Marketing agency reporting is where you find out whether the work is paying off. A serious agency reports in revenue and inquiries, not clicks and likes. The KPIs that matter are cost per inquiry, conversion rate, return on ad spend and, new in 2026, visibility in AI answers.
In this post you get the KPIs with formulas and real numbers from our clients, the report template we use on the first Monday of every month, and a checklist for judging whether your agency actually delivers.
What You Will Learn in This Post
- The seven KPIs an agency should measure, with formulas and examples
- How to calculate cost per inquiry, conversion rate and ROAS
- New in 2026: how visibility in AI answers is measured, and what GA4 actually captures
- The report template we use at Mementor, filled in
- A checklist for evaluating an agency's numbers
What Is a Marketing KPI?
A KPI, key performance indicator, is a number you chose in advance because it shows whether you are reaching the goal. The goal is more customers. So a KPI is rarely "traffic" or "followers", but whatever sits closest to a customer: inquiries, sales and what they cost.
The difference between a KPI and a supporting metric is whether you make a decision based on it. Cost per inquiry steers the budget. Impressions only explain why the cost changed. Both belong in the report, but only the first belongs in the headline.
The Seven KPIs, With Formulas and Real Numbers
The table below lists the KPIs we report on. The numbers in the right column come from clients we work for, and are published on our service pages and case studies.
| KPI | Formula | Example from our clients |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per inquiry | Marketing cost divided by number of inquiries | $1,000 in ads and 20 inquiries gives $50 per inquiry |
| Conversion rate | Inquiries or sales divided by visits | 200 visits and 6 forms gives 3 percent |
| ROAS, return on ad spend | Revenue from ads divided by ad cost | Apotek for deg: ROAS 10, ten dollars back per ad dollar after one year |
| Organic growth | New users from search against the same period last year | Stas Artist: +199 percent in the first seven months after the new website |
| Revenue growth | Revenue against the same period last year | VuggeBaby: +108 percent March to May 2026, Google Analytics |
| Visibility in AI answers | Number of AI answers citing the website | mementor.no: 83 citations across 26 pages as of September 12, 2026, Ahrefs |
| Customer retention | Share of customers who buy again | Measured in the store's order data, not in the marketing tools |
Social media engagement is deliberately not in the table. Likes and shares are supporting metrics. They explain reach, but they pay no bills. If you want to measure social media, measure inquiries and sales with tracking per channel, as we show in our guide to influencer marketing strategy. Paid advertising to decision-makers on LinkedIn is measured the same way.
Cost per Inquiry Is the One That Matters Most for Small Businesses
It ties marketing directly to what matters: new customers through the door. If you also know what an average customer is worth, one calculation tells you whether the marketing pays off. If a customer is worth $750 and an inquiry costs $50, the answer is yes. If it costs $800, the answer is no, however much traffic the campaign brought. The math is the same for LinkedIn advertising, where one inquiry often costs more but is also worth more.
Conversion Rate Tells You About the Website, Not the Ads
If the conversion rate drops while traffic holds, the landing page is failing, not the channel. How to find out what stops visitors is covered in our guide to SEO analysis. For the basics of search, start with what SEO is.
ROAS Is Not ROI
ROAS says what the ads returned. ROI subtracts every cost, including the agency fee and cost of goods. An agency that reports ROAS 10 without mentioning your margin is telling half the truth. Ask for both, and calculate ROI with your own numbers.
New in 2026: How Visibility in AI Answers Is Measured
More and more people ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google AI Mode instead of scrolling through search results. The agency therefore also has to measure whether your business gets cited in AI answers. This is the newest KPI in the toolbox, and it is measured like this:
- The AI Assistant channel in GA4: Google added the channel on May 13, 2026. It automatically collects visits from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Grok and DeepSeek, with no setup required.
- Know the limits: Perplexity is not included and lands under Referral. Clicks from Google AI Overviews count as organic search, and visits without a referrer land as direct traffic. The numbers are a floor, not a ceiling.
- Search Console: Clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in the performance report. If impressions rise while clicks stay flat, you are probably being cited without clicks.
- Citations counted by tools: Ahrefs and similar tools count how many AI answers cite the website, per platform. That is the number we put in the monthly report.
An example from our own Search Console: the Norwegian version of this article gets impressions for the query "which digital marketing agencies are best in Norway?", at position 6. Nobody types that into a search box. It is the question AI Mode asks on the searcher's behalf, and it produces impressions without clicks. That is why "impressions without clicks" has to go into the report as its own number.
Want to understand how to get into the AI answers? Read our guide to AEO optimization.
