performance-report

Performance Report

> If you see unfamiliar placeholders or need to check which tools are connected, see [CONNECTORS.md](../../CONNECTORS.md).

Generate a marketing performance report with key metrics, trend analysis, insights, and optimization recommendations.

Trigger

User runs /performance-report or asks for a marketing report, performance analysis, campaign results, or metrics summary.

Inputs

• Report type — determine which type of report the user needs:
• Campaign report — performance of a specific campaign
• Channel report — performance across a specific channel (email, social, paid, SEO, etc.)
• Content performance — how content pieces are performing
• Overall marketing report — cross-channel summary (weekly, monthly, quarterly)
• Custom — user-defined scope

• Time period — the reporting window (last week, last month, last quarter, custom date range)

• Data source:
• If ~~marketing analytics is connected, discover what accounts and platforms are available, then pull performance data automatically
• If ~~product analytics is connected: pull performance data automatically
• If not connected: ask the user to provide metrics. Prompt with: "Please paste or share your performance data. I can work with spreadsheets, CSV data, dashboard screenshots described in text, or just the key numbers."

• Comparison period (optional) — prior period or year-over-year for trend context

• Stakeholder audience (optional) — who will read this report (executive summary style vs. detailed analyst view)

Report Structure

1. Executive Summary

• 2-3 sentence overview of performance in the period
• Headline metric with trend direction (up/down/flat vs. prior period)
• One key win and one area of concern

2. Key Metrics Dashboard

Present core metrics in a summary table:

| Metric | This Period | Prior Period | Change | Target | Status | |--------|------------|--------------|--------|--------|--------|

Status indicators:

• On track (meeting or exceeding target)
• At risk (below target but within acceptable range)
• Off track (significantly below target)

Metrics by Report Type

Campaign Report:

• Impressions and reach
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversion rate
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Return on ad spend (ROAS) or ROI
• Total conversions/signups/leads

Channel Report (Email):

• Emails sent, delivered, bounced
• Open rate
• Click-through rate
• Unsubscribe rate
• Conversion rate

Channel Report (Social):

• Impressions and reach
• Engagement rate (likes, comments, shares)
• Follower growth
• Click-through rate
• Top-performing posts

Channel Report (Paid):

• Spend
• Impressions and clicks
• CTR
• CPC and CPM
• Conversions and CPA
• ROAS

Channel Report (SEO/Organic):

• Organic sessions
• Keyword rankings (movement)
• Pages indexed
• Backlinks acquired
• Top-performing pages

Content Performance:

• Pageviews and unique visitors
• Time on page
• Bounce rate
• Social shares
• Conversions attributed to content
• Top and bottom performers

Overall Marketing Report:

• Total leads generated
• Marketing qualified leads (MQLs)
• Pipeline contribution
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Channel-by-channel summary

3. Trend Analysis

• Performance trend over the period (week-over-week or month-over-month)
• Notable inflection points and what caused them
• Seasonal or cyclical patterns observed
• Comparison to benchmarks or targets

4. What Worked

• Top 3-5 wins with specific data
• Why these performed well (hypothesis)
• How to replicate or scale

5. What Needs Improvement

• Bottom 3-5 performers with specific data
• Hypotheses for underperformance
• Recommended fixes

6. Insights and Observations

• Patterns in the data that are not obvious from the metrics alone
• Audience behavior insights
• Content or creative themes that resonated
• External factors that may have influenced performance (seasonality, news, competitive moves)

7. Recommendations

For each recommendation:

• What to do
• Why (linked to a specific insight from the data)
• Expected impact (high, medium, low)
• Effort to implement (high, medium, low)
• Priority (immediate, next sprint, next quarter)

Prioritize recommendations in a 2x2 matrix format:

| | Low Effort | High Effort | |---|---|---| | High Impact | Do first | Plan for next sprint | | Low Impact | Do if time allows | Deprioritize |

8. Next Period Focus

• Top 3 priorities for the upcoming period
• Tests or experiments to run
• Targets for key metrics

