A MARKETER'S GUIDE

TO REPORTS THAT MATTER

A SIMPLE STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

TO BUILDING A MEASUREMENT
FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE
A SIMPLE STEP BY STEP GUIDE
REPORTING
TO BUILDING REPORTS THAT
ACTUALLY ALLOW BUSINESSES
TO MAKE ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS

PAGE 1

INTRODUCTION
TODAYS MARKETERS LIVE AND DIE BY THE NUMBERS. IT SHOULD BE SIMPLE, BUT ITS
NOT. HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU RECEIVED A COMPLICATED EXCEL SPREADSHEET WHEN
YOU ASKED HOW THE LATEST CAMPAIGN PERFORMED? OR, RECEIVED POWERPOINT
SLIDES FILLED WITH CHARTS AND TABLES INSTEAD OF CLEAR ANSWERS TO CRITICAL
BUSINESS QUESTIONS?

DONT WORRY YOURE NOT ALONE.

Many companies are faced with the same
issues that you are. Its very likely these
companies have one or more of the following
foundational problems:

Reports lack critical business metrics

benchmarked against program goals

Instead of diving right in and building

another report, we're going to recommend
that you take a step back to outline a
measurement framework using the
following steps:

01

IDENTIFY BUSINESS
OBJECTIVES

views

02

DETERMINE KPIs

Reports overload marketing leaders with

pages of data and metrics that provide
business insight or diagnose issues

03

DEFINE KPI GOALS

04

IDENTIFY SUPPORTING
METRICS

05

DETERMINE REPORTING
DIMENSIONS

06

BUILD THE FRAMEWORK

Reports dont align to marketings

needs, missing critical dimensions or

THE 6 STEPS FOR

BETTER REPORTING

DO YOU NOTICE A THEME HERE?

It boils down to a lack of planning in report
development. The Big Data Revolution is well
underway, but many companies are still unable
to make sense of the data they acquire.
Although, many of these companies may have
large data warehouses with endless amounts of
information, they often end up with numerous
metric-heavy reports that dont answer any
specific questions. This is great for keeping
report developers busy, but it is terrible for
driving the business forward based on
actionable insights.

This process will help to provide structure to

actual answer your business questions. Using
this framework as a base, you will have the
ability to get actionable insights from your
data.

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01

IDENTIFY BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

GREAT REPORTING STARTS WITH THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:

WHAT BUSINESS GOALS ARE WE TRYING TO ACHIEVE?

It sounds really simple, but this question is often overlooked and left
unanswered. By asking this basic question upfront, you can better
define the objectives and scope upon which the reporting will be built.

LETS LOOK AT THE EXAMPLE

24%
OF BUSINESSES SAY
DETERMINING
ANY KIND OF COSTBENEFIT ANALYSIS

of Acme

Solutions, a company that wants to measure the

effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Lets
assume that Acme Solutions sends promotions to

IS A CHALLENGE.

existing customers and prospects. Through

(source: McKinsey)

conversations with project stakeholders, we find that the main

goals are:

1. Customer Acquisition (prospects)

2. Cross-Sell / Upsell (existing customers)
3. Loyalty Program Registrations (prospects and existing customers)

CUSTOMER TYPE
BUSINESS
OBJECTIVE

PROSPECTS
CUSTOMER
ACQUISITION

LOYALTY
PROGRAM
REGISTRATIONS

EXISTING CUSTOMERS
CROSS-SELL /
UP-SELL

LOYALTY
PROGRAM
REGISTRATION S

WE NOW KNOW that we are trying to reach

the scope of our measurement framework.

main

Just as importantly, we can also define

two customer segments and drive

outcomes through our promotions. By

taking the time to ask some basic
questions and show the objective from a
business context, we can better define

what is out of scope and disregard

metrics that do not tie back to these
main objectives. Finally, we can start to
organize the foundation of our reporting.
P AGE 3

02

DETERMINE KPIs
AFTER THE MAIN BUSINESS OBJECTIVES ARE DEFINED, WE NEED TO DETERMINE HOW TO
MEASURE SUCCESS FOR EACH OBJECTIVE BY DEFINING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)
A KPI IS THE MOST IMPORTANT METRIC TO MEASURE FOR EACH OBJECTIVE. THEY ARE THE

ULTIMATE MEASURE OF SUCCESS.

The list should not be too

Your KPIs must be very specific and related to

long. Instead, it should

your business objectives. For the purpose of our

consist of 1 OR 2 MAIN

example, lets assume that the KPIs are:

METRICS FOR EACH

Customer Acquisition: Number of new

OBJECTIVE THAT WILL

customers acquired and cost per

DEFINE SUCCESS.

acquisition (CPA)

To determine your KPIs, you should inventory all

of the metrics available in your data, as well as

Cross-Sell / Upsell: Campaign conversion

other metrics you may be able to derive or get

rate and average order value (AOV) for

externally.

those conversions

Going back to the example above, we want to

Loyalty: Customers and/or prospects that

come up with the most important metrics to help

register for the program

measure the effectiveness of each business

objective.

