meta-reporting

name	meta-reporting
description	Use when producing a monthly written performance report from verified platform and campaign data. Produces monthly performance report with actions and caveats; use `meta-dashboard-design` when that neighbouring contract is the closer match.
metadata	{"portable":true,"compatible_with":["claude-code","codex"]}

Monthly Social Media Performance Report (Written Document)

Note: This skill produces the written monthly report. This repository has no active standalone deck skill. If a presentation is required, hand the verified measurement proof pack to design-system-skills; do not claim that this engine produced a deck.

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Use When

• Use this skill for producing a monthly written performance report from verified platform and campaign data.
• Confirm that meta-dashboard-design is not the closer route before proceeding.

Do Not Use When

• Use meta-dashboard-design when its narrower output is requested.
• Do not publish, spend, change a live account, certify compliance, or invent missing client evidence.

Required Inputs

Artefact	Source/provider	Required?	If absent
Platform exports, targets, spend, conversions and prior-period baseline	Client, approved systems, or dated platform exports	Yes	Stop the affected decision; request it or mark the field unknown and narrow the output.
Purpose, audience and approval boundary	Client brief or accountable owner	Yes	Return discovery questions; do not infer approval.

Outputs

Artefact	Consumer	Acceptance condition
Monthly performance report with actions and caveats	Client lead and next workflow owner	Every recommendation traces to an input, names an owner or next action, and marks assumptions and unassessed checks.

Evidence Produced

Evidence	Format	Acceptance condition
Decision and source register	Table in the deliverable	Each material claim records its source/date or is labelled unverified; missing evidence never becomes a pass.

Capability and permission boundary

Read and search access to the supplied artefacts are required; calculation or file-rendering capability is optional. This is read-only by default: inspect and report without changing source records, accounts, skills or campaigns. Editing the deliverable requires explicit authorisation; publishing, production mutation, destructive action, spend, and certification claims require separate explicit authority and evidence.

Degraded mode

If files, platform access, network, rendering, fonts, or calculation tools are unavailable, return the narrowest useful qualified monthly performance report with actions and caveats. Mark each blocked check not assessed, state the consequence, and provide the exact evidence needed to resume. Never convert an unavailable check into a pass.

Decision rules

Choice	Action	Failure or risk avoided
Platform exports, targets, spend, conversions and prior-period baseline is current and attributable	Produce the full monthly performance report with actions and caveats and cite the evidence used.	Decisions based on stale or unrelated evidence.
A material input is missing or contradictory	Stop that decision, request clarification, or issue a labelled partial result.	Fabricated precision and false confidence.
The requested outcome belongs to meta-dashboard-design	Route there and hand over the verified inputs already collected.	Neighbour collision and duplicated work.

Workflow

1. Confirm the requested decision, consumer, market, period and permission boundary; route to meta-dashboard-design if its contract is closer.
2. Inventory the required inputs and their provenance. Stop any decision whose critical evidence is absent; recover by requesting it or recording a bounded assumption.
3. Apply the domain method in the core sections below, following the decision table whenever evidence conflicts or scope changes.
4. Verify calculations, dates, named platforms and claims against the supplied sources; label inference and uncertainty.
5. Produce the monthly performance report with actions and caveats, decision/source register and explicit next owner. Do not mutate live systems without separate authority.
6. Run the repository anti-slop ship gate. If a blocking factual, permission or evidence defect remains, fix it or withhold release.

Quality Standards

The output is client-specific, uses British English and the stated market/currency, distinguishes observed fact from inference, exposes gaps, and gives a checkable acceptance condition. Recommendations must be feasible within the confirmed budget, capacity and permissions.

Anti-Patterns

• Using an undated benchmark as the client's result. Fix: use account evidence or label the benchmark as a provisional comparator.
• Producing the monthly performance report with actions and caveats without platform exports. Fix: stop the affected decision or issue a clearly bounded partial output.
• Treating missing access or data as a successful check. Fix: record not assessed, its risk and the recovery input.
• Absorbing meta-dashboard-design into this workflow. Fix: route the neighbouring output and hand over verified inputs.
• Publishing, spending or editing a live account during planning or review. Fix: obtain separate explicit authority and retain action evidence.

Worked example

Given verified platform exports, the skill produces a monthly performance report with actions and caveats with source dates and named assumptions. If that evidence cannot be accessed, it returns only the supported sections plus a recovery list; it does not fill gaps with East African defaults.

Read next

• meta-dashboard-design for the neighbouring contract.
• anti-ai-slop during production.
• ai-slop-audit at the release checkpoint.

References

• Anti-AI slop production gate
• Measurement proof pack
• Follow the directly linked repository skills above and any domain references named in the core sections below. Verify current platform, price, legal and regulatory claims before use.

