Client Ops · Monthly review
Monthly client review outline
A thin What / Why / Next ritual for retainers. Something a client will read. Not a deck that needs a meeting to decode. Flat months are valid. No ROAS hero claims.
Why a ritual beats a deck
Monthly reviews fail when they become vanity galleries: too many charts, no decisions, metrics nobody agreed on. A short ritual forces three questions every month: what moved, why you think it moved (labeled as hypothesis when needed), and what happens next with an owner.
Numbers must come from platforms you can open. This outline does not auto-pull analytics. Activity-only months are fine when that is all you have.
Design skeleton (keep it thin)
- Cover · Client name, month, agency name, one-line scope (e.g. Meta + Google retainer review)
- Summary · 5–8 lines: what mattered this month in plain language
- Charts (≤3) · e.g. spend, primary result count, efficiency (CPA/CPL or similar). Build in Sheets yourself; no auto-graph claim
- Decisions · Up to three next actions, each with owner and time box
What / Why / Next
What changed
- Spend, shipped work, and observations vs last month
- Which campaigns or channels moved (up, down, or flat)
- Access, tracking, or creative blockers
Why (best guess)
- Budget, seasonality, creative fatigue, auction noise, site issues, incomplete data
- Separate observed (from Ads / GA4) from hypothesis (labeled)
Next
- Keep / cut / test: name the action
- Owner (agency or client)
- Time box (e.g. next 2 weeks)
- Do not promise outcomes ("this will lift ROAS")
Month-log habit
Each month, log one row: spend, primary results, CPA/CPL (or n/a), short notes. At quarter end, roll rows into a simple Sheets chart if you want a trend line. Documented for humans; no auto-graph product claim.
Cover email (short)
Subject: {{CLIENT_NAME}} monthly review - {{MONTH_LABEL}}
Hi {{CLIENT_NAME}} team,
Attached / linked is the {{MONTH_LABEL}} review from {{AGENCY_NAME}}.
In short:
- What: [one sentence]
- Why: [one sentence; label hypothesis if needed]
- Next: [up to three decisions]
Happy to walk through on a short call: {{SUPPORT_CALENDAR_URL}}
{{AGENCY_NAME}} · {{AGENCY_CONTACT_EMAIL}}What this is not
- Not a Looker / BI auto-dashboard
- Not a results or ROAS guarantee
- Not DFY media buying or coaching