{"id":21104,"date":"2023-03-30T14:45:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T18:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sanctuarymg.com\/academy\/?p=21104"},"modified":"2023-03-30T14:47:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T18:47:28","slug":"what-you-should-be-getting-out-of-your-monthly-marketing-roi-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sanctuarymg.com\/academy\/performance\/what-you-should-be-getting-out-of-your-monthly-marketing-roi-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Should Be Getting Out of Your Monthly Marketing ROI Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A big part of running a business is making investments. While the biggest investment probably comes upfront when you first get started, you\u2019ll continue to spend money for as long as you keep operating. In many ways, the businesses that are able to rise above the competition in their markets are those that spend most effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that in mind, using monthly Return on Investment (ROI) reports<\/a> is an important way to track how the money you spend is performing in the real world. Are your marketing endeavors paying off well enough to justify the money they require? You can answer this question and many more by paying close attention to ROI reports month after month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you already look at these reports and want to make sure you are learning from them or you simply don’t use this type of reporting yet, this article will help you make progress. Put some of the ideas and tips below into action, and you’ll have a better foundation on which to make smart decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Created or Received<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One possibility is that the report was produced in-house by a member of your organization. If you do all of your marketing activities, this will likely be the case – there will be collaboration on ROI reporting to highlight how things are going and where money is being spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternatively, and perhaps more likely, you\u2019ll get your ROI reports from your chosen digital marketing agency. When you hire an agency to work on various digital marketing initiatives, one of the things that the agency should provide is a monthly ROI report that touches on the performance of your marketing endeavors in various areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The need to receive this kind of reporting is obvious. If you are sending the marketing agency a check each month for their services, you need to see some cold, hard data regarding the results they\u2019ve achieved. If the results aren\u2019t there, you certainly won\u2019t want to continue spending with that agency. And it\u2019s never good enough to assume that they are getting the job done. Only a consistent flow of reports, month after month, will allow you to evaluate their overall performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what should you learn from the reports you are being provided? That\u2019s what we will cover in the rest of this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sample
Sample ROI Report from Sanctuary (Marketing Agency)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Start with Traffic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a safe bet that one of your primary goals when working with a digital marketing agency is to see the traffic to your website grow over time. This growth may happen in part because of paid ads you are running – more on that later – but the primary driver of traffic growth will hopefully be in the organic category. Ongoing search engine optimization<\/a> efforts will ideally lead to a boost in organic traffic, which will make it easier for you to collect leads and hopefully make more sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when reviewing your reports, traffic numbers are a core sign to monitor and see if things are moving in the right direction. Of course, you shouldn\u2019t expect your digital marketing agency to deliver shocking growth overnight, as the SEO world is crowded and competitive. A good rule of thumb is the 10% growth mark on a monthly basis – if you secured 10% more traffic this month compared to last month, your site is on the right trajectory. Even more growth would be great, of course, but consistently maintaining something around 10% would allow you to have a much busier site in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you monitor these numbers, you\u2019ll have a foundation on which to have informative discussions with your digital marketing agency. Where do they see further opportunities for growth? How much growth do they think is attainable given market conditions and the competition? Also, if you see traffic trending down instead of up, you can have some honest conversations about the future of this partnership and how they plan to turn things around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One other important note on traffic growth is that you\u2019ll want to give your digital marketing agency some time to gain traction before evaluating their performance in this category. If you just hired the agency within the last couple of months, any organic SEO efforts won\u2019t have had enough time to start paying off just yet. You\u2019ll need to be a few months into your partnership, if not a year, before you can really tell if the SEO game plan is working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"measuring-organic-traffic\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How Are Paid Ads Performing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unlike search engine optimization, paid ads<\/a> are an area where you can expect to see quick results. As soon as you start paying for ads to be placed in various locations around the web, you should have at least some degree of return on that investment. Monitoring the performance of your paid ads on a report each month is crucial because continuing to run PPC campaigns without results can get very expensive in a hurry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few important metrics that you can monitor and should ask for in your reports to make sure your PPC efforts are working out properly. These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n