A client came to us paying their previous agency $9,900 a month, including GST. That’s close to $120,000 a year. Every month they received a polished 20-page report full of charts, green arrows and logos. It looked like a lot was happening.
We read one of those reports line by line. This article walks through what we found, anonymised, and gives you a 15-minute checklist to test your own agency’s monthly report. You don’t need to be technical. You need your report, your inbox and about a quarter of an hour.
The short version
A real report answers three questions on its first page: how many genuine enquiries did we get, what did each one cost, and what did the agency actually do this month? If you can’t find those answers in under a minute, the report is working for the agency, not for you.
What we found in one $9,900-a-month report
Nothing below required special access. It was all visible in the report itself, once you knew where to look.
| What the report showed | What was actually happening |
|---|---|
| Facebook ads: $5,638 spent, cost per lead $0.00 | Zero leads were tracked that month. A cost per lead of $0.00 looks like a great result; it actually means nothing was measured, or nothing came in. |
| “Organic social” was the biggest traffic source and growing | The ads produced 2,983 clicks, yet Analytics recorded only 3 paid social visits. The paid clicks had no tracking tags, so they were counted as organic: 81% bounce rate, 6 seconds on site. The ads looked useless and organic looked healthy. Neither was true. |
| “Conversions” up 36% to 232 | The 232 were clicks on email and phone links, not enquiries, and a large share came from the careers page, which means job seekers rather than customers. Actual contact form submissions were a fraction of that and weren’t in the headline. |
| 96 tracked keywords, many ranking first | The list contained duplicates (one keyword appeared three times), and most of the first-place rankings were the Google Maps listing, not the website. A large overall ranking drop sat on the same page with no explanation. |
| 20 pages of reporting | Six pages were the agency’s own team photos, awards and press logos. There was no commentary, no list of work completed and no plan for next month. |
When we later opened the client’s Google Tag Manager, we also found a Google Ads “conversion” set to fire on every page view. Depending on one setting in Google Ads, that can make every single visit from an ad count as a lead, which flatters results and teaches Google’s automated bidding to chase the wrong people.
Was any of this deliberate? We can’t know, and it doesn’t really matter. At nearly $10,000 a month, a client should never need an outside agency to explain what their own report means.
How to check your agency’s report in 15 minutes
Work through these with last month’s report open next to your inbox and phone log.
1. Find the number of real enquiries
Look for the number of leads, enquiries or conversions. Now count the calls, forms and bookings you actually received last month. If the report’s number is much higher, ask exactly what is being counted. If there’s no leads number at all, that is your answer.
2. Ask what a “conversion” is
In Google Analytics 4, conversions are now called key events, and anything can be marked as one: a page view, a scroll, a click on an email link. Ask your agency for a list of every key event and every Google Ads conversion action, and what triggers each. A click on a phone number is not a phone call. A visit to the contact page is not an enquiry.
3. Work out your real cost per lead
Add up the ad spend and the agency fee, then divide by the number of genuine enquiries you counted in step 1. That’s your true cost per lead. If the report shows $0.00, “n/a” or a dash next to a spend of thousands of dollars, ask why before you pay the next invoice.
4. Compare ad clicks with paid traffic
Your ad platform reports clicks. Analytics should show roughly the same number of paid sessions. If the ads report thousands of clicks and Analytics shows a handful of paid visits, the links aren’t tagged with UTM parameters and your paid traffic is being counted as organic, direct or “unassigned”. Every other channel in the report is then wrong too.
5. Check the keyword ranking table
- Are any keywords listed more than once?
- Do the “first place” results point to your website, or to a Google Maps link?
- Does each keyword show a search volume, so you can tell which ones matter?
- Are the keywords things your customers would actually type?
A long list padded with duplicates and map-pack positions looks impressive and tells you very little. Ten to twenty priority keywords with search volume and a trend are far more useful. Our local SEO reports keep website and map rankings in separate columns for exactly this reason.
6. Watch for mixed comparisons
Some reports compare one number with last month and the next with the same month last year, then colour whichever looks better in green. Every comparison in a report should use the same period, stated clearly at the top.
7. Look for the work log
You’re paying for work, so the report should list it: pages written, ads tested, keywords added, technical fixes, with dates. If a report is all charts and no actions, you can’t tell whether anyone touched your account.
8. Check who owns your accounts
Log in to Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Search Console and Meta Business Manager. Your business should be the owner or administrator on every one, with the agency added as a user. If you can’t log in, fix that before anything else.
9. Check where your traffic comes from
If you serve one city or state, a meaningful share of visits from other countries with near-zero time on site is usually bots. A good report filters it out or at least points it out, rather than counting it as growth.
10. Count the padding
Team photos, awards, press logos and generic marketing tips belong on the agency’s website, not in your monthly report. Every page of padding is a page that could have explained your results.
What a good monthly report looks like
This is the structure we use for every Kraken Digital client report. Steal it, and ask your current agency for the same.
- One-page summary. Real enquiries, cost per enquiry, spend and fee, compared with last month, in plain English. Bad news goes here too.
- Where the enquiries came from. Search, maps, ads, social and referrals, with paid and organic kept separate.
- What we did. A dated log of completed work, so you can see where your fee went.
- What changed. Rankings for your priority keywords, website versus map listing, with search volumes.
- Tracking health. Every conversion we count, what triggers it, and anything that broke.
- Next month. Three to five specific actions, in priority order.
Engagement numbers such as followers, page views and link clicks still appear, but as context in the detail section, never as the headline.
What to do if your report fails the test
- Ask in writing for the list of conversion actions, the true number of leads and the work completed last month. A good agency will answer within a day.
- Get admin access to every account in your business’s name before you have any difficult conversations.
- Check your contract for minimum terms and notice periods, and diarise them.
- Get an independent review. A second set of eyes on your Ads, Analytics and tracking takes a few hours and can save months of spend.
We’re happy to be that second set of eyes. Send us your latest report and read-only access, and we’ll tell you in plain English what it shows and what it doesn’t, whether you work with us or not. Start with a free SEO audit, or see how we run Google Ads management and social media management with reporting built around real enquiries.
Frequently asked questions
What should a monthly marketing report include?
At minimum: the number of genuine enquiries, cost per enquiry, total spend and fees, where enquiries came from (paid and organic separated), a log of work completed, keyword rankings for priority terms, and a plan for next month.
What is a red flag in an agency report?
A cost per lead of $0.00 alongside real ad spend, conversions that are actually link clicks or page views, paid traffic showing up as organic, duplicate keywords, no list of work completed, and pages of the agency’s own awards and logos.
How do I know if my Google Ads conversions are real?
In Google Ads, open Goals, then Conversions, and check each conversion action’s source and whether it’s set as primary. Compare the monthly total with the calls and forms you actually received. Google’s own guide to conversion tracking explains each type.
Should I own my Google Ads and Analytics accounts?
Yes. Your business should be the owner or administrator of Google Ads, Analytics, Tag Manager, Search Console and Meta Business Manager, with your agency added as a user. That way your data and history stay with you if you change agencies.