What to report: results first, views second

The short version

Open every report with the thing the business wanted to happen. Views go in the second line, as the explanation for how you got there.

The post that taught me this

The Shinola campaign reached about 72,000 views. On a page that does millions a month, that is an ordinary number. The collection it was promoting sold out in two hours.

If that report had opened with views, it would have read as an average post. It was one of the best results we have had. The order you report in decides what people think happened.

The order I report in

1. The outcome. Sold out, signed up, booked, followed. One number, the one the client asked for.
2. The action rate. How many of the people who saw it did the thing.
3. Who it reached. The right people in the right place matter more than the total.
4. Views and engagement, as supporting detail.
5. What I would change next time. A report with no next step is a receipt.

Set it up before you post

You cannot report an outcome you did not plan to count. Before anything goes out, agree on the one result that matters and how it will be measured: a comment keyword, a tracked link, a code, a sign-up page that only this post points to.

Write down the number from before the campaign too. "More than 1,000 sign-ups" means a lot more when everyone remembers the list started at zero.

When the outcome is hard to measure

Sometimes the honest answer is that you cannot tie a sale to a post. Say so, and report the closest thing you can stand behind: saves, shares, profile visits, direct messages asking where to buy. A modest number you can defend beats an impressive one you cannot.

The one-line version for the finance person

Here is what we wanted, here is what happened, here is what it took. If the report cannot be reduced to that sentence, it is not finished.