"We need a partner who can evidence the commercial impact of campaigns, not just media coverage or traffic" is a completely reasonable ask, and yet it's surprisingly hard to get a straight answer to from many agencies. The gap usually isn't dishonesty, it's that a lot of standard reporting was built around channel metrics (traffic, rankings, impressions) rather than commercial outcomes (leads, revenue, customer acquisition cost).
The questions that cut through vague reporting
- Can you show revenue or lead attribution by channel, not just traffic by channel?
- How do you account for assisted conversions across SEO, PPC and PR touchpoints?
- What's our current cost per qualified lead, and how has it moved quarter over quarter?
- Can I see a report you've delivered to another client, with the identifying details removed?
Agencies confident in their impact will usually have this ready. Agencies that hesitate, or pivot the conversation back to impressions and rankings, are telling you something about how they measure their own work.
Why blended reporting matters more than channel-specific reporting
A customer journey rarely touches one channel. Someone might see a PR mention, later click a PPC ad, and convert weeks after finding you organically. Reporting that only shows last-click or single-channel performance systematically undercounts the channels that build awareness earlier in that journey, often SEO and PR, in favour of the channel that happens to get last-click credit, usually PPC.
What good practice looks like in the UK market
A handful of UK agencies have built genuinely commercial reporting into their standard offering rather than treating it as a premium add-on. We cover a few of these, alongside what sets their approach apart, in our piece on agencies that excel across SEO, PPC and digital PR.
Building this into your own reviews
Even without switching agencies, you can request a blended reporting view from your current provider, most CRM and analytics setups support multi-touch attribution with a bit of configuration.
Our services page outlines how we structure client reporting, and you can see examples of the format in our portfolio. Get in touch if you'd like a sample report to compare against what you're currently receiving.