Required Input

Before generating the report, collect the following from the consultant:

• Client name and trading name (if different)
• Industry and sector
• Country / city (default: Uganda / Kampala)
• Primary goal (from the strategy document)
• Report period (e.g., March 2026 — specify the full month)
• Consultant name (for the report header)
• Platform metrics for the month — for every active platform, provide:
  • This month's figures for all tracked KPIs (see Section 2 for the full metric list per platform)
  • Last month's figures for comparison
  • Agreed targets (from the strategy document or agreed with the client)
• Paid ad data (if applicable): spend, reach, cost per result, best-performing ad description
• Notable events or issues this month: Anything that influenced performance — a product launch, a public holiday, a crisis, a viral post, a platform outage, a boost campaign
• Top posts: Links or descriptions of the 3 highest-performing posts this month across all platforms

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Reporting Principles

Data storytelling structure: Every section of any report must follow the sequence Insight → Context → Recommendation. Presenting raw metric tables without interpretation is not acceptable. State what the data shows, explain what caused it, then recommend what to do next. This applies at section level and at individual metric level.

Chart type selection (Raaz, c.2023): Select chart types by data relationship — not by preference. Trends → line chart; comparisons → bar chart; proportions → donut chart; user behaviour patterns → heatmap; conversion stages → funnel chart. Never use 3D charts — they distort proportions and reduce legibility.

Real-time monitoring tier: For clients running active campaigns, add a live dashboard layer providing same-day visibility of: ad spend pacing, campaign reach, and conversion events. Metrics warranting real-time monitoring: ad spend vs. daily budget (real-time), campaign reach and frequency (same day), conversion events (same day). Metrics suitable for weekly reporting: engagement rates, follower growth, content performance. Metrics suitable for monthly reporting: ROI, COCA, CLV by cohort.

Mobile-responsive design standard: All client dashboards must be readable on a mid-range Android smartphone without zooming or horizontal scrolling. Recommend Google Looker Studio for EA clients — free, Google-integrated, and mobile-accessible. Apply: single-column layout; minimum 14px body text; maximum 6 charts per dashboard view.

Funnel CVR benchmarks (Kahan, 2022): Use these as standing reference benchmarks in monthly reports to assess client performance against industry norms.

Funnel Stage	Benchmark CVR
Visitor-to-lead	>5%
Inquiry-to-lead	~3%
Lead-to-opportunity	~25%
Opportunity-to-deal	~40%

Revenue sourced by channel (first-touch): Include in quarterly reports a table showing what percentage of revenue each channel sourced on a first-touch attribution basis. Columns: Channel | Inquiries sourced | % of total inquiries | Revenue attributed | % of total revenue. This prevents sales from absorbing credit for marketing-generated opportunities and provides the evidence base for budget allocation decisions (Kahan, 2022).

Monthly data quality audit: Build a monthly data integrity check into the reporting workflow before producing any report. Verify: spam filter exclusions applied in GA4; bot traffic exclusions active; tracking tag firing confirmed via GA4 DebugView; UTM coverage rate (percentage of links using UTM parameters). A report built on corrupted data is worse than no report (Raaz, c.2023).

Lead score distribution chart: For clients using lead scoring, include a lead quality distribution chart in monthly reports — showing the percentage of leads at high, medium, and low score bands. This is a leading indicator of campaign quality, not just campaign volume. Declining scores in the high band indicate targeting drift before it appears in revenue figures (Kahan, 2022).

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Output: Complete Monthly Report

Generate a complete, client-ready document using the structure below. Write in British English. Use a professional but accessible tone — this document is read by business owners, not digital marketing specialists.

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Report Header

[CLIENT NAME] — Social Media Performance Report Report period: [Month Year] Prepared by: [Consultant name] Date submitted: [Date] Prepared for: [Client contact name and title, if known]

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1. Period Summary

Write three paragraphs. Each paragraph serves a specific function:

Paragraph 1 — What happened this month Summarise the overall performance direction: up / stable / down. Name the platforms that drove the most activity. Reference total reach or total engagement if available. Set the tone — this paragraph tells the client immediately whether it was a good month or a challenging one, without requiring them to read the tables.

Paragraph 2 — Most significant achievement or challenge Identify the single most noteworthy thing from the month. If it was a strong month: what was the standout win and why does it matter? If it was a challenging month: what was the main difficulty and what caused it? Be specific — name the platform, the metric, and the magnitude.

Paragraph 3 — Strategic implication Explain what this month's performance means for the strategy going forward. Does it confirm the current approach is working? Does it suggest a pivot is needed? Link back to the client's primary goal. Keep this forward-facing — the client should finish the summary knowing what to expect or do next.

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2. Platform-by-Platform KPI Table

Produce one table per active platform. Use the traffic light system:

• Green: on target
• Amber: slightly below target (within 15% of target)
• Red: below target (more than 15% below target)

Include a one-sentence commentary below each platform table noting the most important trend.

