Client reporting: how to create standout reports that drive value

To keep your clients happy, you must regularly update them on the work you’re doing on their behalf. More importantly, you must demonstrate how your strategies deliver value.

In this article, you’ll learn what effective client reporting is and why it matters. You’ll also get top tips and tools for creating standout reports with maximum efficiency.

What is client reporting, and why do you need it?

Client reporting involves gathering performance data and sharing it with clients to show how you’re helping them reach their goals.

Reports are crucial to the agency-client relationship, ensuring clarity and keeping campaigns on track.

Here’s a client report sample to give you an idea:

Depending on your work, client reports may provide insights on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as sales volume, website traffic, email engagement, social media engagement (including LinkedIn) and click-through rate (CTR).

Bringing this information together in one place helps:

• Educate clients about your work and how your activities deliver value

• Provide actionable insights to inform client decisions on strategy and spending

• Track progress toward a goal or objective

• Improve campaigns to generate more leads, sales and grow client retention

• Keep you accountable for your work and your clients accountable for goal-setting

• Facilitate conversations around results, progress and future campaigns

The nature of your client relationship determines how often you’ll send reports.

Here’s when to use a specific report template according to your clients’ reporting frequency needs:

The right template depends on your campaign type and client relationship, but regardless of cadence, the steps for building an effective report stay the same.

How to create a client report

A good client report gives users vital information in an easy-to-understand format so they can make informed decisions (and you can demonstrate your value).

Here are some practical steps for getting started.

1. Establish what your client needs

Client reporting starts during the onboarding process, where you can establish your client’s goals and how they measure success upfront.

Here are some strategic questions to ask your client to give you direction for your first reports:

• What are the top priorities for your business?

• What are your short- and long-term goals?

• What are your goals for this campaign?

• What channels do you use to market your brand?

• Who is your target audience?

• What sales metrics are important for measuring success?

• What are your overall financial goals?

2. Choose the right metrics and key performance indicators

When you know your client’s expectations, pin down the key performance indicators and metrics that show progress toward their goals – including channel attribution metrics.

These are the activities and data points you’ll track and report on.

Again, involve the client heavily in the process. However, it’s important to remember they may not have the sales or marketing knowledge to clearly define metrics.

If your client is unsure of what to measure, work with them to set SMART goals:

• Specific – make goals clear and detailed

• Measurable – choose key metrics and benchmarks to track and evaluate progress

• Achievable – ensure goals are realistic within a set timeframe and budget

• Relevant – align goals with the client’s business objectives

• Time-bound – set clear timelines and a target completion date

For example, say your client wants to increase monthly sales revenue. Here’s what a SMART goal might look like:

The SMART goal tracks metrics on actions directly related to increasing revenue (monthly sales bookings, monthly sales growth, lead conversion rate and email conversion rate).

These metrics will help you make data-driven decisions about what’s working and where to improve.

3. Gather the data for your report

Once you know your metrics, use relevant analytics tools to handle data collection and monitor performance for your report during the defined period.

You likely already use analytics tools in your work, but here are some popular options for sales and marketing agency activities:

• Pipedrive for tracking, analyzing and reporting on sales and email marketing campaigns

• Google Analytics for monitoring website traffic, traffic sources, search data and audience demographics

• Google Ads Editor for tracking Google Ads conversions, CTR, position and ad spend

• Semrush for analyzing SEO and content marketing campaign performance

• Sprout Social for examining social media performance

Analytics platforms provide vast amounts of data, a lot of which can look good in a client report.

That said, avoid including anything outside of the agreed metrics in your reports. Otherwise, you risk important data getting lost among insights that don’t influence strategic decisions.

For example, showing an increase in email newsletter subscribers indicates popularity and looks impressive on a chart, but adds little to the client’s bottom line.

A better metric to report on is new leads generated from the newsletter, which is directly tied to revenue.

4. Structure your report in a user-friendly way

Client reports tend to be data-heavy, so it’s important to format them in a way that’s easy to digest.

