketing, there are sub-specialties. In content marketing alone, you could have teams dedicated to SEO, landing pages, product marketing, email marketing, or social media. That’s a lot of data to track.

That’s why marketing reports can come in many formats depending on your goals, audiences, and specialized focus. For example, you can organize the types of marketing reports in the following ways: 

  • When they’re shared
  • Who you’re sending them to
  • The marketing activities or channels they cover 

We’ll touch on the types of marketing reports in each category. This lets you understand the different ways to structure your marketing reporting and decide which option makes the most sense for your organization. No one team will have every single report listed below, but these reports can be valuable for companies with different priorities. 

Time-based reporting

Most companies, regardless of size or focus, will have some version of these reports to help track their marketing goals and see how campaigns are progressing. These reports are designed to provide consistent updates on marketing performance. The makeup of the reports will vary based on your company’s current priorities, but we’ve given some sample descriptions of what these reports can include. 

  • Monthly reports: These reports are typically for a broader audience of stakeholders in and out of the marketing team. They offer a comprehensive overview of performance trends and show high-level progress toward overall company goals.
  • Weekly reports: These reports will typically be targeted toward marketing leadership and individual marketing contributors. These reports focus on short-term activities or campaign updates.
  • Daily reporting: These reports will be critical for department or channel leaders and individual contributors. These track detailed information on things like website visits and campaign performance. Often, these reports won’t be a formal report sent to people but will live as real-time dashboards updating information relevant to individual contributors. 
  • Quarterly business reports (QBR): QBRs are important meetings for enterprise-level executives to track the overall company’s performance toward annual goals. This is a good time to understand and reset priorities as needed. From marketing, this report needs to show progress toward annual goals and relevant information for marketing leaders to share with the executive leadership team.
  • Annual reports: These reports are designed to help teams with planning for the next year and need to include high-level information like comparisons over time, progress toward annual goals, and ROI of spend throughout the year. 
  • Ad-hoc reports: These reports are built as needed and provide detailed insights into specific events or issues.

Audience reporting

Knowing your audience is critical for building marketing reports. Not every end viewer needs every metric. Make sure you have the context of knowing who will be viewing the report and why they want it. Executives don’t have time or care to get into the details of marketing campaign reporting; they need to see high-level overview information. On the other hand, marketing department leaders need detailed information about their team and performance to know which levers they can pull to hit overall marketing goals. 

  • Executive reports: These high-level reports are tailored to C-suite executives and focus on strategic insights. They summarize marketing performance, ROI, and progress toward company-wide goals, helping executives make informed decisions.
  • Leadership reports: Designed for department heads and senior managers, these reports provide actionable insights on campaign performance, team productivity, and key marketing metrics. They enable leaders to align efforts with organizational objectives.
  • Budget reports: These reports track marketing spend, budget allocation, and ROI. They help identify overspending, underutilized resources, and opportunities to optimize budget efficiency.
  • Segment reports: These reports break down marketing data by specific audience segments, such as demographics, geographies, or buyer personas. They highlight trends and behaviors within each segment to inform targeted strategies.

Channel specialization reporting

Each channel needs specific KPIs to track to ensure it is on target with its goals. Those KPIs may or may not be useful to others on the marketing team, so building out reports and dashboards by channel can make sense. Here are some examples of channel-specific marketing reports teams can use: 

  • Paid advertising: Digital marketing reporting tracks the performance of paid ads campaigns across platforms like Google Ads or social media. It focuses on metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, and ROI. The reports should be designed to assess campaign success and ensure ad spend is optimized.
  • Content: Content marketing reporting is designed to analyze the performance of blog posts, white papers, videos, thought leadership pieces, and other content. Key metrics can include engagement rates, page views, social shares, and lead generation. These reports are used to help refine content strategies.
  • Events: Field marketing reporting includes event-focused KPIs to measure the success of in-person or virtual marketing events. It can track everything from attendance, engagement, and leads generated to follow-up activities and evaluate the event ROI.
  • SEO reports: These reports are closely aligned with content marketing reporting but focus on the effectiveness of search engine optimization efforts, including things like keyword performance, organic traffic growth, domain authority, and backlink quality.
  • Website analytics reports: This data will likely be related to multiple channels and can have KPIs included in other reports, but a report dedicated to website performance will include detailed insights into website user behavior, including page views, bounce rates, session durations, and conversion rates. These reports help optimize website performance and user experience.
  • Sales and funnel reports: These types of reports illustrate how marketing activities contribute to moving leads through the sales funnel, tracking metrics like lead quality, conversion rates, and revenue impact.

