Best Practice Reporting: Turning Numbers into Decisions
Management Summary
Learn how to take your reporting to the next level and make well-founded decisions with SMART goals, the right data basis, and clear dashboards.
Successful Reporting: Why It Is More Than Just Numbers
Decisions regarding marketing budgets, product development, or website functions are made based on reports and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Sophisticated reporting is therefore essential for business success.
The path to good reporting can be divided into five steps:
- Know your goals and define the appropriate KPIs.
- Capture data (including across multiple data sources and knowing the data quality).
- Understand how metrics are collected and how KPIs are calculated internally.
- Create reports and dashboards to make data visible.
- Analyze, understand, and interpret data.
1. The Starting Point: Clear Goals and KPIs
Before you begin data collection, you must know what the company wants to achieve. Use the SMART formula for this:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
From these goals, you then derive the necessary KPIs with which the goal can be measured. Example: The goal “increase revenue” is suboptimal. The goal “Measured against last year’s sales, we will increase revenue in product segment X by 4.5% by December 31, 2025” is SMART.
2. The Data Basis: A Puzzle of Many Sources
Clean data is the foundation for every decision. Often, the “big picture” only emerges when data from different sources are linked together.
Important components in a data ecosystem include:
- Web analytics tools: e.g., GA4, Matomo, Piwik PRO, Piano
- CRM systems: e.g., Salesforce, SAP, or Zoho.
- Advertising platforms: e.g., Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, DV360, CM360.
- CDP (Customer Data Platforms): e.g., Segment, Bloomreach
This data can be merged, for example, in cloud solutions such as the Google Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure, and then visualized using reporting tools like Looker Studio or Power BI.
Reflect: Is this already being done, or is each source viewed in isolation?
3. The Pitfalls of KPI Understanding
Classic KPIs have pitfalls because there are often several ways to calculate them. Frequently, it has never been clearly defined how the KPI is calculated, and the calculation and interpretation vary within the company or between collaborating parties.
An example of different calculation approaches:
| KPI | Definition | Calculation Variants |
|---|---|---|
| ROAS | Revenue generated per advertising euro spent. | V1: Ad revenue / Ad spend
V2: (Ad revenue – Cost of goods sold) / Ad spend V3: Are gross or net revenues used? |
| CR in Web Analytics | Percentage of users who perform a desired action. | V1: (Conversions / total visitors) * 100
V2: (Conversions / total sessions) * 100 V3: Are all visitors or active visitors used in the calculation? |
| CTR | Percentage of users who click on an advertisement compared to those who only see it. | V1: (Clicks / Impressions) * 100
V2: (Clicks / Unique Impressions) * 100 V3: What constitutes an impression? Is it when 1% of the banner is visible, or must at least 50% be visible? |
Important Takeaway:
- Know the calculation and metrics behind the KPIs.
- Ensure that all parties involved have the same understanding of the definition.
- Interpretation determines whether a KPI is right or wrong in context.
4. Reporting Basics: Reports vs. Dashboards
Numbers are only as good as their presentation. And often, a lot of time is invested in a dashboard that is only viewed once.
Reflect: Is a dashboard always necessary, or is a report sufficient?
| Feature | Dashboard | Report |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Snapshot, real-time status report | Detailed view of a dataset, focused on an event |
| Content | Visualizes data from various sources, easy to read | More comprehensive, contains historical data |
| Interaction | Interactive (filtering, changing time periods) | Non-interactive, often requires an expert to derive insights |
| Target Audience | Various information levels (Manager, C-Level, Operational Level) | More for experts or deeper analysis |
The target audience determines what type of dashboard is required:
- Operational dashboards monitor daily business activities.
- Strategic dashboards focus on long-term goals, targets, and KPIs.
- Analytical reports are used for detailed analysis, uncovering trends and insights.
An effective dashboard is based on three pillars:
-
01
Clear Structure
Quick overview, easy navigation, highlighting important points.
-
02
Concise and Specific
Summarized data, adapted to the goal and stakeholder needs.
-
03
Uncomplicated
Information is displayed in the most appropriate way; the design serves its purpose.
Visualization Tip: Avoid overloaded tables that are difficult to grasp.
5. Analysis and Interpretation: Including the Context
A simple comparison of numbers can lead to wrong conclusions if the context is missing. Accuracy and experience count here. Those who know their numbers, their origin, and their calculation can often interpret them correctly.
Here are two examples of an interpretation error and a failed analysis.
Case Study: Revenue Increase
A campaign manager celebrates an unexpected revenue increase from a campaign. He increases the budget because he suspects that the revenue increase was caused by the successful campaign. Subsequently, the campaign no longer achieved the desired success. Detailed web analysis shows that the one-time revenue increase was due to a pricing error for a specific product.
Case Study: Data Deep Dives Make Sense!
A weekly report that only looked at total newsletter registrations in the DACH region using a line chart overlooked a website bug for months that prevented registrations on one of the country domains. Due to the small overall share of this country domain, the bug was not noticed. Nevertheless, such an error is a problem for customer loyalty and would have been quickly noticed through a granular view on a country basis. Solution: Instead of using a line chart with one line, a line chart with one line per country or regular data deep dives can be used.
Conclusion
Best practice reporting is an ongoing process that begins with the definition of SMART goals and requires a clean data basis. The key lies in audience-appropriate preparation and clear visualization of the context. Be aware of the pitfalls in KPI calculation and never rely on just one number. A data deep dive for contextualization and error detection is essential to ensure that you make well-founded decisions based on true performance.
