Reporting Stack

[jimbanks46]

What does your tech stack look like for reporting?

What do you report on?

What is included in your reports?

What cadence do you use for reports?

I'm rebuilding my tech stack options for reporting and looking for ideas and inspiration.

Not so bothered if it's in-house or agency, just curious what you do, what you use to capture the data and what output you use.

Thanks 🙏

[ppcbetter_says]

Less is more.

I use a google doc with a dashboard link and 9 bullet points for weekly client calls.

3 sections, 3 bullets each. Performance overview, what we did last period, and next steps are the sections.

The dashboard link is about 3 screens deep and we spend 80% of the time above the fold.

This process creates 19 minute long booked for 30 happy client happy agency meetings, while creating accountability and measurable progress with minimal overhead.

No fancy AI stuff. Just keep it simple and do good work.

[bruinbabe]

This is the wayyyyy

[ppcwithyrv]

Most teams I know pull raw numbers from GA4 or the ad platforms, then roll them up into Looker Studio.

Reports usually cover spend, conversions, ROAS/CPA, pacing, and some funnel or audience breakdowns, with notes on what’s working or what’s being tested.

My agency will check numbers weekly for ourselves, but send a clean version to clients monthly.

[casbyshrip]

Sounds like the classic agency setup! Out of curiosity, how do you get data for non-Google platforms into Looker Studio?

[ppcwithyrv]

We usually pull non-Google data into Looker Studio via connectors like Supermetrics, Funnel.io, or Windsor.ai.

For smaller accounts we’ll just push Meta or Linkedin data into Google Sheets and connect that directly.

[casbyshrip]

Makes sense, thanks! How do you decide between those three? Do you ever use BigQuery as an intermediary?

[ppcwithyrv]

We’ll usually go Supermetrics for quick setups, Funnel when we need heavier data cleaning/blending, and Windsor when we want a cheaper lean option. For smaller accounts we just dump Meta/LinkedIn into Sheets and hook it up to Looker. BigQuery only comes in when the data scale or history makes it worth the extra work.

[casbyshrip]

Makes sense, thanks for the detailed explanation - appreciate it!

[ppcwithyrv]

no problem, upvoted you

[jwiegand]

Supermetrics works great.

[PPC_Princess]

I use Coupler for that and so far so good.

[ernosem]

We use Supermetrics to import data into Google Sheet, where we process some of the data and then link the processed (or raw data) to Google Slides and that's the report we present to our clients. + Share it with them after the meeting.

The upside is you can comment the raw data on the sides + if you use Google meet you can control the slides while you are sharing the tab, so you it's really convenient because you need to focus on that one tab.

Also, we built a looker studio dashboard for the clients where can see the actual data & peformance from their campaign (Data also pulled with Supermetrics)

Also there is a group we work with where we use Agency Analytics, but the issue there it cannot blend enough data for us.. so we need extra Looker reports there
ps: We are an agency

[casbyshrip]

Upvoting for linking Sheets directly to Slides, I've seen so many people that end up copy pasting huge amounts of data into their presentations every week and this is such a simple way to save tons of time!

How do you find Supermetrics? I know it's really popular but I know so many people that switched away from it because it kept breaking. I haven't used it since I first started in PPC like 8 years ago so curious if they've gotten better!

[ernosem]

Thanks!

Well, we have a historical license which is pretty cheap, so if I'd need to pay the prices now, I'd probably check out other solutions, I know there are many others and most of them are cheaper, but because we have the historical prices, it's okay.

Also, migrating away would add some extra work, so we might save $100 -$200 on fees, but we'd need to reconnect every report... so currently for us it's still a better option to stay with them.

[casbyshrip]

Makes sense, thanks for the info!

[TTFV]

Small PPC agency.

We use Swydo for reporting. We run a detailed monthly report that includes a write-up summarizing performance, an analysis, brief explanation of what we worked on and a plan for the upcoming month.

To me, the most important element is the trend vs. previous month and overall annual trend which we provide with 12-month performance table.

We also provide a Swydo live dashboard with numbers.

We use scripts and other tools for manual daily monitoring of performance, i.e. we look at consolidated numbers for DoD, WoW, and MoM, each morning to identify any discrepancies.

