Lead with what changed and why, then the numbers that support it, then what happens next. Most reports invert this and open with a wall of metrics, which buries the judgement the client is paying for. A useful report is short, comparative, and states its sources.
Why do most monthly reports go unread?
Because they are assembled rather than written. A deck of exported charts describes what happened without saying what it means, so the client has to do the interpretation themselves — which is the part they hired an agency for.
The other reason is length. A report that takes forty minutes to read gets skimmed for the one number the reader already cared about, and the rest of the work is invisible.
What order should it be in?
Judgement first, evidence second. The reader should know within thirty seconds whether the month was good, what drove it, and what you are doing about it.
- What changed this month, in one or two sentences.
- Why it changed, with the figures that show it.
- What happens next month as a result.
- The full numbers, for anyone who wants to check.
Which comparisons actually matter?
Against last month and against the same month last year. Together they separate a real movement from ordinary seasonality, which a single month in isolation cannot do.
A rolling twelve-month view is the third. It is the only way to tell a trend from a spike, and it stops one unusual month being reported as a turning point.
What should be left out?
Anything nobody will act on. Follower counts that drift by a few percent, impressions with no spend behind them, and vanity totals that only ever go up all take space from the numbers that change decisions.
Also leave out any figure you cannot source. If two platforms disagree, say which one the number came from and why, rather than picking the flattering one quietly.
How long should it take to produce?
Less time than it takes to read, ideally. If assembling the report consumes a day a month per client, the format is wrong or the data is coming from too many manual exports.
This is the practical case for cross-channel reporting: the assembly is the part worth automating, so the time goes into the interpretation, which is the part a client is actually paying for.
Frequently asked questions
- How long should a monthly report be?
- Short enough to read in one sitting. A page of narrative with the detailed tables appended works better than a long deck, because the narrative is the deliverable and the tables are the evidence.
- Should the report include recommendations?
- Yes. A report without a next step is a receipt. The recommendation is what distinguishes an agency from a dashboard the client could have opened themselves.
- What if the month was bad?
- Say so in the first paragraph and explain what changed. A report that buries a bad month costs more trust than the bad month did.