Metric Definitions and Benchmarks

Email Marketing

| Metric | Definition | Benchmark Range | What It Tells You | |--------|-----------|----------------|-------------------| | Delivery rate | Emails delivered / emails sent | 95-99% | List health and sender reputation | | Open rate | Unique opens / emails delivered | 15-30% | Subject line and sender effectiveness | | Click-through rate (CTR) | Unique clicks / emails delivered | 2-5% | Content relevance and CTA effectiveness | | Click-to-open rate (CTOR) | Unique clicks / unique opens | 10-20% | Email content quality (for those who opened) | | Unsubscribe rate | Unsubscribes / emails delivered | <0.5% | Content-audience fit and frequency tolerance | | Bounce rate | Bounces / emails sent | <2% | List quality and data hygiene | | Conversion rate | Conversions / emails delivered | 1-5% | End-to-end email effectiveness | | Revenue per email | Total revenue / emails sent | Varies | Direct revenue attribution | | List growth rate | (New subscribers - unsubscribes) / total list | 2-5% monthly | Audience building health |

Social Media

| Metric | Definition | What It Tells You | |--------|-----------|-------------------| | Impressions | Number of times content was displayed | Content distribution and reach | | Reach | Number of unique users who saw content | Audience breadth | | Engagement rate | (Likes + comments + shares) / reach | Content resonance | | Click-through rate | Link clicks / impressions | Traffic driving effectiveness | | Follower growth rate | Net new followers / total followers per period | Audience building | | Share/Repost rate | Shares / reach | Content virality and advocacy | | Video view rate | Views / impressions | Video content hook effectiveness | | Video completion rate | Completed views / total views | Video content quality and length fit | | Social share of voice | Your mentions / total category mentions | Brand visibility vs. competitors |

Paid Advertising (Search and Social)

| Metric | Definition | What It Tells You | |--------|-----------|-------------------| | Impressions | Times ad was shown | Budget utilization and targeting breadth | | Click-through rate (CTR) | Clicks / impressions | Ad creative and targeting relevance | | Cost per click (CPC) | Total spend / clicks | Cost efficiency of traffic generation | | Cost per mille (CPM) | Cost per 1,000 impressions | Awareness cost efficiency | | Conversion rate | Conversions / clicks | Landing page and offer effectiveness | | Cost per acquisition (CPA) | Total spend / conversions | Full-funnel cost efficiency | | Return on ad spend (ROAS) | Revenue / ad spend | Revenue generation efficiency | | Quality Score (search) | Google's relevance rating (1-10) | Ad-keyword-landing page alignment | | Frequency | Average times a user sees the ad | Ad fatigue risk | | View-through conversions | Conversions from users who saw but did not click | Display/awareness campaign influence |

SEO / Organic Search

| Metric | Definition | What It Tells You | |--------|-----------|-------------------| | Organic sessions | Visits from organic search | SEO effectiveness and content reach | | Keyword rankings | Position for target keywords | Search visibility | | Organic CTR | Clicks / impressions in search results | Title and meta description effectiveness | | Pages indexed | Number of pages in search index | Crawlability and site health | | Domain authority | Third-party authority score | Overall site strength | | Backlinks | Number of external sites linking to you | Content authority and off-page SEO | | Page load speed | Time to interactive | User experience and ranking factor | | Organic conversion rate | Organic conversions / organic sessions | Content quality and intent alignment | | Top entry pages | Most-visited pages from organic search | Content driving the most organic traffic |

Content Marketing

| Metric | Definition | What It Tells You | |--------|-----------|-------------------| | Pageviews | Total views of content pages | Content reach and distribution | | Unique visitors | Distinct users viewing content | Audience size | | Average time on page | Time spent on content pages | Content engagement and depth | | Bounce rate | Single-page sessions / total sessions | Content-audience fit and UX | | Scroll depth | How far users scroll on a page | Content engagement through the piece | | Social shares | Times content was shared on social | Content resonance and virality | | Backlinks earned | External links to content | Content authority and SEO value | | Lead generation | Leads attributed to content | Content conversion effectiveness | | Content ROI | Revenue attributed / content production cost | Overall content investment return |

