Short answer: lead with the honest headline, show the cause with evidence, separate what was in your control from what was not, and end with a specific plan and a date for the next check-in. Tell the client before the report lands if the drop is large. Keep the report format exactly the same as in good months.
Every ad account has bad months: an auction gets expensive, a creative burns out, a landing page breaks, a season ends. Clients rarely leave because of one bad month. They leave because the bad month was a surprise, the explanation was vague, or the report seemed to be hiding something.
Step 1: warn them before the report arrives
If results fell meaningfully against target, send a short message or make a quick call a day or two before the report. Something like:
"Heads up before Monday's report: October came in below target. Cost per purchase rose and we have found the main reasons. I will walk you through it in the report, along with what we are changing this week."
The client now hears it from you, knows you are on it, and reads the report looking for the plan instead of looking for someone to blame.
Step 2: lead with the honest headline
The first line of the report should say what happened in plain words. Do not bury it under three pages of charts or open with a metric that went up while the important one went down.
Weak: "Reach increased 22% and CTR remained strong this month."
Strong: "Purchases fell from 410 to 330 and cost per purchase rose 19%. The main cause was rising auction costs in the second half of the month; the creative refresh came a week too late."
Leading with the bad news builds more trust than any good number further down.
Step 3: compare fairly
A single month-on-month comparison can make a normal seasonal dip look like a disaster, or the reverse. Show at least:
- this period against last period;
- this period against the same period last year, where data exists;
- this period against the three-month average.
If last November was also weak, say so. If this is the worst month in a year, say that too. The point is context, not excuses.
Step 4: show the cause with evidence
Most bad months come from a handful of causes. Each one leaves a trace in the data, so show the trace:
| Cause | Evidence to show |
|---|---|
| Auction costs rose (seasonality, competition) | CPM trend by week; CTR and conversion rate stable |
| Creative fatigue | Frequency rising, CTR falling on the top ads over several weeks |
| Website or offer problem | Clicks steady, conversion rate down; checkout or form errors |
| Tracking broke | Platform conversions drop but store orders do not |
| Budget or targeting change | Date of the change against the daily results chart |
| Demand fell | Search volume, site traffic from all sources and organic sales also down |
Step 5: own your part, name the rest
Split the causes into two lists: what the agency controlled and what it did not. If a creative refresh was late, or a test ran too long, say so in one sentence. Then name outside factors without hiding behind them. Clients forgive mistakes that are admitted with a fix attached. They do not forgive the feeling that the agency always has an excuse.
Step 6: give a specific plan
"We will keep optimising" is not a plan. A plan has actions, owners and dates:
- Launch three new creatives built on last quarter's best hook by Wednesday.
- Move 20% of budget from the prospecting campaign with the highest cost per purchase to the retargeting campaign that held steady.
- Client to confirm the checkout fix with their developer by Friday.
- Check-in call in two weeks with a short interim update.
A shorter feedback loop after a bad month (an interim update or a weekly report for a while) shows the client you are watching closely.
What not to do
- Do not change the report format. Removing a section that looked bad, or switching to different metrics, is noticed.
- Do not switch attribution settings to make numbers look better. If you change them, say why and show both.
- Do not flood the report with extra charts. More pages read as more excuses.
- Do not promise a rebound by a date you cannot control. Promise the actions, not the outcome.
The structure in one view
1. Headline: what happened, in one sentence. 2. Fair comparison: last period, last year, three-month average. 3. Cause, with the chart that proves it. 4. What we controlled and what we did not. 5. The plan with dates. 6. Next check-in.
The same structure works for good months, which is why it is worth using every time. Read more in how to write client ad reports that clients actually read. Adsorra keeps every client's report in the same format every period and highlights the creatives that drove the change, so the evidence is ready when you need it.
Frequently asked questions
Should I tell the client before the report arrives?
Yes, if the drop is significant. A short message or call before the report means the client hears it from you, with context, instead of discovering it in a PDF.
How do I show a bad month without making it look worse?
Compare against the right periods (same month last year, the last three months), show the cause with evidence, and keep the layout the same as good months. Changing the format during bad months looks like hiding something.
What if I do not know why results dropped?
Say so, list what you have ruled out, and give a date for the next update. Clients accept uncertainty far better than vague explanations.