The Marketing Operations Strategist - The 9 Marketing Reports That Actually Matter

Hey! 👋

Hope you’re doing well!

So….every CMO wants dashboards.
Every exec wants a narrative.
Finance wants insights into marketing performance.

And, of course, everyone wants everything right away. So, where do you start? Which reports are table stakes vs. vanity metrics? 🤔

There are (at least) nine reports I build in every org.

I’ll break them down for you, after a quick word from our sponsors:

What it shows: Where leads stall or drop off
Why it matters: You want to run a tight ship or you risk losing leads and revenue

How to pull it:
- Count leads at each lifecycle stage: MQL, SQL, Opp, Closed Won
- Calculate the conversion rates between each stage

Conversion Rate (%) =
(Number of conversions ÷ Number of people at previous stage) × 100

Example:

Use this to spot where handoffs, integration, automation, or targeting are breaking down. If SQL to Opp is weak, sales might not agree with your definition of qualified, or they may not know which playbook to run on a new lead source! If you can catch issues early in these reports, you can fix before they start to really impact the business.

🕵️‍♂️ Pro Tip: If you have HubSpot MAP, there is a native lead lifecycle functionality. While this comes with some drawbacks (namely, records can’t go backwards/go back through the lifecycle more than once), it’s really nice to quickly set it up and already have all of the tracking fields built for you. In other platforms, you tend to have to set up a bunch of custom fields and automation logic to implement the same capability.

What it shows: Pipeline or revenue that came from marketing
Why it matters: This is the metric that gets marketing into the boardroom

How to pull it:
- Filter opportunities where campaign source or lead source is marketing
- Sum closed-won revenue from those opps
- Compare to total revenue for the period

Formula:
(Marketing-Sourced Revenue ÷ Total Revenue) x 100

Example:
$2.5M sourced by marketing
$10M in total revenue
= 25% contribution

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but I do want to add a note — you want to have these numbers in your back pocket, and if they look great, brag about them — but you don’t want to be in a position where your CMO is having to justify Marketing’s existence via this metric. Having all of these reports handy and resolving issues early will help prevent Marketing getting put in that precarious position.

What it shows: How long it takes for a lead to become revenue
Why it matters: If you don’t know your cycle length, you can’t forecast pipeline coverage or see if there are slowdowns

How to pull it:
- Use created date and stage change timestamps in your CRM
- Calculate average time between MQL, SQL, Opp, and Closed

Example:

If you want deals to close in Q4, this report tells you when you need to generate them. This will also help you see any slow-downs (or hey, we can be positive — speed-ups?) early so you can try to mitigate or set expectations with execs or the Board.

What it shows: How efficient each marketing channel is
Why it matters: This is your go-to when budget conversations start — and a way to defend your best investments

How to pull it:
- Match revenue to each channel using attribution or campaign source
- Subtract spend from revenue
- Divide by spend, multiply by 100

Formula:
((Revenue - Spend) ÷ Spend) * 100

Example:
Webinars: $15K spend, $75K revenue = 400% ROI
Paid media: $40K spend, $128K revenue = 220% ROI

Many orgs go way too complex with attribution — this report is a great place to start, without going overboard. Do you typically see high ROI from webinars? That can help you prioritize channels, especially if budgets get cut.

What it shows: How much you’re spending to generate real pipeline
Why it matters: MQLs are cheap. SQLs are where the buying starts

How to pull it:
- Calculate total spend per campaign or vendor
- Divide by number of SQLs generated

Example:
LinkedIn Ads: $20K spend, 80 SQLs = $250 per SQL
Content Syndication: $8K spend, 10 SQLs = $800 per SQL

This will help you cut underperformers and double down on what works — HOWEVER, with all of these reports, remember that Marketing is both an art and a science. Don’t make a decision based on only one of these reports, make sure you look across reports for trends and context.

