Know what is working. Fix what isn't.

A report full of numbers can still hide the one thing you need to know: did anything work? Impressions, clicks and followers are easy to produce and easy to put on a slide. Eight questions separate outcomes from activity.

Start with the question the report should answer

Before you open the file, write down the decision it should help you make. Keep the budget, change the offer, fix the page, stop a channel. A report that cannot inform a decision is a diary.

Eight questions to ask of any monthly report

1. Which numbers are outcomes (enquiries, replies, sales) and which are activity (impressions, clicks, reach)?

2. Is each number compared with an equal period, so a short month is not set against a long one?

3. Which tool, in whose account, produced it?

4. What changed in the system this month: spend, pages, offers, tracking?

5. What happened after the click? Did the enquiries get a reply, and did any become a deal?

6. Which change caused which movement, and how do we know?

7. What changes next month, and which number will judge it?

8. Who owns the accounts the numbers come from?

If a question has no answer, that is the finding. Ask for it in writing.

Five signs a report is selling, not reporting

• Impressions or reach are the headline number.

• Percentages appear with no base, so "up 40%" could mean two enquiries or two hundred.

• The date range shifts from one month to the next.

• Metrics are renamed until the trend looks better.

• There is no section called "what we will change".

What a one-page report looks like

One page is enough when every row ties a result to a decision.

Ask for it next month

You do not need a new tool. Send these eight questions with the next report and see what comes back. A team that is measuring properly will answer them in an afternoon.