| name | analytics-reporting |
| description | Use when building KPI frameworks, designing dashboards, analyzing marketing performance, setting up attribution models, or creating automated reports. Covers Google Analytics 4, social media analytics, funnel analysis, cohort analysis, A/B test analysis, ROI calculation, competitive benchmarking, and stakeholder reporting. |
| user-invocable | true |
| allowed-tools | ["Read","Write","Edit","Grep","Glob","Bash"] |
Analytics & Reporting -- Performance Measurement and Data-Driven Decisions
1. KPI Framework
KPI Hierarchy
Business Objectives -> Strategic KPIs (quarterly) -> Tactical KPIs (monthly) -> Operational Metrics (weekly/daily) -> Raw Data (events)
Marketing KPI Categories
| Stage | Key Metrics |
|---|
| Awareness | Impressions, reach, brand mentions, share of voice, new sessions |
| Consideration | Engagement rate, CTR, avg session duration, email open/click rate |
| Conversion | Conversion rate, CPA, CPL, ROAS, marketing-sourced revenue, CAC |
| Retention | CLV, churn rate, NPS, repeat purchase rate, CSAT |
North Star Metric Selection
Must be: measurable, actionable, leading (predicts future revenue), and understandable company-wide.
| Business Type | North Star Example |
|---|
| SaaS | Weekly active users |
| E-commerce | Purchases per customer per quarter |
| Marketplace | Transactions completed per week |
| Content/Media | Daily reading time per subscriber |
| B2B Services | Monthly active projects per client |
Pick 3-5 supporting input metrics that drive the North Star (e.g., sign-ups/week, onboarding completion, feature adoption in first 7 days).
2. Google Analytics 4
Event Tiers
| Tier | Examples | Setup |
|---|
| Auto-collected | page_view, session_start, first_visit | None |
| Enhanced measurement | scroll, outbound_click, site_search, file_download | Toggle in GA4 settings |
| Recommended events | sign_up, purchase, add_to_cart, generate_lead | Manual implementation, standard names |
| Custom events | demo_requested, pricing_viewed, feature_compared | Manual, business-specific |
Setup Checklist
UTM Convention
utm_source: Platform (lowercase): google, facebook, linkedin, newsletter
utm_medium: Channel type: cpc, organic_social, paid_social, email, referral
utm_campaign: Campaign name (lowercase, hyphens): spring-launch-2026
utm_content: Variant for A/B testing: cta-red-button, hero-video
3. Attribution Models
| Model | Rule | Best For |
|---|
| Last-click | 100% to last touchpoint | Direct response, bottom-funnel |
| First-click | 100% to first touchpoint | Understanding awareness channels |
| Linear | Equal credit to all touchpoints | Long sales cycles |
| Time-decay | More credit closer to conversion | B2B with long consideration |
| Position-based (U-shaped) | 40% first, 40% last, 20% middle | Balanced full-funnel view |
| Data-driven (GA4 default) | ML-assigned based on patterns | Any business with 300+ conversions/month |
Implementation Steps
- Define conversions: Primary (purchase, sign-up), secondary (lead form, trial), micro (email sign-up, pricing view)
- Ensure tracking: UTMs on all links, cross-domain tracking, user ID stitching, click ID capture (gclid, fbclid)
- Set attribution window: B2C 7-30 days, B2B 30-90 days, Enterprise 90-180 days
- Build report: Channel contribution by model, assisted conversions, time lag, path length
4. Funnel Analysis
Marketing Funnel
| Stage | Metrics | Content Types | Goal |
|---|
| TOFU (Awareness) | Impressions, reach, new visitors | Blog, social, video, PR | Get noticed |
| MOFU (Consideration) | Engagement, email sign-ups, downloads | Whitepapers, webinars, case studies | Build trust |
| BOFU (Decision) | Demo requests, trials, pricing views | Demos, trials, ROI calculators | Convert |
| Post-funnel | NPS, retention, referrals | Onboarding, community, loyalty | Retain and expand |
Funnel Analysis Template
Stage | Volume | Conv % | Drop-off | Benchmark
Website visitors | 50,000 | --- | --- | ---
Engaged visitors | 15,000 | 30.0% | 70.0% | 25-35%
Lead (form fill) | 1,500 | 10.0% | 90.0% | 8-12%
MQL | 450 | 30.0% | 70.0% | 25-35%
SQL | 135 | 30.0% | 70.0% | 20-30%
Opportunity | 55 | 40.7% | 59.3% | 35-45%
Customer | 22 | 40.0% | 60.0% | 25-40%
Bottleneck: [Stage with lowest % or largest absolute drop]
Action: Improve [content/UX/targeting] at bottleneck stage
5. Cohort Analysis
Cohort types: Acquisition (sign-up month), behavioral (completed action X), channel (source), feature (adopted feature Y).
