Monthly reporting · Synthetic worked example
Prepare a monthly client briefing that knows what the evidence can say.
A useful client update moves from the material change to the source, then to a careful next step. This example shows how a second supporting report can narrow a likely driver without turning an association into a proven cause.
First pass: what the monthly report establishes
The synthetic March–April monthly report (PDF, page 1) records higher spend, lower tracked revenue and fewer leads. The account manager should preserve the metric label tracked revenue and say which two months are being compared. The table supports these statements, but it does not give a cause.
| Measure | March 2026 | April 2026 | Client-safe reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | $12,000 | $12,600 | Up 5% |
| Tracked revenue | $74,000 | $68,000 | Down about 8.1% |
| Landing-page sessions | 5,000 | 5,000 | Reported total unchanged |
| Leads | 400 | 310 | Down 90 |
| Landing-page conversion | 8.0% | 6.2% | Down 1.8 percentage points |
“Lead efficiency deteriorated during April” is a supported interpretation: the same reported session volume produced fewer leads while ad spend increased. It is not yet an explanation of why conversion or tracked revenue changed.
Pause before naming a cause
Cause not established from current evidence. The monthly summary contains no device or campaign breakdown, form diagnostics, tracking audit or causal test. The next action is to request supporting evidence, not to fill the gap with a familiar story about creative, audience or landing pages.
Ask which segment accounts for the lead change, whether conversion behavior changed in that segment, and whether form events or tracking configuration changed. A device breakdown and form event report would help investigate. Attribution and sales timing may also matter for the tracked revenue comparison.
Second pass: add supporting diagnostics
The separate synthetic supporting report (PDF, page 1) provides device totals and form event counts. The mobile segment accounts for all 90 fewer reported leads in this table: mobile leads fall from 240 to 150 while desktop leads remain at 160. Mobile sessions remain at 3,000, and mobile conversion falls from 8.0% to 5.0%. The same source reports mobile submit errors rising from 2 to 72, while desktop errors remain at 1.
| Measure | March | April | What it supports |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile sessions | 3,000 | 3,000 | Stable reported mobile volume |
| Mobile leads | 240 | 150 | 90-lead decline in mobile |
| Desktop leads | 160 | 160 | No reported desktop lead change |
| Mobile submit errors | 2 | 72 | Form issue signal |
Source-supported likely driver: Mobile form submission problems are a likely contributor to the lead decline. The device and error patterns are consistent with that assessment. They do not prove that every lost lead was caused by the form, nor do they establish why tracked revenue fell. Verify the form behavior and event definitions before making a stronger claim.
Put the qualified assessment into the client briefing
Synthetic, human-review draft
“April ad spend rose from $12,000 to $12,600 while tracked revenue declined from $74,000 to $68,000. Leads fell from 400 to 310 even though the report shows 5,000 landing-page sessions in both months. A supporting device report places the lead decline in mobile and shows a rise in mobile form submit errors. That makes a mobile form problem a likely contributor to the lead decline, not a proven cause of the revenue change. We will verify the mobile form path and tracking before recommending a cause-specific fix.”
The account owner should check both PDFs beside the script. If the supporting report is unavailable or its event counts are unreliable, remove the likely-driver sentence and return to “cause not established from current evidence.” The 60-second sample video and written demonstration briefing are prepared assets; editing a note in the public demo does not render a new video.
A compact review sequence
- Confirm the input. Use a PDF with selectable text. Check that dates, units and metric labels survived extraction.
- Classify each sentence. Separate verified facts, supported interpretations, likely drivers and recommendations.
- Trace the driver. Show the source for the device pattern and the form event pattern; inspect whether the measurements use comparable periods and definitions.
- Retain the limit. The synthetic sources are not a controlled test. They do not establish the cause of the revenue decline or prove each lost lead came from a form error.
- Approve both deliverables. Review the written wording and the video captions against the approved evidence packet before sharing with a client.
Related reporting problems
Try the two-source briefing workflow.
In the synthetic demo, add prepared supporting evidence, inspect the source controls, approve the qualified likely driver, and see the written and captioned video output.
Try Scenario B