Start with the question the report is meant to answer
An agency report should help the business understand whether the advertising achieved its intended purpose. That purpose might be profitable sales, new customer acquisition, qualified leads, awareness or remarketing. Without that context, a positive-looking metric can be meaningless.
Check the money before the marketing metrics
Find the total advertising spend, agency fee and any additional creative or platform costs. Then identify the tracked business outcome: purchases, sales value, qualified leads or another agreed result. If the report starts with reach and clicks but makes total spend difficult to find, ask for a clearer summary.
Look for comparison with an agreed target
A report may say the account generated a 2.4 return on ad spend. That only becomes useful when compared with the level the business needs. A target should reflect margin, average order value, customer value and the purpose of the campaign.
Separate volume from efficiency
More sales can be positive while the cost of generating each sale becomes less sustainable. Equally, a campaign can be efficient but too small to contribute meaningful volume. A good report discusses both.
Ask what changed and why
Look for a like-for-like comparison with the previous period. The explanation should identify the campaigns, adverts, keywords, offers, website changes or market conditions most likely to have contributed. It should distinguish a supported conclusion from an informed hypothesis.
Check whether the tracking can be trusted
Reports should disclose missing conversion values, duplicated actions, attribution-window changes, broken permissions and any important difference between platform claims and verified orders or leads.
Do not judge new activity too quickly
A new campaign may need time or spend before it has a fair chance to generate a result. Ask the agency what evidence threshold will be used, when it will be reached and which decision will follow.
A monthly report checklist
- Total spend and fee
- Tracked sales, leads or other primary outcome
- Return or cost compared with the business target
- Best and worst contributors with evidence
- Changes versus the previous period
- Tests completed and tests planned
- Tracking and attribution limitations
- Activity that needs attention now
- Activity that should not be changed yet