What should a digital marketing report contain?

Objectives, results obtained, historical comparison with previous periods ... what other aspects should a digital marketing report include to be complete?

The last phase of a marketing campaign or action is the analysis of the results obtained. It is one of the most important aspects, since it gives us an idea of ​​the scope of the actions carried out and, above all, tells us if we have achieved the objectives we had set ourselves from the start. All this information must be shared with the customer and, to do so, it is customary to create a performance report , which must meet a series of requirements and follow a structure to be useful.

The basic requirements for an effective performance report

When creating a marketing report , not only the "what" but also the "how" is important. In other words, the presentation of the document, the information we include and how we structure it , are key aspects to make it understandable and useful to the person who will read it.

Therefore, before moving forward and starting to extract data or information on the campaign in question, it is essential to create a model to work on later. At this stage, it is useful to keep in mind the following tips:

1. Goals are everything

Each marketing campaign or action has a purpose and a series of quantifiable objectives: website visits, lead generation, sales and so on. The success or failure of a campaign will be measured against these goals . These should be the leitmotif of the document. Analyze each data and compare it, always , with the set objective.

2. Less is more: include only important information

Remember that the purpose of this document is that the person reading it can immediately understand how the campaign was conducted or the action was carried out . It is also likely that this person has little time and therefore the document must convey all that is necessary to know about the campaign quickly and directly. Include only the essential details and, if you want, add secondary information in the appendix.

3. An image is worth more than 1,000 data

To ensure that the report is efficient, in addition to selecting essential information, it is essential to structure it well so as to make it understandable at first glance. Whenever possible, then use bar charts or tables to show campaign data.

4. Performance reports for all types of audiences

A good performance report is something that is understandable to everyone, not just the marketing team. It is imperative that it is a clear executive document, which can be interpreted by any person who has not worked newspapers on the project , such as the sales team or the CEO.

What should a report on the performance of digital marketing campaigns contain?

Even if every digital marketing professional has his own style, the truth is that there are some "universal" points: the information that the customer must know when he has to check if a campaign has worked or not. Taking this into account, it sorts the data according to their degree of importance so that, in the first pages, the reader can answer the question: how did the campaign go?

Our ideal structure, and the one we tend to use in our reports, is as follows:

1. Overall results of the campaign

When the customer receives the campaign performance report, he generally wants to know how it went. Therefore, this should be our starting point.

Try to make sure that the person reading the report is clear how the campaign is going in the first 4 or 5 slides , at most. It is a question of offering a summary of the objectives of the campaign and of the results obtained, so that the customer, at first glance, can remove any doubts.

Also, take advantage of this moment to remind the customer of the goals that had been set for that campaign. We must also remember that the objectives should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and limited in time.

2. Results by channel

Today it is customary to perform multichannel actions in which we use social media, websites, ppc and more. It is interesting for the customer to know to what extent each channel has contributed to the achievement of the initially established objectives therefore, if it seems useful, you can include this information at the beginning of your document. A simple table with a breakdown by channel and the corresponding data will suffice.

3. The actions carried out

The customer knows the campaign you launched so there is no need to go into too much detail. It will therefore be sufficient to use bulleted lists to enumerate the different actions performed, and you're done. If you want, you can divide them by channel or by areas in order to make it clearer: SEO, web, design, social media, etc.

4. SEO / SEM

If the campaign includes SEO / SEM actions, we recommend that you include the results obtained in the final report. With the objectives in mind, he explains how the different channels have influenced the results obtained.

5. Trafficking Campaigns (PPC)

Similarly, if we publish paid campaigns (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and so on), we should include the results we have achieved in terms of objectives, include the main KPIs (key performance indicators) and put the rest in a appendix or in a specific report linked to it.

6. Conclusions

Make a brief evaluation of the campaign , taking into account the objectives to be achieved. Use a bulleted list to highlight the 3 or 4 essential aspects.

7. Recommendations

In the same way you wrote the conclusions, write 4 or 5 recommendations based on the results of the paid campaign. For example, there may be lessons to consider for future actions.

8. Next steps

We briefly list the next steps to follow.

However, these are general recommendations for developing a performance report after launching a marketing campaign or action. However, it is essential to adapt this model to the needs of the customer or those of the marketing action you are carrying out. The most important thing is that the report is useful and, with this goal in mind, there are multiple ways to do it.

Remember that the most important thing is to always take as a reference the pre-established objectives, deepening and using a visual format that guarantees the customer to solve his biggest doubt at a glance: how did the campaign go?