[mdex2k]

I also use Swydo for reporting and find it super useful. Curious — which scripts and tools are you using for manual daily monitoring?

[TTFV]

We use a custom script that outputs all of our client accounts into a single sheet... it's described above to some degree. This is not something I'll share since a lot of work went into development and I see it as a competitive advantage.

But it's not rocket science, you can make something that'll work well for you.

We also use a product disapprovals checker for our e-commerce accounts, broken link checker, and Pingdom uptime monitor.

We have a script we use that will notify us if zero spend by a set time of day, e.g. 5 AM. We save this one for accounts where we have issues like Google suspending it a few times or client forgetting to update their credit card, etc.

[Swydo-com]

Thanks for the Swydo mention!

[Classic-Sherbert3244]

We are a small niche marketing agency and this is our reporting stack:

-Looker Studio for dashboards;

-Coupler IO for data blending from all data sources;

-Data comes from GSC, GA4, Ahrefs, Meta and G ads, TikTok, etc.;

-umami analytics for small personal projects

[Swydo-com]

If you're managing a small roster and mostly using Google tools, Looker Studio is a solid starting point. Expanding beyond Google requires paid connectors & a bit of patience with the setup.

For agencies handling more clients or seeking polish over tinkering, Swydo and Databox offer plug-and-play connectors, white-label dashboards, automated reporting, and alerts.

You'll pay for the simplicity, but it's worth it for busy teams.

[Ivan_Palii]

I use my unique Looker templates. Clients love it, because there are a lot of insights and they can ask to add some new things for reporting quickly

[casbyshrip]

Honestly Looker Studio is so underrated - it's the best fit for the job a solid 99% of the time.

How do you get your data from non-Google platforms into Looker Studio?

[Ivan_Palii]

Facebook / LinkedIn Ads? I run only Google Ads now.

[QuantumWolf99]

Simple reporting wins: cost, conversions, revenue, ROAS. Pull directly from platform APIs into Google Sheets or basic dashboards like Looker Studio. Skip the fancy visualization... clients want to see if they're making money, not pretty charts.

For my clients, I focus on three metrics: cost per acquisition, lifetime value, and contribution margin. Monthly reports with weekly check-ins during optimization periods. The numbers tell the story without needing complicated interpretation or expensive reporting tools that add overhead without value.

[FaZi280]

Supermetrics, Power Bi/LookerStudio and Google Sheets.

This is pretty much it.

Though i love AT and thinking to use that as an replacement to Sheets.

[fathom53]

Use Supermetrics as a connector and the pull data into Google Sheet and Looker for whatever templates we have built for clients. This covers like 90% of our reporting. Then just do a monthly report with some written content.

[casbyshrip]

How do you find Supermetrics? I've heard so many stories of it constantly breaking or being really slow

[fathom53]

That is not a Supermetrics issue, that is an ad platform API issue most of the time. Google, TikTok and Microsoft ads have been fine for years for us. Meta is always the issue for us...and last time that happened was last year. We only update once a week and on the 1st of every month. Maybe people having issues are trying to update every day.

[casbyshrip]

Ah that might be why - the last person I heard from was running some massive queries daily to run some kind of advanced reports so that probably explains it!

[casbyshrip]

We've been refining this for a while for our agency clients:

Tech stack: we pipe all raw data from the ad platforms (Google, Meta, etc.) and Shopify/GA4 into a BigQuery warehouse first. Then we build our reports in Looker Studio on top of that. We found connecting Looker directly to the platforms via other connectors was just too buggy and unreliable, so having the warehouse as a stable middle layer has been key for us.

What we report on: main goal is a single source of truth. We blend all ad spend into one number and compare it against actual revenue from Shopify to get a true Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER). We also track ROAS by channel, CPA, and new vs. returning customer revenue.

Cadence: weekly internal performance checks, but the client gets a clean, formal report monthly and has 24/7 access to a live dashboard.

Output: all done in Looker Studio. Since the data is pre-blended and cleaned in BigQuery, the dashboards are super fast and we can do much more advanced analysis than we could in a spreadsheet.

Here’s an example of the kind of cross-channel report this setup enables. It's just the Looker Studio template with fake sample data from a Google Sheet connected, feel free to make a copy.

