The short answer
A useful monthly marketing report leads with money: spend, leads or sales, cost per lead, and revenue or return. Traffic, rankings and click rates come after as explanation. If a report opens with impressions or followers, it is describing activity, not results.
Total spend
Ad spend plus fees, in one figure. Everything else is judged against it.
Leads or sales
Counted from tracked forms, calls and purchases, not estimated.
Cost per lead or sale
Spend divided by results, shown by channel so you can compare.
Revenue or return on ad spend
For stores, revenue from tracked orders. For service businesses, the value of leads that became customers.
Conversion rate
The share of visitors who enquire or buy. A falling rate points to a page or offer problem, not a traffic problem.
Traffic by channel
Organic, paid, email, direct and referral, compared with the previous period.
Lead quality
How many leads were real prospects. This needs input from whoever answers the phone.
What changed and what happens next
A short written note: what was done, what it caused, and the plan for the coming month.
The takeaway
Eight numbers and a paragraph fit on one page. Longer reports are rarely read, and the detail can sit in an appendix for anyone who wants it.
Common questions
Which metrics are vanity metrics?
Impressions, reach, followers and average position on their own. They can explain a result but are not results.
How often should I get a report?
Monthly for decisions. A live dashboard is useful in between, but it does not replace the written note.