Reporting that Drives Decisions

01 — Approach

Interpretation is the real work

In almost 20 years of performance marketing we have seen hundreds of reports nobody read: 40 slides, 200 numbers, zero decisions. Our reporting turns that around. A few metrics tied to your business goals, and for every deviation an interpretation and a proposal. For us the report is not a document, it is the start of a conversation about what happens next.

02 — Current

What is changing in reporting right now

In 2026 the market is catching up with what we have preached for years: away from ROAS as the lead currency, toward contribution margin. With click prices rising, the ability to measure and steer contribution margin cleanly is the real competitive advantage, not the fastest budget.

Second development: distrust of platform numbers is becoming measurable. Industry analyses show that the conversions reported in ad accounts often overstate reality by 15 to 20 percent, mostly through double counting between channels. If you simply add Google numbers and Meta numbers, you celebrate revenue that only existed once. A report has to name that gap instead of hiding it.

03 — Routine

The weekly rhythm: did it work, why, what do we change

Once a week there is a view that can be read in five minutes and ends with a decision list. Did it work: a traffic light per channel against plan. Why: the two or three drivers behind the deviation, say a creative that is fatiguing, a CPM jump, a stock issue. What do we change: concrete actions with an owner and a deadline. Next week we check whether the action worked. That loop, not the document, is the product.

04 — Yardstick

Contribution margin as the reporting level

How we define the levels C1 to C3 is on the performance overview. In reporting, the point is to use them consistently: every budget recommendation is justified at the level that counts for your business, usually C3. A campaign can shine on the ROAS level and be red on C3, for example because of returns or discounts. Exactly these cases are what the report makes visible, so budget moves to where money is actually left at the end of the month. The numbers for this are built together with your controlling team, in a rhythm both sides can sustain.

05 — Routine

Quarterly reviews with strategy output

Weekly reviews steer tactics, quarterly reviews steer direction. Every three months we look at the big questions: Is the channel mix still right? Is the funnel structure holding up, or has a layer bled dry? Which audiences and offers surprised us, positively or negatively? The result is not a retrospective but a plan for the next quarter: what gets scaled, what gets tested, what gets buried. Burying is part of it, otherwise the account grows shut.

06 — Routine

Alerts when numbers tip

Some problems must not wait for the weekly report: conversion tracking goes down, a CPA doubles, a budget runs hot, a feed breaks. For these we define thresholds per account and have both us and you notified automatically as soon as a number tips. Dosage matters: an alert that fires daily is noise. We calibrate the thresholds so that a notification means a reaction, and every notification ends with an assessment of whether to act or to watch.

07 — Audience

Reports for management, not just for PPC managers

A report that only the person running the campaigns understands misses its purpose. We build two altitudes: an operational view for the campaign team, with details on Google Ads and the other channels, and a management view that speaks in revenue, contribution margin and forecast instead of CTR and frequency. Leadership should be able to derive budget decisions from the report without reading a glossary first.

If your current reporting is more theater than tool: in the free first call we look at your existing reports and tell you honestly what is missing, just get in touch.