Overall Marketing / Pipeline

| Metric | Definition | What It Tells You | |--------|-----------|-------------------| | Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) | Leads meeting marketing qualification criteria | Top-of-funnel effectiveness | | Sales qualified leads (SQLs) | MQLs accepted by sales | Lead quality | | MQL to SQL conversion rate | SQLs / MQLs | Marketing-sales alignment and lead quality | | Pipeline generated | Dollar value of opportunities created | Marketing impact on revenue | | Pipeline velocity | How fast deals move through pipeline | Campaign urgency and quality | | Customer acquisition cost (CAC) | Total marketing + sales cost / new customers | Efficiency of customer acquisition | | CAC payback period | Months to recover CAC from revenue | Unit economics health | | Marketing-sourced revenue | Revenue from marketing-originated deals | Direct marketing contribution | | Marketing-influenced revenue | Revenue from deals where marketing touched | Broader marketing impact |

Reporting Templates by Cadence

Weekly Marketing Report

Quick-scan format for team standups:

• Top 3 metrics with week-over-week change
• What worked this week (1-2 bullet points with data)
• What needs attention (1-2 bullet points with data)
• This week's priorities (3-5 action items)

Monthly Marketing Report

Standard stakeholder report:

• Executive summary (3-5 sentences)
• Key metrics dashboard (table with MoM and target comparison)
• Channel-by-channel performance summary
• Campaign highlights and results
• What worked and what did not (with hypotheses)
• Recommendations and next month priorities
• Budget spend vs. plan

Quarterly Business Review (QBR)

Strategic review for leadership:

• Quarter performance vs. goals
• Year-to-date trajectory
• Channel ROI analysis
• Campaign performance summary
• Competitive and market observations
• Strategic recommendations for next quarter
• Budget request and allocation plan
• Key experiments and learnings

Dashboard Design Principles

• Lead with the metrics that map to business objectives (not vanity metrics)
• Show trends over time, not just point-in-time snapshots
• Include comparison context: prior period, target, benchmark
• Use consistent color coding: green (on track), yellow (at risk), red (off track)
• Group metrics by funnel stage or business question
• Keep dashboards to one page/screen — detail goes in appendix
• Update cadence should match decision cadence (real-time for paid, weekly for content)

Trend Analysis and Forecasting

Trend Identification

When analyzing performance data, look for:

• Directional trends: is the metric consistently going up, down, or flat over 4+ periods?
• Inflection points: where did performance change direction and what happened then?
• Seasonality: are there predictable patterns by day of week, month, or quarter?
• Anomalies: one-time spikes or drops — what caused them and are they repeatable?
• Leading indicators: which metrics change first and predict future outcomes?

Trend Analysis Process

• Chart the metric over time (at least 8-12 data points for meaningful trends)
• Identify the overall direction (upward, downward, flat, cyclical)
• Calculate the rate of change (is it accelerating or decelerating?)
• Overlay key events (campaigns launched, product changes, market events)
• Compare to benchmarks or targets
• Identify correlations with other metrics
• Form hypotheses about causation (and plan tests to validate)

Simple Forecasting Approaches

• Linear projection: extend the current trend line forward (useful for stable metrics)
• Moving average: smooth out noise by averaging the last 3-6 periods
• Year-over-year comparison: use last year's pattern as a baseline, adjusted for growth rate
• Funnel math: forecast outputs from inputs (e.g., if we generate X leads at Y conversion rate, we will get Z customers)
• Scenario modeling: create best case, expected case, and worst case projections

Forecasting Caveats

• Short-term forecasts (1-3 months) are more reliable than long-term
• Forecasts based on fewer than 12 data points should be flagged as low confidence
• External factors (market shifts, competitive moves, economic changes) can invalidate trend-based forecasts
• Always present forecasts as ranges, not exact numbers

Attribution Modeling Basics

What Is Attribution?

Attribution determines which marketing touchpoints get credit for a conversion. This matters because buyers typically interact with multiple channels before converting.