Here’s a simple framework to follow:

• Clear, concise title that explains what the report is about (e.g., Email Marketing Engagement Report: September 2024)

• Executive summary of client goals and key findings from the reporting period

• Sales or marketing data, including context for what it means

• Details of next steps

Assume your client will be skim-reading the report. What needs to catch their eye? Here are some ways to grab attention:

• Prioritize the most relevant information

• Use graphs and charts to quickly show changes in performance (more on these soon)

• Use bullet points to break up complex content, format lists and highlight important insights

• Use bold text to draw attention to key insights

Make clients feel like they’ve learned everything they need to know, even if they haven’t consumed every data point.

5. Share your report

You can share a client reporting dashboard, PDF document, slides or spreadsheet. The right option depends on how your client wants the data presented.

During client onboarding, agree on timelines, format and how often you’ll share reports. The type of campaign you’re reporting on will help you determine the best cadence.

For example, if you commit to sharing daily client reports, a real-time, customizable dashboard is more efficient than manually visualizing data in Excel. It’s also more effective for discussion and collaboration.

If you’re presenting data to stakeholders at a monthly meeting, a PDF might be a thorough and user-friendly way for clients to digest information.

5 best practices for creating standout client reports

Here are five client reporting best practices and expert tips to create engaging documents.

1. Automate the client reporting process

Automation can free up your time and resources and streamline the client reporting process.

Use an automated client reporting option that collects data and paints an accurate picture for you.

Choose sales or marketing software that includes white-label client reporting tools. It will centralize your activities and help you track and report on performance all in one place.

For example, Pipedrive gathers real-time email analytics you can quickly filter and group to create custom reports.

You can also share live dashboards like the one below with one click to save time on exporting and emailing data.

If your reports pull in data from several digital marketing channels, use client reporting templates and re-use existing reports so you’re not starting from scratch each time.

Sticking with the same template also makes reports familiar and easier to digest. Use the time you save on structuring and admin to personalize data and summaries so they’re relevant to the client.

2. Keep reports simple by focusing on what matters

Clients often only want to know that what you’re doing is working, so stick to essential information.

With each section of your report, ask: why does this result matter to the client?

If the information doesn’t directly relate to their goal, don’t include it. Your report should be comprehensive but concise.

Get your message across clearly by using simple language over technical jargon. Limit the number of decimal places in number-heavy tables to make numbers easier to process.

If you’re using data from several channels, segment it so clients can focus on one thing at a time (e.g., include one section on email marketing and another on paid advertising).

Segmentation helps prevent data overwhelm and lets you communicate essential ideas without unnecessary distractions.

3. Turn data into a story to engage clients

Data storytelling helps you break down results and explain concepts in an easy-to-understand and engaging way.

To create an effective data story, add a narrative and visualizations. Look for connections, trends or outliers in data points.

• Are there any interesting or unusual correlations?

• Is there unexpected growth in a particular area?

• How does one data point compare to another, and what can you draw from it?

For example, you find that emails have a higher conversion rate on certain days. Or that an offer did better after changing the CTA button color on a sales page. Your hypothesis for why these things happen makes for interesting stories.

Once you have the foundation for your story,

here’s a basic framework to follow:

• Context. What situation does the data present? This acts as your attention-grabbing hook.

• Character. Who are the main players in your story (e.g., tactics and products or services)?

• Problem. What conflict does the data present?

• Resolution. What are the actionable insights, values or next steps needed to resolve the conflict?

Finally, use data visualization to add context and highlight important findings. Visuals also turn large amounts of data into digestible information.

As a client reporting example, this chart from a Pipedrive performance report helps viewers understand the number of sales actions faster than numbers in a spreadsheet:

You can visualize data in many ways, including:

• Column and bar charts to compare different items

• Pie charts to show parts of a whole

• Scorecard charts to summarize a single metric

• Table charts to compare related values or display qualitative information (e.g., monthly sales over time)

• Scatterplots to show the relationship between and changes in two variables (e.g., revenue vs. expenses)

• Screenshots to show changes to web pages for ads

When choosing visuals, consider what you want clients to learn and how it relates to your story. Stick to the key points and present the data as simply as possible.

4. Include good and bad news in your reports

While it’s natural to want to focus on the good work you’ve done in your report, it’s important to share what didn’t go to plan.

A positive agency-client relationship relies on honesty. Being transparent about failures helps build trust.

Context is important here. If a campaign is performing below expectations, explain why.

In some cases, a drop in performance might be out of your control because of market or seasonal factors. Communicating those reasons helps clients understand that the quality of your work isn’t the issue.

