Monthly marketing reports can run to pages of charts, tables and percentages, and the chances are you've had one that left you wondering what any of it meant for your business. You can see the numbers going up and down, but it's much harder to tell whether your marketing is bringing in more enquiries and sales, or what should be happening next month.
Those are the questions I want my reports to answer, so every client I work with gets their own custom Looker Studio report and a monthly meeting where I talk you through it. I've gone through how I put it all together below, and why I do it this way.
One Custom Report, Built in Looker Studio
Looker Studio is Google's free tool for building customisable dashboards and reports. It connects straight to your marketing data and turns it into a dashboard, so nobody is sat copying figures into a spreadsheet by hand. Just to make things a bit confusing, Google renamed Looker Studio back to Data Studio in April 2026, its original name, so you might see either one but it's the same tool.
I build each report around you, so your business, your goals and the channels you're using decide what goes into it. It can also grow with the work, so if we start on a new channel I'll add it in.
If your tracking needs some work before there's anything worth reporting on, I can help with that too. My Google Analytics and GA4 services cover setup, audits, custom reporting and training.
What Goes Into It
Generally speaking, every report I build starts off by pulling in data from three places:
- Google Ads, so you can see what your paid search campaigns cost and what they bring back
- Google Analytics, which shows me what people are doing on your website, from the pages they visit to the enquiries and sales they complete
- Search Console, which shows how your website is appearing in Google search and the searches people are using to find it
Between them you get a good picture of how people find you in Google and what they do once they land on your site. Looker Studio has built-in connectors for Google Ads, Google Analytics and Search Console, so I can pull them all into one report without any extra tools.
After that I add to it depending on what I'm doing for you:
- If I'm looking after your SEO I'll add in rankings so you can see how your website is moving in search. There's more on my SEO services page
- If you're running paid social campaigns I'll bring that data in too, so it all sits next to your search results in one place
- If there's anything else that matters to you, email for example, I can add that as well
It's the same for my PPC management clients, with their Google Ads data taking up most of the report.
Leads and Revenue Before Anything Else
I don't report on vanity metrics. The point of my work is more conversions and revenue, so that's what I build the report around. The enquiries, leads and sales that your marketing brings in go right at the top, and everything else in there is to help explain them.
Rankings still have their place in an SEO report, as they're a useful step on the way to more enquiries and sales. I just won't promise you rankings for a handful of keywords as if getting there was the end goal.
So if one of your campaigns is getting plenty of clicks but no enquiries, you'll see that in the report, and if something is bringing in sales you'll see that as well and we can look at putting more behind it.
Why We Talk It Through Every Month
A dashboard is great for showing you what happened, but in my experience working out why, and what to do about it, needs a proper conversation. That's why I think the meeting matters just as much as the report.
When we meet I'll go through the numbers with you and explain what they mean in plain English. If a figure has jumped up or dropped off I'll tell you what's behind it, and if something in the report doesn't make sense you can just ask me there and then.
The meeting is also where we change the plan if we need to. I like to keep plans as flexible as I can so they can adapt to whatever's going on around your business, such as:
- Google core updates, which Google describes as significant, broad changes to its search algorithms and systems and rolls out several times a year
- Seasonality, like the quiet and busy periods a lot of businesses see at the same times every year
- Events, whether that's something happening in your industry or something going on in your own business
Talking every month means we can pick up on these changes and do something about them while they still matter.
It works the other way round too, as you'll know things about your business that will never show up in a report, like a new product that's on the way, and the meeting is where we can get that into the plan.
If you're about to hire someone for your SEO or PPC, or you're getting reports each month that you struggle to do anything with, I'm always happy to have a chat. Every project starts with a free discovery call, and I'll get back to you within 24 hours at the latest, so drop me a message and we can go from there.
If you want to see everything I offer alongside reporting, my digital marketing services page covers SEO, PPC, GA4 and more in one place.
