My experience has shown one simple truth: clients stay or go based not on results alone, but on the service they receive.
This holds true for the vast majority of clients we’ve worked with.
You can deliver excellent outcomes, but if clients feel underserved, they’re likely to leave.
Clients aren’t always rational, and that’s exactly why every touchpoint matters – especially reporting.
Reporting is often your main connection with clients and can define how they perceive your service.
That makes it one of the most important parts of your business.
So, what makes a great report?
This article tackles the key principles of building reports that stand out – complete with examples of what works and what doesn’t.
Reports vs. dashboards
Before we begin, let’s quickly clarify the difference between reports and dashboards.
Reports are detailed documents delivered at set intervals – often monthly – in formal formats such as PDFs or slideshows.
They typically include more commentary and are designed as one-off documents.
Dashboards, while they may display similar charts and graphs, provide real-time campaign data with little commentary.
They’re usually accessed through online platforms like Looker Studio.
Today, many agencies use reports and dashboards interchangeably.
A monthly report might simply be a dashboard printout with added commentary.
Platforms like Looker Studio or Agency Analytics even let you integrate reporting elements into dashboards and export them as PDFs.
Because of this, the distinction between the two has blurred, and we often use “reporting” to cover both.
Regardless of format, every great report I’ve seen follows three key principles:
- Simplicity.
- Insight.
- Context.
Let’s break these down and see how they apply.
Simplicity
Great communicators take complex ideas and make them easy to understand. Reporting is no different.
With so much data available, a great report simplifies information into a form that’s useful and insightful.
Simplicity should guide every aspect of report design – from the structure and order of pages to layout, graphs, and visuals.
The goal is always to make your report as clear as possible and avoid what analytics expert Avinash Kaushik calls “data puke” – overwhelming clients with too much information.
Ways to achieve simplicity include:
- Design for client needs: Report creators often focus on what they think is important rather than what the client needs. Understand each client’s KPIs to keep reports focused. A CEO may only need top-level KPIs, while a regional sales manager may need audience metrics.
- Focus on KPIs: For every new page or graph, ask whether it helps show whether the KPI is being achieved. Provide the minimum pages, graphs, and tables needed to convey the point.
- Organize by concept: Structure pages around ideas – KPIs, platforms,…
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