What it shows: Which sources actually create pipeline and revenue
Why it matters: Simple, reliable, and easier to explain than complex attribution models

How to pull it:
- Group opportunities by lead source
- Sum total opps and revenue for each

Example:

If you’re getting $850K from organic without paid support, that’s typically a signal to invest more in SEO. Keep an eye out for which sources are low cost and high ROI — they could serve you well in a down market.

What it shows: Which industries or account types bring in the biggest contracts
Why it matters: Helps focus ABM, outbound, and content by segment

How to pull it:
- Group closed-won opps by industry, account tier, or region
- Calculate average revenue per deal

Example:

Everyone loves ABM nowadays, but the budget isn’t unlimited, so this report can help you decide where to spend each dollar. If some segments close way bigger deals than others, you could justify spending more on acquiring those customers.

What it shows: Which programs are creating real conversations
Why it matters: Revenue starts with meetings, not MQLs

How to pull it:
- Track campaign source or UTMs tied to meeting bookings
- Group by channel and count

Example:

MQLs are great, but request-a-demos tend to be even better in terms of spend and close rate. This one gets ignored too often…but when you show the CMO/CRO/CEO which events or ads created sales conversations, they will take you more seriously as an advisor. The conversation becomes less about territorialism and more about everyone winning together.

What it shows: Which customer groups are starting to slip
Why it matters: Retention is more cost-effective than acquisition. Marketing should have a seat at that table too

How to pull it:
- Export churned or canceled accounts
- Group by industry or customer type
- Compare churn rate quarter over quarter

Example:

Now you can build marketing win-back campaigns, onboarding content, or educational programs targeted by risk level! You can build a relationship with customer success, and it usually makes a big difference for the overall business because it is more cost effective to retain/land-and-expand than it is to churn and constantly have to get new customers.

In my opinion, yes. They overlap what CMOs care about, what RevOps trusts, and what Sales actually uses.

You could layer in attribution models or campaign influence tracking...but if someone asked, “What reports should every marketing org be able to explain, defend, and take action on?” it’s these. Of course, there are many more you can add in, don’t accuse me of oversimplifying! 😅 We all have to start somewhere.

Here’s how they map to who typically cares:

This isn’t about building reports, it’s about showing up with answers before someone asks the question. This helps us feel confident in our work and builds trust!

I’m ramping up to take an immersive Clay course, and super stoked about it! I also just saw Nikki Glaser live the other night — she is so funny! Lastly, I’m pulling together some plans to revamp my old website, saramcnamara.com (there’s nothing there yet, but hopefully soon! 🤞). Oh, and who else saw the finale of White Lotus?! SO GOOD!

New to marketing operations? On a team of one at your company? Shy/introverted? Wish you could ask a question to an experienced marketing operations professional, without them knowing who you are? Here’s your chance! Submit an anonymous question to me here and I’ll answer a new question in every issue.

Here’s my answer to a question from last week:

Ooohhh, this is a GREAT question. As always, the answer is — it depends. BUT! I can provide a bit of wisdom here.

If you want to work at a large enterprise org: certifications still matter. Many enterprise orgs won’t let you become an admin in a tool like, say, Salesforce, without a Salesforce Administrator certification. It’s their “insurance policy” in case you break something — they can point to others to say “well how did they become certified/they were certified by the vendor!” to avoid liability. 🙃

If you want to work at a smaller org: certifications don’t matter as much as they used to. Why, you ask? Well, to be blunt — a bunch of people put answer “dumps” online, and others are just really good test takers — and they were able to pass the certifications without spending as much as a day inside the actual tool. Companies started to get burned by relying on certifications only, so now they look more closely for real life experience running said platform.

For me, I still like to get a certification — either to familiarize myself with a platform I can’t get access to yet, or as a reinforcement of what I’ve learned after I’ve spent time working in the platform. But I wouldn’t advertise myself as “being certified” if I haven’t actually delivered any work in the tool.

What has your experience been? Curious to hear if folks are seeing the same thing out in the market, or if I seem off-base here!

Thanks for reading,

❤️ Sara