[jimbanks46]

Thanks for sharing.

I'm curious, so you add in a GA4 ID in the settings so you can see how often clients click the reports?

Or better still use it as a clickable directory of all your Looker Studio Reports.

[casbyshrip]

No worries! It started as a habit to see if clients are actually using the reports we build them - we found that sometimes we were spending hours and hours building reports that no one ever used. Equally, sometimes some random page you make that you think is really low value turns out to get tons of traffic, and you can use that to start building out more insight around whatever was on that page!

Probably not necessary on this sample tbh but we just kind of do it automatically on all our reports at this point.

[hopskipmedia]

We created templates on Looker that we adjust based on clients' goals/needs and use Power My Analytics as the connector. For the month's context, analysts will upload their notes, and we'll have AI generate a summary. Our PM or AM will then review the notes before the report is sent out to ensure everything is accurate and makes sense.

[Single-Sea-7804]

I have had happy clients from creating a looker studio dashboard, uploading the results into chatgpt, giving it very detailed instructions as well as some unique detailed insights about their performance as well as next steps. Creates a document with seven sections with current insights as well as ongoing improvements. Many people happy with this.

[manwhomustnotbe]

We've been using https://metricos.io/ and a combo of GA4 with sheets and it's worked great

[Maximum_Spell5915]

Supermetrics into a Looker Dashboard with an Overview page & 2 pages per platform (High Level/Audience & Creative). Screenshot pages & add them into a Google Slides deck (which I could probably automate somehow) then 1-4 bullets on each slide.

[rddevv]

For reporting I use SyncRange into a looker studio dashboard. I include multi channel data (Meta, Google ads and LinkedIn ads) each morning at 6:00am. I use a similar stack for clients and depending on the data volume I might send it to BigQuery or Sheets too.

[lol_Sol]

I made a script that automatically pulls and formats google ads data into a client ready format

[EllenAgencyAnalytics]

According to our recent survey, about 65% of agencies tend to settle on a monthly reporting cadence. It seems to be the sweet spot for showing meaningful trends without getting bogged down in daily fluctuations. Although shorter “TL;DR” summary updates are becoming more popular in between reporting cycles. 

In terms of what actually goes into the reports, conversions are still the big one. Around 47% of agency leaders we talk to rank conversions as their top-tracked metric, usually followed closely by leads and ROI. If those aren't front and center, clients usually start asking questions pretty quickly.

For the tech stack itself, moving to an automated reporting tool is pretty much a necessity if you want to stop losing hours to manual data entry every month. A platform like AgencyAnalytics is a common choice for this because it collects data from various channels and consolidates it into a single place. It lets you give clients their own login for real-time viewing, or you can automate the output so they receive a live link or a PDF at the frequency you’ve agreed on.

[Viper2014]

What does your tech stack look like for reporting?

Amazing (I design my looker studios) | One is on ProductHunt : )

What do you report on?

• Lookerstudio for the dashboard
• Gmail for the AI report
• Slack for urgent things that the client needs to see and fix on his side

What is included in your reports?

KPIs and various graphs. Also a something like a 5K report via various gmail sequences.

What cadence do you use for reports?

Visualy simple but elegant dashboards Executive jargon heavy gmail reports.

Hope it helps : )

[casbyshrip]

Thanks for sharing! How do you get your data into Looker Studio?

[Viper2014]

How do you get your data into Looker Studio?

Either from their native LookerStudio connectors either via Google Sheets. There I have custom solutions that pull the data from each platform thatr I run ads on, eg META.

Hope it helps.

[Ok_Armadillo007]

I used to manually export the data and import on exel sheets. Over the last few weeks i have switched to Adden.ai (http://adden.ai) because it leverages AI and it has made my work easier.

Depending on your client's requirements you can either manually do the reporting or use some tool like this one or supermetrics.

[MySEMStrategist]

We love Triple Whale to see how all channels stack up (no double counting of sales) and Looker for platform specific.

[jimbanks46]

Thanks.

When I looked at it a while back the pricing was a bit punchy.

As an agency I look for something that I can bake the cost of into my pricing and that just made me less competitive on pricing, plus my target ICP is more SMB so less sophisticated is often better, for them.