Our Report Template: Five Questions on the First Monday of the Month
A report without a recommendation is just a spreadsheet. Ours takes under an hour per client and answers five questions. Here it is filled in for a fictional service business, with numbers close to what we actually see.
| Question | This month's numbers | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| 1. How many inquiries came in, and from which channel? | 14: 8 organic, 5 Google Ads, 1 direct | Hold |
| 2. What did each paid inquiry cost? | $800 divided by 5 gives $160, the limit is $150 | Swap two keywords before raising the budget |
| 3. Is organic moving? | Clicks +12 percent against last month, +40 percent against last year | Hold |
| 4. Which keywords sit on page two? | Three service terms at positions 11 to 16 | Rewrite those three pages in October |
| 5. Are we cited in AI answers? | 4 citations, up from 1 | Add FAQ schema to the service pages |
Five rows, one decision per channel, dated. Three months later, the decisions show whether the agency is doing its job, not the charts. The template is the same one we use in our guide to measurable results in digital marketing.
That is how we report ourselves. Mementor is a marketing agency measured on enquiries and revenue, not on clicks and impressions.
When the Numbers Slip: What the Agency Should Do
Numbers should lead to action, not to a new chart. An agency that sees cost per inquiry rising has three moves, in order: change keywords or audience, change the ad copy, and finally the landing page. The budget is never raised before one of the three has been tried. A/B testing two versions is the tool, and one month is the minimum test period for small accounts. Shorter gives too few numbers to conclude anything.
Three Ways a Report Gets Misread
Most mistakes do not happen in the numbers, but in how they are read. These are the three we see most often when we take over clients from other agencies.
- The month is compared with last month, not last year. An accountant always has more inquiries in January than in July. Seasonality explains more than the campaign. Always compare with the same month a year earlier.
- Traffic gets celebrated, inquiries get forgotten. Traffic can double because an article ranks for a question nobody buys anything from. Look at the inquiries first, the traffic second.
- The tracking is trusted blindly. Conversions get counted twice when Google Ads and GA4 each report their own, or not at all when the consent banner blocks them. Check that the number of inquiries in the report matches the number of emails in the inbox. Do it every month.
Checklist: How to Judge an Agency's Numbers
If you are evaluating an agency, ask for these five things before you sign. An agency that cannot deliver them is not measuring what it says it measures.
- A sample report from a client like you, with inquiries and cost per inquiry at the top.
- Access to the numbers yourself, not just a PDF every month. You should own Google Ads, Analytics and Search Console.
- References with numbers, like our client stories and client reviews. Ask to speak with one of them.
- One decision per month, written down. What was changed, and why.
- A price that matches the delivery. What is normal is covered in our guide to marketing agency prices.
How We Report at Mementor
We believe clients should see the same numbers we do, every day. That is why our SEO and AEO clients get their own dashboard with daily updated data:
- Rankings in both Google and AI search
- Local keyword tracking per city, with Google Business Profile and maps
- Tracking of how your business appears in Google AI answers
- Citation analysis: which AI services cite you, and for what
- Competitor tracking in AI answers, so you see who wins the questions
The monthly report with the five questions comes on top. That way you never have to wait for it to know whether the work is paying off. Read more about what is included in our SEO packages and AEO packages, and how we work as an SEO agency.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 5 key performance indicators in marketing?
For most businesses: number of inquiries, cost per inquiry, conversion rate, return on ad spend, and organic growth against last year. Add AI citations if you publish content. Traffic, impressions and followers are supporting metrics, not KPIs.
Which KPIs matter most in digital marketing?
Cost per inquiry, conversion rate and return on ad spend (ROAS) matter most for most businesses. They tie marketing directly to revenue. Traffic and engagement are supporting numbers that explain why the main numbers change.
What is a good ROAS?
It depends on your margin. A store with a 50 percent gross margin needs a ROAS above 2 just to break even on the ads, and above 4 to make money after the agency fee. Apotek for deg reached 10 after one year, but that is an online pharmacy with many repeat purchases. Calculate with your own numbers.
How often should an agency report?
A monthly report is the minimum for ongoing work. Even better is live access to the numbers, so you can check status whenever you want. Always ask for reports that show inquiries and cost per inquiry, not just clicks and impressions.
How do you measure visibility in AI answers?
With three sources: the AI Assistant channel in GA4 shows visits from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Grok and DeepSeek, Search Console shows impressions and clicks including AI Overviews, and tools like Ahrefs count how many AI answers cite the website. Perplexity has to be followed separately, it lands under Referral in GA4.
What should a client report contain?
Inquiries and cost per inquiry, conversion rate, traffic per channel, keyword and AI visibility trends, and a clear recommendation for next month. A report without a recommendation is just a spreadsheet.
Final Words
Measuring marketing success is about choosing a few numbers that lead to decisions, and reading them at a fixed time every month. Cost per inquiry, conversion rate, ROAS and AI citations are enough for most businesses. The rest is supporting data.
If you are still looking for a partner, read our guide on choosing the right marketing agency. If you want to build a measurable strategy from scratch, the template is in our guide to measurable results.