WE CAN NOW EXPAND OUR FRAMEWORK BELOW:

CUSTOMER TYPE
BUSINESS
OBJECTIVE

PROSPECTS
CUSTOMER

LOYALTY PROGRAM

CROSS-SELL /

LOYALTY PROGRAM

ACQUISITION

REGISTRATIONS

UP-SELL

REGISTRATIONS

# NEW CUSTOMERS

KPIs

EXISTING CUSTOMERS

COST PER

CONVERSION
# REGISTRATIONS

ACQUISITION

RATE AVERAGE

# REGISTRATIONS

ORDER VALUE

ITS VERY TEMPTING TO CONTINUE TO ADD METRICS THAT MIGHT FURTHER DEFINE
SUCCESS, BUT IN MANY CASES, THESE JUST ADD NOISE. FOCUS ON THE TOPLINE METRICS
THAT DEFINE MARKETING SUCCESS FOR THE ENTERPRISE.

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03

DEFINE KPI GOALS

MARKETING PERFORMANCE SHOULD BE COMPARED TO CONCRETE TARGETS
AND BENCHMARKS. Otherwise, results can be somewhat arbitrary. We
previously worked with a company that understood the first two steps but

skipped defining KPI goals. When it was time to report campaign results, it was
easy for the marketing manager to cherry pick data that told a positive
story regardless of the outcome. He would tell management
that the company earned $100,000 in revenue from a
promotion, without sharing that a similar campaign
from the previous year earned $500,000, or that
the campaign cost $1,000,000 in resources and
discount expenses to run. The point is that
marketing leaders need to evaluate results
relative to targets to evaluate campaign
and program performance.

86%
OF COMPANIES
CANNOT DELIVER THE
RIGHT INFORMATION
AT THE RIGHT TIME.
(source: Gartner)

GOALS FOR INDIVIDUAL

KPIs SHOULD BE SERIOUSLY
CONSIDERED PRIOR TO
DEVELOPING REPORTING.
These benchmarks should not be set in stone;

A campaign to upsell existing customers

they can change over time or vary for individual

should drive a much higher average order

campaigns. The purpose of these goals is to put

value if the offer is for $40 off $200 than it

into context each KPI so that you can determine

would if the offer is for $20 off $100. As such,

if performance is better or worse than the

remember to define success for each KPI

target. For our example company, the success

and adjust as necessary.

goals should change across campaigns.

PA GE 5

04

IDENTIFY SUPPORTING METRICS

KPIs provide topline numbers that should start and frame every discussion on

marketing performance. However, they dont tell the full story. Additional
information is usually required to understand why the results are what they are.
After digesting the topline, every marketing leader wants to know why. This is
where supporting metrics come in. At this stage,

TAKE SOME TIME TO

STRATEGICALLY DETERMINE THE SPECIFIC METRICS THAT

SUPPORT EACH KPI.
The supporting metrics must be related to the KPIs and should help answer the inevitable followup questions. It is important to think about what those questions would be for each KPI. The
metrics that answer those questions are the ones that should be layered into the report.

GOING BACK TO OUR EXAMPLE FROM THE PREVIOUS STEP , we had a campaign to
upsell existing customers. For this campaign, one of our main KPIs was average order value (AOV).
After our campaign was in market, we determined that the AOV across the campaign was $80,
however our goal was $100.
WE WANTED TO LOOK AT OTHER METRICS TO
HELP PROVIDE MORE CONTEXT OR SUPPORT FOR
OUR AOV KPI.

CUSTOMER
TYPE

EXISTING CUSTOMERS

BUSINESS
OBJECTIVE

UPSELL

In this case, we wanted to know the number of

orders AOV was based on the weight we put
upon the value would change greatly if the AOV
was driven from one order than if it was driven
from 10,000 orders. We also wanted to know the

KPI

total revenue that the promotion drove. We

considered removing any promotion expenses to

KPI GOAL

AVERAGE ORDER
VALUE $80
$100

see the incremental margin that the promotion

SALES

yielded. All of these metrics can help answer

additional follow-up questions and provide more
information to report. They may not be our main

SUPPORTING
METRICS

ORDERS
COGS PROMOTION
EXPENSE MARGIN

KPIs, but they help paint the complete picture

and answer the tough follow-up questions.
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05

DETERMINE REPORTING
DIMENSIONS
Were almost there, but theres one more critical component. The last thing

to do is view all of these metrics across dimensions. Dimensions can vary by

the report being developed, but they are essentially the different ways
you would want to slice and dice your data. Typical dimensions include,
TIME PERIODS, CUSTOMER TYPES, GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS, AND
PRODUCT CATEGORIES. Dimensions can be particularly great in helping
us understand really tough problems by allowing us to view all of our KPIs
and metrics across individual segments.
Lets revisit our example above one last time. We have a promotion with a goal of up-selling existing

customers that yielded an average order value of $80, even though the goal was $100. We can help
explain the components of the $80 by looking at the supporting metrics, but we cant fully explain
which segments contribute to the gap relative to our goal unless we look at various dimensions.

