4 reports clients want to see from agencies

Jump down to reports based on the services you offer:

Clients want to know the money they’re spending on an agency will translate into ROI — an indication that hiring an agency to create and execute a marketing strategy is paying off. But how can agencies accurately depict, in quantifiable terms, the impact of their efforts on a client’s ability to generate leads and boost revenue?

The key is delivering comprehensive agency reports so the client and agency are on the same page about upcoming objectives and milestones. Reporting establishes trust, strengthens the relationship between parties, and paves the path for regular communication. It also allows the agency to educate clients about its role in the marketing process, manage expectations, and deliver clear results. When clients are delighted by outcomes, they’re more likely to increase project spend and keep the relationship open for additional projects down the road.

Below, we’ll outline four reports that can help you better serve your clients.

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1. Content marketing

A primary concern for clients investing in new content: Will this marketing spend generate leads? To quell anxieties and instill confidence, agencies must be able to clearly demonstrate the impact content drives for their clients’ business. That’s why content marketing reporting is so vital.

So what kind of metrics should you present in your content report?

Lead quality
Sales
Web traffic
Online engagement
Social media engagement
SEO success
Exposure
Authority

On a grand scale, content marketing reports illustrate the buyer’s journey and the actions they take while consuming content throughout the marketing funnel stages. Clients can analyze this data to assess and tailor content to customer pain points to attract and retain more customers over time. The quality of leads can be difficult to measure, but by using reports from content marketing campaigns (tags and lead qualifications), it’s easy to see what audience content is reaching.

Multi-touch, cost per lead reporting meshes inbound calls, texts, form submission data, and spend data so you can see all of your leads in one place. Using the dashboard, you can chart progress and identify areas for content growth. In turn, clients get a clearer sense of the ROI that comes from working with an agency to provide standout content.

2. Web design, SEO, and CRO

Clients will also want to assess the health of their web projects. It’s important to offer comprehensive data that offers real numbers in order to show the effectiveness of a campaign. To demonstrate ROI, web service reporting should include:

A summary of sales qualified leads (SQLs) versus marketing qualified leads (MQLs)
Increased lead generation
Increased conversion rates
Increased site engagement (i.e. click-through rate (CTR), exit rate, and session duration)

CallRail reports focus on integrations to allow for seamless transitions. By creating a phone call dashboard in Google Ads or Data Studio, you can see the data associated with your web campaign in real time. These dashboards include a variety of valuable metrics, including the marketing source, location of the caller, paid keywords, and landing page the prospect arrived on when making the call.

Managing several lead calls at once on-the-go can be hectic. CallRail’s Keypad Scoring allows you to categorize calls as soon as you hang up. You can add tags and score calls simply using the keypad of your phone. Link the data you collect to your reports so it’s easy to identify the path website visitors take to become callers.

With CallRail, you can identify and track new leads from pages (calls, forms submission, live chats) and new customers from specific campaigns.

3. Advertising

Clients running ad campaigns tend to focus on understanding how their investment directly produces ROI. Advertising reports are arguably the most important, because the client tends to expect a certain number of leads depending on their ad spend. The key here is to connect the dots between dollars spent and leads generated. Some key metrics you want to include in this report are:

Impressions
Conversions
Click-through-rates (CTRs)
Bounce rates

Then, measuring factors such as cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-lead (CPL), you can help clients understand how their lead generation activities perform. Taking a step back to get a firm grasp on where your ROI stands helps clients decide which marketing channels they should invest more in. This is especially true for clients conducting most of their marketing efforts digitally. This type of agency reporting helps you avoid unnecessary ad spend and develop strategies that drive revenue.

Individually collecting the above performance metrics from various tools can be quite a heavy lift, and take more time than you expect. Call tracking lets you in on the full scope of the buyer’s journey. A comprehensive look at your customer experience from the time a prospect first visits your site to the moment they make their first purchase is what you need to move forward with a succinct ROI strategy.

Many companies use marketing tools to track website visitors, monitor clicks, and ad spend. But this is only one piece of the puzzle. JC Law, for example, was able to increase ROI by 100% by identifying a cost per mile (CPM) — or cost per thousand ad impressions — of $790, or $0.79. (To compare, CPMs typically range from $3-$9.) Based on these results, the firm was able to decrease marketing spend by 20% but maintain the same level of engagement.

Marketing teams that hope to enlist the services of an agency must be able to prove a social media strategy will be profitable.

According to a LinkedIn study, 58% of digital marketers have to prove ROI to get approval for future budget requests. However, only 37% were “very confident” in their ROI metrics.

That’s why it’s imperative agencies use reporting to demonstrate progress toward client objectives. Here are a few key metrics to keep in mind:

Volume
Reach
Engagement
Share of voice

With Facebook and Google Ads integration, you can assess your new followers as you grow your audience, review website traffic from social media, and strategize new leads based on the conversion rates of social media channels.

To gather all of this information, you will most likely have to access each individual channel and compile your findings to create a cohesive report. An integrated marketing analytics platform saves agencies time on collating reports so they can focus on delivering better recommendations to clients. With CallRail you can combine multi-touch cost per lead reporting in order to gather your leads into one, simple, place.

Measurable results with CallRail

No matter what marketing goals you hope to achieve for your clients, you’ll want to know that the small steps you’re taking will lead to significant, measurable results. And you won’t have to present complicated spreadsheets or long-winded summaries. Reporting tools will help you make the most of the time you invest to recap your progress in a way that’s easy to interpret and more approachable for your clients.