Every client of ours gets the same report, every Thursday, for twelve weeks. It runs on one page and it has six lines. We have changed the wording many times since we started, but we have never changed the shape, because the shape is what makes it easy to read.
This note walks through the report line by line. If you are a client, it will help you read ours faster. If you are not, you can borrow the format for your own team.
A report that changes shape every week forces you to learn it again every week. By the third Thursday you stop reading it and start skimming for bad news. That is the moment a report stops doing its job.
So we keep the layout fixed. The numbers change, the order does not. After two or three weeks you know exactly where your eye should go, and a change in the picture jumps out at you instead of hiding in a paragraph.
We also keep it to a single page for a plain reason. If it does not fit, we do not understand it well enough yet. A long report is often a sign that nobody has decided what matters.
Line one: what we spent. The total, split by channel, for the week and for the 12 weeks so far. We put this first because every other number only makes sense next to the money behind it. If we spent $4,200 this week, you should see that before you see anything we are proud of.
Line two: what it bought. The results that matter to the business, usually leads, bookings or sales. Not clicks, not impressions, not reach. Those can sit in the appendix. If a number cannot be tied to a sale or a booking, it does not get a line on the front page.
Line three: what each result cost. Line one divided by line two, next to the target we agreed on in week one. Here is where the sum sits beside the number. If the cost per booking is $62 and the target is $65, you can see in one glance that we are inside the line. If it is $81, you can see that too, and so can we.
Line four: what changed since last week. One short list of what moved and by how much. This is not a story. It is up, down or flat, with the size of the change and a note on what caused it when we know.
Line five: the one thing we learned. Every week has exactly one. Not five, one. Maybe a headline that beat the old one by a third, or a region where ads stopped working after two weeks. Writing only one forces us to pick the lesson that will change what we do next.
Line six: what happens next, and what we need from you. The two or three actions for the coming week, who owns each, and anything we are waiting for. A report that ends without a next step has not finished.
You will notice that no number in our report stands alone. A cost per booking comes with the spend and the bookings that produced it. A growth figure comes with the two numbers it grew between.
We do this because a percentage can hide almost anything. Saying bookings grew 40 percent sounds wonderful until you see that they went from five to seven. It is not a lie, but it is not the whole picture. When the sum is next to the number, you can judge it for yourself.
It also keeps us honest. If a figure is hard to show beside its sum, that is usually a sign that the figure is weaker than it looks.
A number without its sum is just a mood.
You do not need to read the six lines in order. Here is the route we suggest.
Start with line five. It tells you what we think is going on, in one sentence. Spend a full minute on it and decide whether you agree.
Check line three against the target. Are we inside the line? If yes, relax a little. If no, go to line four to see what changed.
Look at line two. Make sure the results are the ones you care about. If you want sales and the report is celebrating leads, say so on Thursday.
Read line six last. Confirm that the next steps match your priorities, and tell us what you need to change.
Only then look at line one. Spend matters, but it makes more sense once you know what it bought.
That is the whole routine. Most clients tell us it takes about eight minutes after the first month, and that the Thursday call gets shorter because the questions are already answered.
Here is what the six lines look like for a made up client, a small booking service we will call Harbor Studio. It is week seven of twelve.
Line one says we spent $3,900 this week and $26,300 over seven weeks, with 70 percent on search and 30 percent on social. Line two says the week brought 64 bookings, and 412 over seven weeks. Line three divides one by the other: $61 a booking this week, $64 over seven weeks, against a target of $65.
Line four says bookings rose from 51 to 64, up 25 percent, with the biggest jump on search after a new headline went live on Monday. Cost per booking fell from $70 to $61. Social was flat.
Line five, the one thing we learned, reads: the headline that names the price beat the one that names the benefit by about a third. Line six lists three actions: roll the headline to all search ads by Friday, test the same idea on social next week, and get the opening hours from Harbor Studio for the holiday schedule.
Notice what is not there. No paragraph about brand awareness, no chart of impressions. Everything on the page either explains the money, the results or the next move. A client who reads only that page knows where they stand and what we will do next.
The format earns its keep in the weeks that go badly. Suppose the next Thursday shows 38 bookings and a cost of $98. Line three is outside the target, and nothing can hide it.
Line four now has to explain the drop. Perhaps the booking page was down for six hours on Tuesday, or a competitor started a sale. We write what we know and what we are still checking. Line five becomes the lesson, and line six says what we are doing about it.
Clients tell us this is the part they value most. A bad week with a clear explanation builds more trust than three good weeks with no detail. The report does not need to be cheerful. It needs to be clear.
Every figure in the report is checked by a second person before it goes out. The person who built the report does not do the check. That sounds strict for a one-page document, but one wrong number can undo the trust the other fifty built.
The check is simple. The second person recalculates each sum from the source and confirms that the dates and names match. Most weeks it finds nothing. About once a month it finds a small error, and we fix it before you ever see it.
You will not find a long list of vanity numbers in ours. No follower counts, no impressions, no engagement rates unless they connect to something you sell. They are not useless, but they belong in the appendix, where you can look when you are curious. On the front page they take the room that the six lines need.
If you do want one of those numbers on the front page, tell us why and we will add it. We just ask that every extra line earns its place by changing a decision.
If you want to borrow this format, start small. Take your current weekly report, cut it to one page, and force it into the six lines. You will quickly find which numbers you cannot place. Those are the ones to question.
Then add the sum next to each remaining number. It will feel slow for two weeks. By the fourth you will wonder how you ever read a report without it.
Pass it on
If you only have a minute, these are the three things to keep.