Teams can use any combination of these reports to help track, monitor, and optimize their marketing activities. The critical point of marketing reporting is understanding your goals and what types of data need to be collected, measured, and reported on regularly to reach those goals.

What KPIs should go into a marketing report

A good marketing report doesn’t just share information or list metrics across everything you’re measuring. A good report needs to be designed with action in mind, so knowing the audience and context is critical when choosing which KPIs to include. Once you understand who will consume the information and how they need to use it, you can choose the KPIs to help drive informed decision-making. 

Some common KPIs can often be included in reports across end users. We’ve grouped the following KPIs by channel or strategic objectives to give you an idea of how and why you might track this information: 

Website and digital performance KPIs

  • Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate could indicate poor user experience or irrelevant content. Analyze pages with high bounce rates to identify usability or content issues, then compare against industry benchmarks.
  • Time on page: The average time visitors spend on a specific page. This KPI typically indicates how engaging and relevant your content is to your audience—longer times suggest engaging content; shorter times may indicate a need for improvement in messaging or design.
  • Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of users who click a specific link compared to the total who view it. This helps evaluate the effectiveness of calls to action (CTAs) in ads, emails, or landing pages. A low CTR suggests weak messaging, placement, or design. A high CTR can indicate strong audience interest.
  • Web traffic: The number of visitors to your website reflects overall brand awareness and the effectiveness of digital marketing efforts. Segmenting traffic by source (organic, paid, social, etc.) helps identify which channels are performing best.
  • Conversion rate: The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, like filling out a form or making a purchase. This KPI measures how effectively your website or campaign converts leads into customers. Low conversion rates may indicate poor targeting or unclear messaging and can even indicate usability issues.
  • Landing page conversion rate: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action on a landing page (again, like filling out a form). This KPI works for digital marketing reporting by directly measuring how well your landing pages convert traffic into leads or customers. Low conversion rates can suggest the need for better design and copy or indicate the offer and desired action need better alignment with the social platform and audience needs.

Digital marketing reporting KPIs

  • Cost per click (CPC): The amount spent to get one click on a paid advertisement. This common KPI measures the efficiency of your ad spend on platforms like Google Ads or social media. High CPC may indicate keywords that are competitive with your competitors, but they can also indicate poorly optimized ads. Use this metric to refine targeting and improve efficiency.
  • Cost per acquisition (CPA): The cost of acquiring a new customer or lead through marketing efforts. Teams use this to assess the cost efficiency of campaigns across different channels. A high CPA may indicate inefficient spending or targeting issues. You’ll need to monitor trends over time for optimization opportunities.
  • A/B test results: Data from experiments comparing two versions of a marketing tactic provides data-driven insights into optimizing strategies, such as CTAs, page design, or email subject lines. Your team can choose the version with the better performance metrics, ensuring you have data driving many aspects of your marketing efforts before making changes.
  • Return on investment (ROI): The ratio of profit generated to marketing costs. Use this KPI to measure the overall financial success of campaigns and to help optimize your budget and where you’re putting it.
  • Traffic sources: A breakdown of where your web traffic comes from (organic, paid, social, referral, etc.). This KPI identifies the most effective channels for driving traffic and conversions. Using this KPI in your digital marketing reporting helps you invest more in high-performing sources and analyze underperforming channels for optimization.
  • Impressions: The total number of times your ad or content is displayed, regardless of user engagement. It can indicate the reach of your campaigns and brand visibility.