If an issue relates to your work, offer solutions. Provide details on where you went wrong and propose an alternative approach.

Being proactive tells the client that you’re working in their best interests. It’s also the fastest way to improve future performance.

5. Discuss reports with your client

Each time you send a report, use it as an opportunity to chat with your client about results, share concerns and brainstorm future approaches.

Client communication is particularly important with new clients as you both learn how the other works. A call or meeting will help you explain campaigns, suggest changes and walk clients through data they may not be familiar with.

It’s also a chance to get valuable feedback. Ask your client if the data is easy to understand and if there’s anything else they’d like to see.

Use your clients’ comments to refine reports and deliver data that informs decisions.

5 top client reporting solutions

If you’re sharing reports regularly, a client reporting system makes it easy to collect the data you need, analyze it and turn it into visually engaging insights.

Here are five efficient reporting tools to streamline your work and get more done in less time. The table below shows the best user fit before delving into each software in detail.

1. Pipedrive: reporting built into your CRM

Pipedrive’s CRM software brings your sales activities and client data sources together so you can simplify your sales process and close more deals.

For agencies and sales teams that already live in Pipedrive day-to-day, the Insights feature includes customizable reports and dashboards with real-time performance data – removing the need for a separate reporting tool entirely

Key Pipedrive Insights features:

• Three reporting sections – reports, dashboards and goals

• Fully customizable reports – filter and group data, choose your visualization type and add custom metrics

• Live dashboards, shareable with clients via a public link

AI report generation available on all plans.

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Pricing: Pipedrive has pricing plans to suit different sales and reporting needs, with a free 14-day trial.

2. Data Studio: free dashboards for budget-conscious users

Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) is Google’s free dashboarding and reporting tool – a strong option for teams already working within the Google ecosystem.

Users can access customizable report templates and interactive dashboards with data covering website traffic, keyword rankings, e-commerce performance, backlinks and more.

Users can also share reports with clients with a click.

Users of Google Analytics and Google Search Console will appreciate the familiar interface of Data Studio. While the tool’s range of features may involve a steep learning curve, dedicated user guides can help you get started.

Pricing: Free with a Google account.

3. Tableau: advanced visualization without coding

Tableau is a data visualization platform with a drag-and-drop editor and AI capabilities embedded across the product.

The software design is accessible to users of various skill levels.

Reports are fully interactive and customizable. Users can also share real-time data insights with clients. Tableau App for Microsoft 365 allows users to access dashboards directly within Microsoft workflows.

AI-powered features included Tableau Agent, which responds to natural language queries in multiple languages.

Pricing: Users can explore the platform for free using Tableau Public. More powerful features, such as AI-powered analytics, are only available on higher-priced plans.

4. Microsoft Power BI: AI-assisted reporting across any data source

Power BI connects to virtually any data source and turns it into visual reports, with Microsoft Copilot now central to the platform for AI-assisted analysis.

You can use the software to create datasets and build stories using 25+ visualization types.

Microsoft Copilot lets you ask natural-language questions to generate reports and visual insights directly within the platform.

While the intuitive drag-and-drop editor can achieve professional results, some users looking to create unique reports may find Power BI’s customization options limiting.

Pricing: A basic free version is available to users with a Microsoft Fabric account. Paid plans apply for additional features.

5. Whatagraph: ready-made templates for report automation

Whatagraph’s platform helps teams connect marketing data and share it in visual, data-driven reports.

It comes with pre-made widgets and AI-assisted report creation for automating and reusing reports across clients.

Through Whatagraph IQ, you describe what you want and the platform connects the data and builds the report for you.

You can save widgets and reports as templates to make regular reporting less time-consuming.

Whatagraph also has goals and alerts that let you set performance targets and receive notifications when results change.

Pricing: A free plan with limited features is available, with additional functionality on paid tiers.

Final thoughts

There’s more to client reporting than a regular check-in.

Reports let you prove your value, educate clients about your work and share insights that shape the future of their business.

When creating a report, focus on what matters to the client. Keep data relevant to goals and use storytelling to paint a clear, honest picture.

Try Pipedrive free for 14 days to automate your email marketing reports and sales reporting efforts so you can focus on hitting client targets.

Client reporting FAQs