How to Run Effective Marketing Reports in Hubspot

Building clear, actionable marketing reports in Hubspot helps you understand what works, what doesn’t, and where to invest your budget next.

This guide walks through how to gather the right data, structure your reports, and present insights that your team can actually use.

Why Reporting Matters in Hubspot

Marketing teams often collect large volumes of data but struggle to turn it into focused insights. A strong reporting process solves that problem.

Good reports help you:

• Track progress toward specific goals
• Align marketing and sales around shared metrics
• Decide what to scale, fix, or stop
• Communicate impact to leadership clearly

Whether you use Hubspot or another platform, the same principles apply: focus on goals, context, and decisions, not just numbers.

Step 1: Define the Goal of Your Report

Before pulling data, decide what question the report must answer. A report without a clear purpose quickly becomes a dashboard no one reads.

Common goals include:

• Measuring lead generation performance
• Understanding which channels drive pipeline
• Analyzing content engagement across stages
• Reporting on campaign ROI and revenue impact

Write the goal in one sentence, such as: “Show which campaigns created the most qualified leads this quarter.” Use that statement to guide what you include and what you leave out.

Step 2: Choose the Right Audience

Different stakeholders need different levels of detail. Tailor each report to a specific audience so it stays useful and readable.

Think about three main audience types:

• Executives: Want quick clarity on performance, budget, and risk.
• Marketing managers: Need channel and campaign insights to optimize strategy.
• Specialists: Care about granular metrics for daily execution.

For example, a C-level summary should emphasize high-level KPIs and trends, while a specialist view can dive into click-through rates or form conversion by asset.

Step 3: Select Metrics That Match the Goal

Once the goal and audience are defined, select a small set of metrics that directly reflect progress. Avoid long tables of numbers that do not change decisions.

Useful categories to consider include:

• Traffic and awareness: sessions, new users, channel breakdowns
• Lead generation: form submissions, new contacts, MQLs
• Pipeline and revenue: opportunities, deals, revenue by source
• Engagement: email opens, click-through, content views

Limit each report to a handful of primary KPIs and a short list of supporting metrics. This keeps your story focused and easy to scan.

Step 4: Add Context and Benchmarks

Numbers are only meaningful when compared to something. Add context so stakeholders can see if performance is strong, weak, or stable.

Use these comparisons regularly:

• Time-based: compare this month to last month or to the same month last year
• Goal-based: show progress against defined targets or quotas
• Segment-based: compare channels, campaigns, or personas

Highlight trends, not just snapshots. For example, showing three months of data by channel can reveal whether paid search is improving while organic stagnates.

Step 5: Organize Your Hubspot Report Layout

A clear layout makes your report faster to understand. Group related metrics and design the structure so readers can skim from top to bottom.

A simple layout might look like this:

1. Executive summary: one or two paragraphs with key wins, challenges, and decisions.
2. Top-level KPIs: traffic, leads, and revenue over time.
3. Channel performance: breakdown of performance by main channels.
4. Campaign or asset detail: performance of key campaigns, emails, or landing pages.
5. Next actions: what you will change or test based on the results.

Use headings, short paragraphs, and bullet points so stakeholders can quickly find what they care about.

Step 6: Turn Data into a Narrative

Raw data is not enough. Each report should tell a simple story that explains what happened, why it happened, and what you plan to do next.

When writing your narrative, focus on three questions:

1. What changed? Point out the most important movement in the data.
2. Why did it change? Offer a clear, hypothesis-driven explanation.
3. What will we do? List specific actions, owners, and timelines.

For example, you might write: “Organic traffic fell 10% month-over-month, driven mainly by lower impressions on three core posts. We will update those posts, improve internal links, and add fresh examples.”

Step 7: Share and Review Reports Regularly

Reports create value when they are shared, discussed, and used to guide decisions. Make reporting a consistent, collaborative practice.

Consider setting these rhythms:

• Weekly: short operational updates for the marketing team.
• Monthly: deeper performance reviews and optimization plans.
• Quarterly: strategic reviews with leadership to adjust goals.

During review meetings, focus on three outcomes: decisions, priorities, and ownership. Capture action items directly in your project management tool so they turn into real work.

Using Hubspot Data with Other Tools

You may combine reporting from multiple systems, especially when tracking full-funnel performance. Centralizing data makes it easier to see the complete customer journey.

Teams often connect platform data with:

• Business intelligence tools for advanced visualization
• Revenue systems for accurate attribution and forecasting
• Project tools to link initiatives to outcomes

If you need help designing a reporting framework or integrating multiple data sources, you can explore consulting options from firms like Consultevo, which specialize in marketing operations and analytics.

Common Reporting Mistakes to Avoid

Even experienced marketers run into the same reporting pitfalls. Watch for these issues and correct them quickly.

• Too many metrics: long, unfocused reports that no one reads.
• No clear owner: reports not maintained or improved over time.
• Lack of definitions: stakeholders disagree on what a metric means.
• Missing follow-through: no actions tied to insights.

Create a simple documentation page that defines your core metrics, data sources, and update cadence. This keeps everyone aligned and reduces confusion.

Example: Structuring a Monthly Marketing Report

Use this sample outline as a template when you build your own monthly report.

1. Overview and Key Results

• Summary of top three wins and top three challenges
• Snapshot of traffic, leads, and revenue vs. last month

2. Channel Performance

• Traffic and lead breakdown by organic, paid, email, and social
• Channel-specific insights and next steps

3. Campaign Highlights

• Performance of major campaigns launched or active this month
• Best- and worst-performing assets, with quick commentary

4. Pipeline and Revenue Impact

• New opportunities and closed-won deals influenced by marketing
• Average deal size and velocity, if available

5. Plan for Next Month

• Key experiments and optimization projects
• Dependencies and resource needs

Next Steps and Further Learning

Build your first version of a focused, goal-based report, then refine it each cycle. Over time, you will discover which metrics and views your stakeholders rely on most.

For a deeper look at the concepts behind marketing reporting, including examples and detailed explanations, you can review the original article on the HubSpot blog: how to run marketing reports.

Consistent, well-structured reporting creates a shared understanding of performance across your team and enables better strategic decisions month after month.

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