AFTER SOME REPORTING ACROSS SEGMENTS, LETS SAY WE SEE THE FOLLOWING VALUES:

KPI
KPI GOAL
SUPPORTING
METRICS

OVERALL

SEGMENT A

SEGMENT B

SEGMENT C

SEGMENT D

AOV: $80

AOV: $100

AOV: $100

AOV: $200

AOV: $46

GOAL: $100

SALES

SALES: $28K

SALES: $10K

SALES: $5K

SALES: $5K

SALES: $8K

ORDERS

ORDERS: 350

ORDER: 100

ORDERS: 50

ORDERS: 25

ORDERS: 175

AVG. ORDER
VALUE $80
$100

IT LOOKS AS IF WE HIT OUR TARGET ACROSS CUSTOMER SEGMENTS A, B, AND C. SEGMENT C

HAD A VERY HIGH AOV, YIELDING $200 PER ORDER.
However, Customer Segment D only has an AOV of

on an individual order. We can also drive followup

$46. This group is also responsible for 50% of all

action with the campaign managers on future

orders, more than offsetting the great

promotions to target Segment D to better improve

performance of Segment C. By looking at the KPIs

their AOV. Without a view of our reporting across

and supporting metrics across the segments, we

these dimensions, we would not be able to quickly

are able to narrow down the problem to Segment

drill down to an answer. But now, we have a better

D. We can now focus further investigation to

visibility into the segments that contribute to the

understand why Segment D purchased less

positive or negative KPI values.

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03

BUILD THE FRAMEWORK

AFTER LAYERING ON DIMENSIONS, ITS TIME TO ORGANIZE

EVERYTHING TOGETHER INTO ONE FRAMEWORK:
CUSTOMER TYPE

BUSINESS
OBJECTIVE

PROSPECTS

EXISTING CUSTOMERS

CUSTOMER

LOYALTY PROGRAM

CROSS-SELL /

LOYALTY PROGRAM

ACQUISITION

REGISTRATIONS

UP-SELL

REGISTRATIONS

CONVERSION RATE

# NEW CUSTOMERS

KPIs

COST PER
ACQUISITION

GOALS

# REGISTRATIONS

AVERAGE
ORDER VALUE

# REGISTRATIONS

SET FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL KPI

CIRCULATION
CIRCULATION
CONVERSIONS

SUPPORTING
METRICS

CONVERSION RATE
PROMOTION COST
SALES
MARGIN

CIRCULATION
CONVERSIONS
CONVERSION RATE
PROMOTION COST
COST PER SIGNUP

CONVERSIONS
SALES ORDERS
COGS
PROMOTION
EXPENSE
MARGIN

CIRCULATION
CONVERSIONS
CONVERSION RATE
PROMOTION COST
COST PER SIGNUP

TIME PERIODS, CUSTOMER TYPES, GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS, PRODUCT CATEGORIES, ETC.

DIMENSIONS

TO BE APPLIED ACROSS ALL OBJECTIVES / KPIs

AFTER LOOKING AT EVERYTHING TOGETHER,

ITS CLEAR THAT THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR
OUR REPORTING ARE ESSENTIALLY FINISHED.

PAGE 8

WE HIGHLIGHT
OUR MAIN KPIs
THAT TIE BACK
TO SPECIFIC
BUSINESS
OBJECTIVES

WE CAN PUT
THOSE KPIs INTO
THE APPROPRIATE
CONTEXT BY
COMPARING
TO GOALS

ALL THAT IS
LEFT TAKING SOME
TIME TO ORGANIZE THE
FRAMEWORK WITHIN
YOUR COMPANYS
BI REPORTING
SOLUTION

WE LAYER IN
ADDITIONAL
SUPPORTING
METRICS THAT
HELP EXPLAIN
THE KPIS

THE END RESULT

GREAT
REPORT THAT

WILL BE A

READILY
CONSUMED
AND DRIVE
ACTION

WILL BE
FINALLY, WE
CAN MEASURE
ALL OUR KPIs AND
METRICS ACROSS
VARIOUS LEVELS OF
DIMENSIONALITY

The companies
that use analytics

3x

best are
more likely

to execute

decisions as intended.

CONCLUSION

(source: Bain & Company)

Identify KPIs that define marketing success

Marketing leaders need effective reporting and

Define goals to contextualize the KPIs

measurement to succeed. A measurement

Add supporting metrics to help explain the KPIs

framework is a critical tool to producing valuable

View results across important business

reports. By tying your reporting components to

dimensions
Organize information and create reports based
on the framework

THE END RESULT WILL BE A GREAT REPORT THAT

WILL BE READILY CONSUMED AND DRIVE ACTION.

specific business objectives and putting structure

behind the design, you'll avoid data overload to get
the your important questions answered. It can take
a little time and effort, but we promise, the work
pays off! Learn more :
www.market-bridge.com/SMART-ANALYTICS
PAGE 9

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