adlaneSign in Workflow
Monthly marketing report: a structure people can act on
A monthly marketing report should explain what changed, why it might matter and what the team will do next. Organise it around business questions, with source-specific evidence under each, and keep account currencies, conversion definitions and attribution settings visible throughout. More charts do not compensate for an unclear decision.
By Adlane · Updated
Start the monthly marketing report with scope and definitions
The first block of the report is a contract: the reporting period (a complete calendar month, with the timezone named), the accounts and properties covered with their IDs, the currency of each ad account, the conversion actions or key events that count as outcomes, and the attribution setting in force on each platform. If anything changed during the month, such as a new conversion action or a tracking fix, say so here.
List the business priorities for the month in one or two lines. Every later section should connect to one of them. A section that does not can be moved to an appendix.
Keep the contract short but complete. If it runs to a page, the report covers too many sources for one monthly document, and some of them should move to an appendix or to a different cadence.
A report outline that keeps each source separate
Use the outline below as the body of the report. Each evidence section draws on one source with its own units, and the final section holds the synthesis and decisions. Nothing in the evidence sections is added across sources.
| Section | Source | What it shows | What not to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search discovery | Search Console or equivalent | Queries, impressions, clicks, pages gaining or losing visibility | Add search impressions to ad impressions |
| Website behaviour | Analytics property | Sessions, landing pages, key events by channel | Treat analytics conversions as equal to platform conversions |
| Google Ads delivery | Google Ads account | Spend, clicks, conversions by action, cost per conversion, search terms | Sum conversions with Meta |
| Meta Ads delivery | Meta ad account | Spend, reach, frequency, results, cost per result, attribution setting | Add reach across campaigns or platforms |
| Business outcomes | Order or CRM system | Recorded orders, qualified leads, revenue | Force it to match platform credit |
| Findings and decisions | Analyst | Three to five findings with confidence and next step | Pad with observations that change nothing |
Illustrative example: two findings that belong together, not added
Illustrative example: organic landing pages gained 18% more sessions than the previous month, while a paid search campaign’s cost per enquiry rose from 32 to 45 in the account currency. Both findings sit in the report. The organic growth may have absorbed some of the demand the paid campaign used to capture, or the two movements may be unrelated; the report should say which explanation is being investigated and what would distinguish them.
What the report must not do is claim that organic growth caused the paid change, or net the two into a single “marketing efficiency” figure. The numbers are invented to show how two sources can inform one question without being combined.
Why Google and Meta conversions must not become a total sales figure
Google and Meta may each credit the same purchase under their own attribution settings. Adding their attributed conversions produces a number that can exceed the orders the business actually recorded. Report each platform’s credited outcomes under its own heading, with the setting noted, and report recorded orders from the order system as the reconciliation line.
Where a cost per outcome is reported, the outcome count can be zero in a given campaign or week. Show that ratio as unavailable rather than zero, so a campaign that spent money and produced nothing does not appear as the cheapest.
If a reader needs one headline figure, give them recorded orders or qualified leads from the business system, with the platform figures beneath as context rather than as components of it.
Turn findings into decisions with confidence and alternatives
Select the few findings that would change a decision. For each, record the observation, the confidence you have in it, at least one alternative explanation, and the next piece of evidence or the action required. Give each action an owner and a review date. A finding without a next step is background, not a recommendation.
Publish a concise narrative with links to reproducible reports and keep the detailed tables available for anyone who wants to investigate. The narrative should be readable by someone who did not build it. Where a finding depends on provisional data, such as conversions still inside their window, say so and set the review date after the window closes, so readers know which figures may still move.
How to prepare the monthly marketing report in Adlane
Adlane covers the advertising sections. Connect the Google Ads and Meta accounts for the business and ask bounded questions for the month: “For September, show spend, conversions by conversion action, cost per conversion and the attribution setting for each Google Ads campaign in the account currency,” then the equivalent for Meta with reach and frequency. Review the evidence rows and copy them into the relevant section with their labels intact; Adlane keeps the two platforms separate and does not produce a combined total.
Search and analytics sections come from their own tools. If the report ends with an advertising action, such as a budget change or a search term exclusion, Adlane prepares a proposal for your approval rather than applying it. The site’s free CPC, CPM, CPA and ROAS calculators are useful for checking any ratio you quote.