1. The period and the question
Open with the dates the report covers and the one question it answers: did the money we spent come back? A report without a clear period and a clear question turns into a scrapbook of charts nobody reads.
Guide
Marketing report template
A marketing report is a short, dated document that says what you spent, what came back, and what happens next. This is the structure CaptainRoo uses in its own branded PDF reports — six sections, filled only with figures you can point back to a source.
The six sections
2. Spend, in plain numbers
Total spend for the period, split by channel. Use the figures from your own exports — never rounded, never estimated. If a channel did not report, say so rather than guessing a number for it.
3. What came back
Conversions, revenue or leads — whichever your business actually tracks — against the spend above. State where each figure came from and how it was measured, because a conversion counted two different ways is how arguments start.
4. The three numbers that decide things
Cost per conversion, conversion rate, and return on spend if you track revenue. Three numbers, each with the previous period beside it. Everything else in the report exists to explain one of these three.
5. What changed and why
The two or three movements that matter, with the evidence attached: a campaign that was paused, a creative that was swapped, a budget that moved. If you do not know why a number moved, write that down — it is more useful than a confident guess.
6. What happens next
A short list of actions with an owner and a date. A report that ends in charts is a history lesson; a report that ends in actions is a tool.
The mistakes that get reports ignored
Reporting every metric you can export
Impressions, clicks, reach, engagement — if a number does not change a decision, it does not belong in the main report. Keep the long tables in an appendix for the one person who asks.
Mixing measurement windows
Comparing a 7-day click window in one channel against a 30-day view in another makes the better channel look worse. Pick one window per metric and write it beside the number.
Filling gaps with estimates
A missing figure stays missing. Mark it as unavailable and say why. One invented number teaches everyone to distrust the rest.
No previous period
A number on its own is trivia. Every headline figure needs the same figure from the period before it, or the reader cannot tell improvement from noise.
What this template will not do
- It cannot decide what your business should track. The right conversion for a plumber and for an online store are different things, and no template knows yours.
- It cannot make missing data appear. Where a channel did not report, the honest entry is “unavailable”, not an estimate.
- It cannot prove causation. A report shows what moved alongside what; proving one caused the other takes more than a monthly summary.
Skip the assembly
CaptainRoo builds this report for you from the data you already have. Import the export you download from your ad platform, or connect Google Ads directly, and get a branded PDF with your logo, your colours and every figure traced back to its source. You can also schedule it to land in your inbox each month.