Content marketing reporting KPIs

  • Organic traffic growth: The increase in visitors coming to your website through unpaid search results. The metric reflects the success of SEO efforts and content strategies in attracting high-quality traffic. Monitor growth over time; slow growth may require adjusting keyword targeting or content optimization.
  • Email engagement: These types of metrics include open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates for email campaigns. Use them to measure the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy in driving action. Low open rates generally suggest weak subject lines, while low click-through rates may indicate irrelevant content or a need to improve the design.
  • Keyword rankings: The position of your targeted keywords in search engine results pages (SERPs). Tracking keyword rankings shows how well your content performs for specific terms. Declines may suggest increased competition or the need to update content with fresh, relevant information.
  • Domain authority (DA): A score indicating the strength of your website’s backlink profile and overall SEO performance. A higher DA can correlate with better search rankings.
  • Share of voice (SOV): This can measure your brand’s visibility compared to competitors across key channels (social, search, etc.). It’s important because it can help you understand your competitive position in the market. A low SOV suggests the need for increased investment in awareness campaigns or content promotion.
  • Pages per session: The average number of pages a user visits during a single session. Looking at this number can help companies gauge if their content keeps people interested and if they’ve done effective internal linking. Low pages per session might indicate difficult navigation on the site or weak calls to action.
  • Referral traffic: The number of visitors coming to your website from external sources like partner sites, blogs, or directories. This KPI indicates the impact of external collaborations and backlink strategies. Sudden drops may signal broken links or loss of partnerships, while growth can reflect successful outreach efforts.

Social media and public relations (PR) KPIs

  • Social media engagement: The number of likes, comments, shares, and clicks on your social media content shows how well your social content resonates with your audience and drives brand visibility. Low engagement may signal irrelevant content, misalignment with the platform and messaging, or poor timing. High engagement suggests strong audience alignment.
  • Audience growth rate: Measures how quickly your social media following is growing over time, reflecting the effectiveness of your content and outreach strategies. A steady growth rate indicates expanding brand awareness and engagement. Calculate this KPI by dividing new followers by the total audience at the start of the period. Compare growth rates across platforms to identify where your strategy is most effective and adjust efforts accordingly.
  • Brand mentions and sentiment: The frequency and tone of your brand’s online mentions. Measure and track this to understand your brand visibility and public perception, which are keys to reputation management. Negative sentiment requires immediate action, while positive sentiment helps reinforce successful strategies.
  • Media coverage sentiment: This metric evaluates the tone (positive, neutral, or negative) of media coverage about your brand, helping you understand public perception and the effectiveness of your PR efforts. A higher percentage of positive coverage indicates successful messaging, while negative coverage highlights areas that may need crisis management or improved communication strategies.

Event marketing KPIs

  • Event registration rate: The percentage of people who register for the event compared to the total invitations sent. Use this to measure the effectiveness of your event promotion efforts. Low registration rates may indicate weak messaging, poor timing, or insufficient targeting.
  • Attendance rate: The percentage of registrants who actually attend the event. This KPI tracks how well your audience commits to attending after registration. A low attendance rate may suggest logistical challenges or a lack of pre-event engagement. It can also help gauge attendance at future events.
  • Engagement during the event: This category includes metrics like poll responses, Q&A participation, foot traffic at a booth, meetings booked, or social media mentions during the event. Reflects audience interest and involvement, which is key to event success. Low engagement may indicate your content is not resonating, you’re not attending or hosting the right events, the formatting doesn’t work for the current event, or you need to analyze speakers or sessions for future events.
  • Lead generation from events: The number of new leads or MQLs generated through event participation. This metric shows how effectively the event supports sales and marketing objectives. Compare lead quality and volume to benchmarks to assess ROI and alignment with target audience.
  • Post-event feedback scores: Participant ratings or survey responses about their event experience provide direct insights into attendee satisfaction and areas for improvement. Consistently low scores highlight issues with content, logistics, or overall value and give your team something to address in future planning.

Sales and funnel KPIs

  • Marketing qualified leads (MQLs): Leads deemed more likely to become customers based on marketing engagement. This KPI tracks lead quality and campaign effectiveness in driving actionable interest. High MQL volume suggests effective targeting; low MQL-to-SQL conversion rates may highlight gaps in alignment with sales.
  • Sales qualified leads (SQLs): Leads that meet sales team criteria for potential conversion. Shows how well marketing efforts align with sales goals and pipeline development. Low SQL numbers may require refining lead nurturing or targeting strategies.
  • Lead-to-customer conversion rate: The percentage of leads that become paying customers. This metric tracks the overall effectiveness of the sales and marketing pipeline. A low rate suggests misaligned lead qualification or gaps in nurturing processes.
  • Customer lifetime value (CLV): Tracking the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over their lifetime helps marketers focus on acquiring high-value customers and optimizing retention strategies. Compare CLV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to ensure profitability.
  • Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses. This metric helps determine if your acquisition strategies are cost-effective.
  • Customer retention rate: The percentage of customers who remain active over a specific period. Reflects the effectiveness of long-term marketing and customer experience strategies. A low rate may signal dissatisfaction or a lack of engagement, requiring improvements in loyalty programs or post-purchase communication.
  • Customer churn rate: The percentage of customers who stop doing business with your company over a specific time. Highlights retention challenges and the effectiveness of loyalty strategies. High churn indicates dissatisfaction or competitive pressure and can help your team focus on improving specific areas of customer experience and support.