Common Attribution Models

| Model | How It Works | Best For | Limitation | |-------|-------------|----------|------------| | Last touch | 100% credit to last interaction before conversion | Understanding final conversion triggers | Ignores awareness and nurture | | First touch | 100% credit to first interaction | Understanding top-of-funnel effectiveness | Ignores nurture and conversion drivers | | Linear | Equal credit to all touchpoints | Fair representation of all channels | Does not reflect relative impact | | Time decay | More credit to touchpoints closer to conversion | Balanced view favoring recent interactions | May undervalue awareness | | Position-based (U-shaped) | 40% first, 40% last, 20% split among middle | Valuing both discovery and conversion | Somewhat arbitrary weighting | | Data-driven | Algorithmic credit based on conversion patterns | Most accurate representation | Requires significant data volume |

Attribution Practical Guidance

• Start with last-touch attribution if you have no model in place — it is the simplest and most actionable
• Compare first-touch and last-touch to understand which channels drive awareness vs. conversion
• Use position-based (U-shaped) as a reasonable middle ground for most B2B companies
• Data-driven attribution requires high conversion volume to be statistically meaningful
• No model is perfect — use attribution directionally, not as absolute truth
• Multi-touch attribution is better than single-touch, but any model is better than none

Attribution Pitfalls

• Do not optimize one channel in isolation based on single-touch attribution
• Awareness channels (display, social, PR) will always look bad in last-touch models
• Conversion channels (search, retargeting) will always look bad in first-touch models
• Self-reported attribution ("how did you hear about us?") provides useful qualitative color but is unreliable as quantitative data
• Cross-device and cross-channel tracking gaps mean attribution data is always incomplete

Optimization Recommendations Framework

Optimization Process

• Identify: which metrics are underperforming vs. target or benchmark?
• Diagnose: where in the funnel is the problem? (impressions, clicks, conversions, retention)
• Hypothesize: what is causing the underperformance? (audience, message, creative, offer, timing, technical)
• Prioritize: which fixes will have the biggest impact with the least effort?
• Test: design an experiment to validate the hypothesis
• Measure: did the change improve the metric?
• Scale or iterate: roll out wins broadly; iterate on inconclusive or failed tests

Optimization Levers by Funnel Stage

| Funnel Stage | Problem Signal | Optimization Levers | |-------------|---------------|---------------------| | Awareness | Low impressions, low reach | Budget, targeting, channel mix, creative format | | Interest | Low CTR, low engagement | Ad creative, headlines, content hooks, audience targeting | | Consideration | High bounce rate, low time on page | Landing page content, page speed, content relevance, UX | | Conversion | Low conversion rate | Offer, CTA, form length, trust signals, page layout | | Retention | High churn, low repeat engagement | Onboarding, email nurture, product experience, support |

Testing Best Practices

• Test one variable at a time for clean results
• Define the success metric before launching the test
• Calculate required sample size before starting (do not end tests early)
• Run tests for a minimum of one full business cycle (typically one week for B2B)
• Document all tests and results, regardless of outcome
• Share learnings across the team — failed tests are valuable information
• A test that confirms the status quo is not a failure — it builds confidence in your current approach

Continuous Optimization Cadence

• Daily: monitor paid campaigns for budget pacing, anomalies, and disapproved ads
• Weekly: review channel performance, pause underperformers, scale winners
• Bi-weekly: refresh ad creative and test new variants
• Monthly: full performance review, identify new optimization opportunities, update forecasts
• Quarterly: strategic review of channel mix, budget allocation, and targeting strategy

Output Formatting

• Use tables for data presentation
• Bold key numbers and trends
• Keep the executive summary concise (suitable for forwarding to leadership)
• Include a "detailed appendix" section for granular data if the user provided a lot of metrics

After the Report

Ask: "Would you like me to:

• Create a slide-ready summary of these results?
• Draft a stakeholder email with the key takeaways?
• Dive deeper into any specific metric or channel?
• Set up a reporting template you can reuse next period?"