You've hired someone to run your marketing. A month goes by. A report lands in your inbox, full of numbers, percentages, and terms nobody explained to you. CTR. CPL. ROAS. Reach. Impressions.
You skim it, nod, and move on, hoping it means things are going well. That's not your fault. But it is a problem, because a report you can't actually read is a report you can't hold anyone accountable to, including yourself.
Here's how to actually read one, in plain language, so you know whether your money is working.
First: a good report should never need translating
Before we get into the numbers, one thing matters more than any of them: a report that requires a marketing degree to understand is already failing you. Any competent marketer can and should explain what happened this month, in two or three plain sentences, before a single chart appears. If your report opens straight into a wall of numbers with no explanation of what they mean for your business, that's the first thing to push back on.
The shape of a genuinely useful report always looks roughly like this:
- What happened this month, in plain language. Is it on track or not?
- The numbers that matter, compared to last month, not just this month in isolation.
- What was actually done, the real work behind the numbers.
- What's coming next.
- Anything they need from you: a decision, an approval, an asset, or an honest "nothing needed this month."
If a report is missing that plain language summary at the top, ask for it. You shouldn't have to decode a spreadsheet to know if things are going well.
The core numbers, decoded
Reach and Impressions. How many times your ad or post was seen. This is the weakest number in any report on its own. Lots of people seeing something means nothing if none of them do anything about it. Treat this as context, never as the headline.
Click Through Rate (CTR). Of the people who saw your ad, what percentage clicked. This tells you whether your ad is actually interesting to the people seeing it. A low CTR usually means the wrong audience, weak creative, or both, not that "the platform isn't working."
Cost Per Lead (CPL). How much you paid, on average, to get one person to raise their hand: fill a form, message you, book a call. This is one of the most useful numbers in the whole report, because it's directly comparable month to month. If it's rising steadily with no explanation, that's worth asking about directly.
Conversion Rate. Of the people who clicked or messaged, what percentage actually became a paying customer. This is where a lot of "the ads aren't working" complaints actually live. Sometimes the traffic is fine and the problem is what happens after the click: a confusing website, a slow reply, an unclear offer. For most Nigerian SMEs, that "after the click" moment happens on WhatsApp, not on a website, so a serious report should track reply speed and follow up, not just clicks.
Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). For every naira spent on ads, how many naira came back in sales. A ROAS of 3 means every one thousand naira spent brought back three thousand naira in revenue. This is the number that answers the question you actually care about: is this profitable?
Engagement Rate (for social media). Likes, comments, shares, saves, as a percentage of people reached. Useful for judging whether your content is genuinely landing with people, but be careful, this number alone doesn't tell you whether any of it turned into customers.
Three questions to ask every single report
1. "What does this number mean for my actual goal?"
A report that says "reach was up 12%" without explaining what that means for your bookings, your sales, or your customer count isn't finished. Every metric should be tied back to something you actually care about: more customers, more calls, more bookings, more revenue. If it isn't, ask directly.
2. "Compared to what?"
A single month's number in isolation tells you very little. Insist on seeing this month against last month, every time. A number moving in the wrong direction over two or three consecutive months matters far more than any single snapshot.
3. "What did you actually do, and what's next?"
Numbers alone don't tell you whether the work is being done properly. A good report always lists the concrete actions taken, what was built, tested, fixed, or launched, and what's planned for the coming month. If a report is all charts and no actions, something's being hidden or nobody did much real work.
The red flag to watch for
Be genuinely cautious of a report stacked with dozens of different metrics and no clear headline. When someone throws thirty numbers at you with no story tying them together, it's often because there's nothing in particular worth reporting, and the volume is meant to look like effort. A sharp operator picks the two or three numbers that actually matter for the month and explains them plainly. Everything else is noise dressed up as diligence.
The bottom line
You don't need to become a marketer to manage one. You need a report that speaks to you like a smart business owner: plain language first, the right numbers second, always tied back to whether your actual business is growing. If what you're getting right now doesn't do that, it's fair to ask for a different format. It's your money. You're entitled to understand exactly what it's doing.
Founder, Vyllan
Wisdom founded Vyllan after running SEO, paid ads, social media and outreach for live, paying clients across several brands and agencies.