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Facebook

Metric	Last month	This month	Target	Status	Change %
Page likes / followers
Post reach (total)
Engagement rate (avg)
Messages received

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Instagram

Metric	Last month	This month	Target	Status	Change %
Followers
Reach (total)
Engagement rate (avg)
Saves (total)
Reel views (total)

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LinkedIn

Metric	Last month	This month	Target	Status	Change %
Page followers
Impressions (total)
Engagement rate (avg)
Post link clicks

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WhatsApp

Metric	Last month	This month	Target	Status	Change %
Broadcasts sent
Estimated open rate
Enquiries received via WhatsApp
Catalogue views (if applicable)

Note: WhatsApp Business Analytics are limited. Open rate is an estimate based on read receipts where visible. Enquiry tracking requires the client to log incoming messages by source.

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TikTok

Metric	Last month	This month	Target	Status	Change %
Followers
Total video views
Average video completion rate
Total shares

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YouTube

Metric	Last month	This month	Target	Status	Change %
Subscribers
Total views
Watch time (hours)
Average view duration

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X / Twitter

Metric	Last month	This month	Target	Status	Change %
Followers
Impressions (total)
Engagement rate (avg)

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Only include tables for platforms the client is active on. Remove unused platform tables from the final document.

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3. Top 3 Posts This Month

For each of the three highest-performing posts:

Post [N] — [Platform], [Date]

• Content type: [Image / Video / Carousel / Reel / Text]
• Key metric: [Reach: X / Engagement rate: X%]
• Analysis: Two sentences. Sentence one: describe what the content was and what it said. Sentence two: explain specifically why it performed well — format, hook, topic relevance, timing, emotional pull, or audience fit.

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4. What Worked This Month

Three bullets. Each bullet must be specific — name the platform, the tactic, and the result. Avoid generic statements such as "video content performed well." Write instead: "Instagram Reels posted on Tuesday and Thursday mornings achieved an average engagement rate of 6.2%, above our 4% target, driven by the behind-the-scenes production content series."

• [Specific win 1]
• [Specific win 2]
• [Specific win 3]

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5. What Did Not Work This Month

Two bullets. Be honest. Name the platform, the tactic, and the likely cause of underperformance. Include a proposed fix — what will change next month as a result.

• [What underperformed] → [Proposed fix]
• [What underperformed] → [Proposed fix]

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6. What We Are Testing Next Month

List 2–3 experiments planned for the coming month. For each, state:

• What the test is (specific tactic or format)
• The hypothesis (why this might work)
• How success will be measured

This section demonstrates strategic thinking and keeps the client informed of the approach before it is executed.

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7. Paid Social Performance

Include this section only if paid ads were running this month. If no paid activity occurred, replace this section with a single sentence: "No paid social activity this month."

Metric	Value
Total spend this month	UGX / USD [amount]
Total paid reach
Cost per result	UGX / USD [amount] per [result type]
Best-performing ad	[Brief description — format, audience, offer]

Recommendation for next month's paid activity: One paragraph. Should the spend increase, decrease, or stay the same? Which audience or format should be prioritised? What should be changed in the creative or targeting?

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8. Recommendations for Next Month

Produce 3–5 specific recommendations. Each must follow this format:

[N]. [Title]

• What to do: Specific action
• Why: Evidence from this month's data that supports the recommendation
• Expected outcome: What should improve and by how much (or by when)

Ensure recommendations are grounded in the data from this report — not generic best practices unconnected to the client's actual results.

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Report Footer

Next report date: [First week of following month — specify date] Prepared by: [Consultant name] | [Consultant email or contact] Data sources: Platform native analytics (Meta Business Suite, LinkedIn Analytics, TikTok Business Centre, YouTube Studio, X Analytics). All metrics are platform-reported. WhatsApp metrics are partially estimated due to platform limitations.

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Quality Criteria

Output meets the standard if it:

• Period summary paragraphs are written in plain English, readable by a business owner without digital marketing expertise
• Every KPI table uses traffic light status correctly — green is only assigned when the target is met or exceeded
• Top posts analysis explains why each post worked — not merely what the post was
• "What did not work" section is honest and includes a proposed fix for each item, not just an observation
• Recommendations are each linked to specific data from the report — no generic advice
• Paid social section (where applicable) includes a clear spend-versus-result assessment and a forward recommendation
• Report footer specifies the next report date and data sources
• British English throughout — no American spellings

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Framework Reference

Apply the RACE framework (Chaffey, 2024) when interpreting platform data: metrics map to Reach (awareness), Act (engagement, clicks), Convert (enquiries, sales), and Engage (loyalty, repeat engagement). Note which stages are strong and which need attention.

Chaffey, D. (2024) Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. 8th edn. Harlow: Pearson. Bodnar, K. and Cohen, J. (2012) The B2B Social Media Book. Hoboken: Wiley.