The 5 Numbers Your Marketing Agency Should Show You Every Week

The report should fit on one page and end with a decision.

HospoPro’s current service model is built around one plain-English report every Monday, covering bookings, covers, spend and return where the data supports it.

Start with the focus

The first line should state what the marketing was trying to do.

For example:

Focus: Fill Tuesday dinner with the pasta-night campaign.

Without that line, the numbers float without context.

A campaign can generate inexpensive clicks and still fail if the business goal was completed bookings.

The five numbers at the top

A useful report should begin with no more than five primary measures.

For a booking campaign, that might be:

1. Media spend
2. Completed bookings attributed or assisted
3. Covers where available
4. Cost per booking
5. Booking-page conversion rate

For a private dining campaign:

1. Media spend
2. Enquiries
3. Qualified enquiries
4. Cost per qualified enquiry
5. Confirmed function value where known

Choose measures that match the focus.

Do not use the same dashboard for every campaign.

Separate facts from estimates

Restaurant marketing data is rarely perfect.

A guest may:

• See an ad and book later by searching the venue name
• Receive an email and call the venue
• Click on one device and book on another
• Visit after a friend’s recommendation
• Make a walk-in decision after seeing several pieces of content

The report should distinguish:

• Directly tracked: completed action recorded through the campaign path
• Platform reported: action attributed by Meta or Google
• Operational: booking or POS data from the venue
• Estimated or assisted: useful inference, clearly labelled

False precision damages trust.

What supporting metrics are for

Reach, impressions, views, clicks and engagement help explain performance.

Examples:

• Low reach may indicate limited budget or delivery
• Strong reach with weak clicks may indicate poor creative or offer
• Strong clicks with weak bookings may indicate a page or availability problem
• Strong booking starts with weak completion may indicate friction in the booking system
• High frequency with falling response may indicate creative fatigue

These measures diagnose the path.

They are not the table.

The one-page layout

Section one: this week’s focus

• Campaign name
• Service or booking type
• Date range
• Main audience
• Primary action

Section two: the score

Use a small table.

Leave a field blank when the data is not reliable. Do not invent it.

Section three: what worked

Write three short observations.

Examples:

• Group-table imagery produced more booking starts than close-up food creative.
• The email generated the highest proportion of returning guests.
• Search traffic converted better on Friday afternoon.

Section four: what did not

Examples:

• The late sitting had poor availability in the booking system.
• One advertisement received clicks but the page did not explain the set menu.
• A broad keyword spent without producing qualified actions.

Section five: what changes next

This is the most important section.

Examples:

• Move budget from the sold-out sitting to 7:45 pm.
• Replace the weak creative with a group-table image.
• Add the menu and dietary information above the booking button.
• Exclude irrelevant search terms.
• Send a reminder email to non-bookers.

A report without a next action is history, not management.

Cost per booking is useful, not sufficient

A $12 booking can be excellent or poor depending on what it represents.

Ask:

• How many covers are in the booking?
• What is the expected spend?
• Is it a quiet service?
• Is it a first-time or returning guest?
• What is the cancellation rate?
• What contribution remains after direct service costs?

The same acquisition cost can have very different value.

Do not claim all revenue

If the venue had strong existing demand, marketing should not claim every table during the campaign.

Use:

• Tagged booking links
• Campaign-specific pages
• Promo or source fields where appropriate
• Booking-platform reports
• Call tracking where suitable
• Reasonable comparison periods

Google’s conversion tracking is designed to connect ad interactions to meaningful actions and identify which ads and keywords contribute to results.

Still, attribution has limits. State them.

The Monday note

The report should include one human paragraph.

For example:

Tuesday improved, but the first sitting now carries most of the demand. This week we are moving the campaign toward 7:30 pm, adding the later sitting to the landing page and replacing the single-dish ad with a shared-table image.

That paragraph tells the owner the account is being managed.

What the owner should do with the report

The owner or manager should answer three questions:

1. Is the operational information correct?
2. Can the venue fulfil the demand being generated?
3. Does the next action make commercial sense?

The review should take minutes, not a meeting about screenshots.

Report red flags

Be cautious when the report:

• Changes definitions every month
• Combines media spend and fees without clarity
• Shows percentages without underlying numbers
• Claims all bookings after a campaign launched
• Hides failed tests
• Celebrates impressions while the page is broken
• Contains no next action
• Arrives too late to affect the current week

A reporting template you can copy

Focus: Period: Spend: Primary result: Cost per result: Operational result: What worked: What did not: What changes this week: Owner action required:

One page. One decision.

See the HospoPro reporting system

HospoPro reports the active campaign in plain English and ties the numbers to a specific next action.

HospoPro

THE TEAM THAT RUNS THE CAMPAIGNS

We run the photos, posts, ads, email and reporting for hospitality venues across South East Queensland. Everything in this guide comes from doing the work on live venues, not a textbook.

REVIEWED BY THE FOUNDERS