Net Promoter Score (NPS): A measure of customer loyalty based on how likely customers are to recommend your brand to others. High NPS correlates with strong brand advocacy and long-term growth.

How to create a marketing report

We’ve talked about it at different points throughout this article, but the most important first step for creating a marketing report is to start by defining your goals. What is the purpose of the report? Are you assessing the performance of a specific campaign, understanding audience engagement, or identifying areas for improvement? With a clear goal from the beginning, you can make sure your report stays focused and provides actionable insights tailored to your objectives.

Once your goals are established, here are steps for creating a report: 

  1. Gather the necessary data. Use data analytics tools to collect information from your campaigns, website, and other marketing channels. Look at what you need to accomplish and make sure you’re pulling data that directly aligns with your objectives. 
  2. Select impactful measurements. Select KPIs that are meaningful to your audience and meet your goals. Your choice of metrics will depend on who the report is for and when you’re sending it.
  3. Create readable sections. Structure your report in a way that groups related data for better readability. This can include creating sections such as an overview, detailed insights, further analysis, and actionable recommendations. 
  4. Use data visualizations. Use charts, graphs, and tables to present complex data in a visually appealing way and make your report engaging and easy to understand. For instance, a line graph might be effective for showing trends over time, while a bar chart can highlight comparisons between different campaigns or channels.
  5. Focus on highlighting key and actionable insights. Don’t just present numbers — explain what they mean. For example, if web traffic increased during a specific campaign, explain what might have contributed to that growth. Use storytelling to provide actionable recommendations that can guide the next steps, such as reallocating your budget to higher-performing channels or optimizing underperforming content.

Review your report thoroughly for accuracy and completeness. A reliable report builds trust and ensures your stakeholders have the confidence to make informed decisions.

Best practices for effective marketing reporting

The only way your marketing reports really work is if people can trust them. That means your marketing reporting needs to be accurate, consistent, and actionable. Here are some best practices to keep in mind as you work through developing your marketing reporting strategy: 

  • Data accuracy. Regularly audit your data sources to ensure you are avoiding inaccuracies or discrepancies. Clean, reliable data is the foundation of meaningful analysis and helps build trust with your stakeholders.
  • Maintain consistency. When your stakeholders know what to expect, you can start to build trust. Consistency is essential for tracking performance over time. Use the same metrics, formats, and reporting templates across all your reports to allow for easy comparisons and trend analysis. This ensures stakeholders can quickly understand the data without re-learning new formats each time.
  • Leverage automation. Incorporate tools that streamline your reporting processes. Tools like Domo come pre-built with automated features to keep reporting a critical piece of your job, not your full-time job.

Focus on clarity. Avoid overwhelming readers with too much detail. Let the reports be clear and concise — prioritizing actionable insights and highlighting key takeaways. Well-organized reports with strong visualizations make it easier for stakeholders to grasp the most critical information at a glance.

Choosing the right marketing reporting tools

Selecting the right marketing reporting tool can significantly streamline your reporting process and enhance its effectiveness. Some tools are better at it than others. 

As you’re looking at what tools to use, it’s important to evaluate things like ease of use (your marketing team is full of creative geniuses; not necessarily all of them are also data geniuses yet), integration, and customization for your unique needs. It’s also important to consider tools that already help other marketers. 

Find a tool, like Domo, with features designed to support marketing teams and a roster of current clients already using the data reporting features to support and grow their marketing efforts. Once you’ve looked at what is important to you and how experienced data platforms make a difference in supporting your needs, the choice becomes much easier.

You can create more impactful, efficient, and scalable marketing reports by choosing a tool that fits your business needs and integrates smoothly with your marketing ecosystem. Want to see how Domo can support your marketing reporting efforts? Learn more here.

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