This content was originally published in the No Best Practices newsletter on 01.29.2023.
In the last newsletter I talked about how I develop KPIs for paid media. This edition is going to talk about the reporting frameworks I use to manage those KPIs.
TL;DR: I think most brands should aim to be contribution margin profitable on their first purchase. That post is worth a read if you missed it. It includes a calculator you can use to develop CPA targets for your own brand.
I have to start off with a little rant about reporting. A lot of teams and organizations hide behind data. They’re terrified of making the wrong decisions, often because they don’t understand the business they’re trying to manage.
These are the folks who request dashboard after dashboard, then let those dashboards collect dust. They want some kind of plug and play analytics tool that not only spits out data, but tells them the right decisions to make with that data.
News flash: that is literally your job as a marketer. To make decisions, own the outcomes, and learn from them.
Rant over. When I think about what reporting to build (especially if resources are limited), I think of this flow chart. I’ll break this down into specific reports in the sections below.