What is a lead generation report?
A lead generation report is a document that consolidates data from multiple sources (e.g., CRM systems, LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads) to track and display key performance indicators (KPIs) (e.g., lead conversion rate, cost per lead, lead quality), enabling teams and agencies to monitor lead acquisition performance and create presentations for clients and executives.
Lead generation reports are typically created using flexible tools like Google Looker Studio, Power BI, Google Sheets, or platform-specific solutions to enable high customization and integration of multiple data sources.
What to include in a lead generation report?
An actionable lead generation report balances context and specificity based on the audience (executives, managers, and analysts) and their use cases.
Executive lead generation reports
Executive reports for CMOs, CEOs, and clients show the bottom-line impact of lead generation efforts. Reviewed weekly, monthly, or quarterly, they include:
- Lead generation ROI analysis: by channel, using attribution models for large budgets (≈100k/mo).
- Lead quality analysis: assessing the quality and potential value of leads generated
- Cohort analysis: lead conversion and retention by cohort (sign-up period, acquisition channel)
- Add text for additional context to translate metrics for non-technical audiences. Present in slide decks and simplified Looker Studio reports.
Lead generation manager reports
Manager reports have cross-channel views with drill-downs to see performance by client, brand, region, team member, funnel stage, and campaign. They help align teams, define tactics, and include:
- Cross-channel reporting: overall lead acquisition, product, client, or region reporting across channels
- Goal tracking: compare current performance vs objectives
- Audits for prioritization and spotting issues
- Competitive analysis for channel and tactic mapping
- Lead source and quality research
Operational Lead Generation Reports
Operational reports for analysts and channel managers have granular, customizable KPIs to solve technical issues. Monitored hourly, daily, or weekly, they cover:
- PPC: budget pacing, engagement, lead cost, CPA
- Social: lead metrics, follower growth, engaging topics/hashtags
- Email: delivery, open, lead conversion rates
- SEO: keyword/page rankings, impressions, clicks, speed, errors, backlinks
Operational lead generation reports are highly customized, built in flexible tools like Google Sheets or Looker Studio to enable data cleaning, blending, annotations, and integrating multiple sources.
How to build a lead generation report?
To build a lead generation report, connect your data sources, choose a template on Looker Studio or Sheets, build your queries by selecting metrics and dimensions, choose charts to visualize your data, customize the report, design and share via link, PDF or email.
Here’s the breakdown:
Connect data sources
Define and connect the data sources to bring to your report. Common sources are Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads for PPC performance, CRM systems for lead data, and social media platforms for engagement metrics.
To connect your data sources, go to portermetrics.com, choose the data sources to bring to your report.
You can follow these tutorials on connecting your data:
Choose a template
Choose from dozens of lead generation report templates in Google Sheets or Looker Studio, designed for use cases like lead tracking, budget pacing, funnels, and lead quality assessment.
Learn to copy Looker Studio templates.
While templates are the starting point. Make them specific for your business or agency. Map your specific metrics, especially custom conversions, CRM contact data, and all the fields and metrics that you define as "leads" and "revenue".
Depending on your reporting tool—Google Sheets or Google Looker Studio, pick any of the dozens of templates created by our team and customers to solve your lead generation reporting use cases, such as lead tracking, budget pacing, funnels, and lead quality assessment.
Select metrics, dimensions, and charts
Once your report template is downloaded, you may 1)modify it or 2) create a blank page to build it from scratch. Whatever the case, setting up a query always follows these steps:
- Select the data source and the account connected to it
- Choose metrics (e.g. Leads, spend, Sessions, CPL, etc.).
- Choose breakdowns to segment your data (e.g. by date, campaign name, lead source, etc.)
You can follow these tutorials on adding data to your reports
Design
To make your lead generation reports truly white-label you can add logos, colors, fonts, and styling to mirror your brand.
Follow these tutorials to design your lead generation reports:
Share
Share your lead generation reports via links, PDF, schedule emails, and control permissions.
KPIs to include in a lead generation report?
Lead generation reports should include a mix of funnel—visibility, engagement, conversion—,efficiency, effectiveness, revenue, and cost metrics and KPIs to fully understand the performance of lead generation efforts towards business goals. They include:
Lead generation funnel KPIs measure the buying process (from the marketer perspective), regardless of the channel:
- Visibility metrics: impressions, reach, followers, email deliveries
- Engagement metrics: clicks, comments, shares, video plays, Sessions, average time
- Conversion metrics: leads, lead conversion rate, key events
Efficiency KPIs compare your lead generation outputs to the cost, including:
- Visibility: CPM (Cost per Mille)
- Engagement: CPC (Cost per Click)
- Conversion: CPL (Cost per Lead), CPA (Cost per Acquisition)
Effectiveness KPIs compare the input with the output from one funnel stage to another
- Visibility: Frequency
- Engagement: CTR, engagement rate
- Conversion: Conversion rate
Sales and cost KPIs show the bottom-line impact of your lead generation performance:
- Sales: customers, revenue
- Cost: ad spend, OPEX, payroll
- Efficiency: ROI, ROAS, CAC
- Effectiveness: AOV, ACV
To analyze these lead generation KPIs, segment them by:
- Channel: paid, social, LinkedIn Ads vs Google Ads
- Time: Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly
- Campaign: funnel stage, objective
- Business: client, branch, region
- Audience: geo, tech, demographics, interests, behavior, placement
- Content: creatives, format, topic, keyword