Retention cohort table: Rows = cohort month, columns = months since join, cells = % still active.
Action triggers:
- Month 1 retention < 40% -> Onboarding problem
- Month 3 retention < 20% -> Product-market fit concern
- Declining curves across newer cohorts -> Product degradation
- Improving curves -> Product improvements working
6. A/B Test Analysis
Test Design
Hypothesis: If we [change X], then [metric Y] will [increase/decrease]
by [expected %] because [rationale].
Primary metric: [Single winner-determining metric]
Guardrail metrics: [Must NOT degrade: page load, error rate, support tickets]
Sample size: [Calculate based on baseline rate and MDE]
Duration: [Until sample size reached -- no peeking]
Sample Size Quick Reference (95% confidence, 80% power)
| Baseline Rate | MDE 10% | MDE 20% | MDE 50% |
|---|
| 2% | 39K/variant | 10K | 1.6K |
| 5% | 15K | 3.8K | 625 |
| 10% | 7.2K | 1.8K | 306 |
| 20% | 3.2K | 838 | 144 |
Common Pitfalls
- Peeking before sample size reached (inflates false positives)
- Running too many variants without correction (Bonferroni)
- Ignoring novelty effect
- Testing during anomalous periods (holidays, outages)
- Declaring winner on secondary metric when primary was flat
7. ROI Calculation
Core Formulas
Marketing ROI = (Revenue from Marketing - Marketing Cost) / Marketing Cost x 100
ROAS = Revenue from Ads / Ad Spend
CAC = Total Marketing & Sales Spend / New Customers
CLV = ARPU x Gross Margin x (1 / Churn Rate)
CLV:CAC = Target 3:1 or higher
Payback = CAC / (ARPU x Gross Margin) -- Target < 12 months for SaaS
ROAS Benchmarks by Channel
| Channel | Typical ROAS |
|---|
| Google Search | 2x-8x |
| Google Shopping | 3x-10x |
| Meta Ads | 2x-5x |
| LinkedIn Ads | 1.5x-4x (higher CPL, higher deal value) |
| TikTok Ads | 1.5x-4x |
8. Social Media Analytics
Platform Key Metrics
| Platform | Engagement Rate Formula | Quality Signal | Benchmark |
|---|
| LinkedIn | (reactions + comments + shares + clicks) / impressions | Comments | 3-5% |
| Instagram | (likes + comments + saves + shares) / reach | Saves | 3-6% |
| X/Twitter | (likes + replies + retweets + clicks) / impressions | Bookmarks | 0.5-1.5% |
| YouTube | Watch time, avg view duration | Avg % viewed | CTR 4-10% |
| TikTok | Likes + comments + shares / views | Watch-through rate | 3-9% |
9. Dashboard Design
Principles
- One purpose per dashboard: Executive (KPIs), Campaign (performance), Content (post-level), Financial (ROI/budget)
- Visual hierarchy: Top = critical KPIs with trend arrows. Middle = trend charts. Bottom = detail tables.
- Always show context: Comparison periods, targets as reference lines, conditional formatting (red/yellow/green)
- Actionability: Every metric answers "so what?" -- include trend direction and anomaly highlights
Chart Type Selection
| Purpose | Chart Type |
|---|
| Compare categories | Bar chart |
| Trend over time | Line chart |
| Parts of whole | Stacked bar (avoid pie with > 5 segments) |
| Distribution | Histogram, box plot |
| Funnel stages | Funnel chart |
| Two-variable relationship | Scatter plot |
Anti-patterns: 3D charts, dual y-axes, truncated axes without indication, rainbow palettes, averages without variance.
10. Reporting Cadence
| Frequency | Content | Audience |
|---|
| Daily | Key metrics snapshot, anomaly alerts, spend pacing | Marketing team |
| Weekly | Full dashboard review, top/bottom content, WoW trends | Marketing team + leadership |
| Monthly | Channel attribution, funnel analysis, ROI by campaign, budget vs actual | Leadership + stakeholders |
| Quarterly | North Star progress, competitive landscape, strategy review, budget reallocation | Executive team |
Stakeholder-Specific Reporting
| Audience | Format | Focus |
|---|
| C-Suite | 1-page summary, 5-7 KPIs | Business impact: revenue, ROI, growth |
| Marketing leadership | 5-10 page dashboard | Channel performance, strategy progress |
| Marketing team | Interactive dashboard with filters | Tactical: engagement, CTR, conversion by ad |
| Sales team | Lead/pipeline report | Lead quality, source attribution, conversion rate |
The "So What" Framework
For every data point: (1) WHAT happened? (2) WHY did it happen? (3) SO WHAT should we do?
Template: "[Metric] [changed] by [X]% [period]. Driven by [cause]. Recommend [action], expected result [outcome]."
11. Data Quality
Monthly Audit Checklist
