What Your Marketing Agency Should Report Every Month

The short answer

A good monthly report answers four questions on one page:

How many leads? From where? What did each cost? What's next?

What should be in it

1. Leads and calls

Form fills, calls and bookings, counted. Ideally matched to the channel that brought them.

2. Cost per lead

Total spend (fee plus ads) divided by leads. Compare month over month.

3. Lead quality

How many leads became real conversations or sales? Your sales data plus their tracking.

4. What was done

Pages built, campaigns launched, tests run. Specific.

5. What's next

The plan for next month and why.

What's usually filler

• Impressions and reach on their own.
• "Engagement" with no tie to leads.
• Rankings for keywords nobody searches.

Not useless, but not the point.

How to fix a bad report

Send your agency this list and ask for a one-page summary on top. If they can't produce it, that tells you something.

Choosing an agency? Read 15 questions to ask a marketing agency and see what we do.

FAQ

How often should an agency report?

Monthly at minimum, with a quick check-in when something big changes.

What if I can't track leads to a channel?

That's the first thing to fix: call tracking, form tracking and source fields in your CRM.