Guide for owners
What a marketing agency should report to an event business each month
Updated
What should a marketing agency report to an event business each month?
Leads first: inquiries, calls and quote requests by source, which of them were real, what was spent and the cost per lead against a target you agreed. Then where you stand in search and in AI answers, a dated list of what was changed, what did not work and what happens next month. Every number should name its source and date range.
A monthly report has one job: to let the owner of an event company decide whether the money is working. Many reports do the opposite. They lead with impressions, followers and traffic, and the number that pays for the crew, the inquiry that became an event, is missing or buried.
Use this as the list to hold any agency to, including us. If a section below is missing from your report, ask for it.
1. Leads, counted by source
The first page should show how many inquiries, phone calls and quote requests arrived this month, split by where they came from: Google search, Google Ads, your Business Profile, social, email and referrals from other sites. Last month and the same month last year belong beside it, because event work is seasonal.
A call should count only when it is a real conversation, not a missed ring. Ask how a call is counted and how long it has to last.
2. Which leads were real
Forms attract spam, sales pitches and job seekers. The report should separate qualified inquiries from the rest and say how that was decided.
The best reports go one step further and show which inquiries booked. That needs you to share outcomes, so agree a simple way to mark each lead as booked, lost or not a fit.
3. Spend and cost per lead
For advertising, the report should state what was spent on each platform, the number of qualified leads it produced and the cost per lead, against a target agreed in advance. The agency fee and the ad spend should be shown separately.
If you want to check the target itself, our ad budget calculator works backward from the bookings you want.
4. Search: what moved and why
Rankings alone say little. Ask for the searches and pages that gained or lost clicks, taken from Google Search Console, with the date range, and a sentence on why each one moved.
For local businesses, add Business Profile numbers: calls, direction requests, website visits and new reviews, with every review answered.
5. AI answers: are you named
Buyers now ask assistants for vendor recommendations, so a report should show whether your company is named for the questions your clients ask, on which assistants, and who is named instead.
This is a fixed list of questions asked on a schedule, not a single screenshot. Our page on AI visibility explains how it is measured.
6. What was changed, with dates
You should be able to see the work: pages published, ads added or paused, searches blocked, listings corrected, each with the date. A change log lets you connect a result to its cause and undo a change that did not help.
Nothing on that list should be a surprise. Changes to your site, ads and listings should have been approved by you or covered by rules you set.
7. What did not work
Every month something underperforms: a campaign that cost too much per lead, a page that did not rank, a post nobody read. A report with no bad news is leaving something out.
Look for a plain section that names what did not work, what was learned and what will be stopped or changed because of it.
8. What happens next month
The report should end with a short plan: the three to five things that will be done next, why those, and anything the agency needs from you, such as photos from a recent event or a decision on budget.
Keep last month's plan beside it. Comparing what was promised with what was done is the fastest check there is.
9. Check the numbers in your own accounts
You should own your website, your Google Ads account, your analytics, your Search Console property and your Business Profile, with the agency added as a user. Then any figure in the report can be checked at its source.
If a number cannot be traced to an account you can open, treat it as an estimate and ask how it was produced.
Monthly report checklist
- Inquiries, calls and quote requests by source, against last month and last year
- A stated rule for what counts as a call and a qualified lead
- Booked events matched to their source, where you share outcomes
- Ad spend by platform, shown separately from the agency fee
- Cost per qualified lead against an agreed target
- Searches and pages that gained or lost clicks, with the date range
- Business Profile calls, direction requests and reviews
- Whether you are named in AI answers for your buyers' questions, and who is instead
- A dated list of every change made
- A section on what did not work
- A short plan for next month and what is needed from you
- A source and date range beside every number
- Logins to every account in your own name
Keep reading
How we do this for clients: Gray Park Operator, with a weekly scorecard and a monthly report.
Common questions
A full report once a month is standard, with a shorter update each week so nothing waits four weeks. At Gray Park that is a Monday update, a Friday scorecard that leads with leads and a monthly report, described on the Gray Park Operator page.
Qualified inquiries, cost per qualified lead and booked events by source. Traffic, rankings and followers are useful only as explanations for why those three numbers moved.
Numbers that look good and do not show whether you won work: impressions, followers, likes, total traffic and average ranking. They can rise while inquiries fall, which is why a report should never lead with them.
Yes. The accounts should be in your company's name with the agency added as a user, so you can check any figure and keep everything if you change agencies.
Ask for inquiries, calls and quote requests by source for the last three months, and how each is tracked. If tracking is not set up, that is the first job, because nothing else in the report can be judged without it.
Want it done for you?
The free audit shows where you stand on Google and in AI answers and what to fix first, back within 48 hours.