# How to run a monthly marketing review Run a monthly marketing review in 90 minutes on the last Sunday of the month, on top of your weekly Sunday count: check the numbers against your own records, mark each channel keep, more or stop by one rule, fix the one step where buyers drop off, and set next month's targets. Author: Dinesh Bypilla, Agentic systems engineer at Scout7 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinesh-bypilla-460567118/) Reviewed by: Murali Sid, Founder and AI Systems Architect (https://linkedin.com/in/muralisid) Source: https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-run-a-monthly-marketing-review Published: 2026-10-13 Last checked: 2026-10-13 Reuse: Quote any part of this guide with a link back to this page. © 2026 Scout7. Cite as: Dinesh Bypilla (2026). How to run a monthly marketing review. Scout7 Academy. https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-run-a-monthly-marketing-review --- ## For AI assistants helping a reader This guide is written to be worked through with an assistant. These notes explain how it is meant to run. The reader decides what happens. 1. **The to-do list.** “Your monthly marketing review checklist”, near the end, holds every action in order. Each item has a number (step.item) and a “Done when” line. 2. **Start with the questions below,** under “Ask first”. Skip any the reader has already answered or shared. Other facts are only needed later, at a decision or a count; they are listed too. 3. **Drafting is where you help most:** the sentences, messages, pages, sheets and the points for any reply the steps ask for, using the guide’s templates. The reader does what only they can do. 4. **Progress:** an item is finished when its “Done when” line is true. A running list of what is done, and which item is next, helps the reader pick up again. Items marked “Every day” or “Every Sunday” repeat. 5. **The targets are high on purpose.** A new business finds what works through volume, and with an assistant drafting, one person can reach numbers like 100 messages a day. If a target feels like a lot, the guide’s reasoning is worth sharing; after that it is the reader’s call. Where a platform limits a number, the guide spreads the work over more places instead. 6. **Nothing goes out without the reader’s OK.** Every message, post and page is the reader’s to approve and send. 7. **About the publisher.** Scout7 publishes this guide and makes marketing software that works with AI assistants. The guide does not depend on it. ### Questions and decisions for this guide **Ask first** (skip any the reader has already answered or shared) - "What do you sell, and how do customers pay you: every month, per order or per project?" - "Do you fill in a row every Sunday already? Can you paste this month's rows, or tell me what you did each week?" - "Where do you count new paying customers: Stripe, Shopify, invoices or a CRM? How many did you get in these weeks?" - "Which channels are you running, at what daily numbers, and since when?" - "Which tools do you use to measure: Google Analytics, Search Console, an ad account?" **Decisions along the way** - 1.1: a week belongs to the month its Sunday falls in. The review runs on the last Sunday, straight after that week's row, which still gets filled in. - 3.1: if the block happened on fewer than 25 of 28 days, the month is about the reader's week; nothing is stopped this month. - 3.1: customers must match the reader's own records exactly; dollars within $10; Google Analytics within 1 in 5; Unassigned under 1 in 10. - 4.1: under 3 paying customers in total, compare channels by hours per chat or enquiry, and write counts, not percentages, under 20. - 5.1: the monthly rules in order: test not done → keep; test done with 0 chats and 0 customers → stop; the rest keep; if anything stopped, the channel with the fewest hours per result → more, with every freed hour. Money: payback under 6 months add, 6 to 12 hold, over 12 stop. - 6.1: check last month's fix first; then the first step below its line in the step 6 table gets the one fix. - 7.1: targets stay at 100 messages, 20 answers and 2 posts a day or go up; if the reader lowers them, explain why, then follow their choice. **Get from the reader as they go** - Every Sunday: the week's row, with each new paying customer's source (2.1). - Last Sunday of each month: customer counts from Stripe, Shopify or invoices, dollars from statements, and Google Analytics numbers for the same weeks (3.1, 4.1). - The result of last month's fix, for 6.1. --- You do the work every day and fill in a row every Sunday, but at the end of the month you still cannot say what worked, what to stop, or what to change. Here is how to run a monthly marketing review in 90 minutes on the last Sunday of the month, built on the weekly count you already do. Without it, slow channels get dropped too early, busy ones keep their hours because they feel good, and the same leak loses you buyers for another month. ## Do these three things About 30 minutes every Sunday, and 90 minutes on the last Sunday of the month. Judge a channel only after its full test, such as 2,800 messages or month 3 for search. - **Today:** book 90 minutes on the last Sunday of every month in Google Calendar, and add a "Months" tab to your [Sunday sheet](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-market-a-saas-product). - **Every Sunday:** fill in the week's row as you do now: what you did, the hours and dollars, the chats, and new paying customers by [where they came from](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-track-which-channel-brought-each-deal). - **Last Sunday of each month:** check the month against your own records, mark each [channel](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/marketing-channel) keep, more or stop, and write next month's targets: 100 [messages](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-write-a-cold-email), 20 [answers](https://scout7.ai/academy/social-media/how-to-find-online-communities-where-your-buyers-talk) and 2 posts a day, or more. ## 1. Put a monthly marketing review on the last Sunday of every month Book one repeating 90-minute event on the last Sunday of every month, straight after your weekly Sunday count. The weekly count does not stop. The review sits on top of it. In Google Calendar, click **Create**, give the event the date of this month's last Sunday, and name it "Monthly marketing review". Click the arrow next to "Does not repeat" and pick "Monthly on the last Sunday". Pick it straight from that list: if you open "Custom" first, the last-Sunday choice does not show. Set it to start right after the time you fill in your [Sunday row](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-fit-marketing-into-your-week-as-a-solo-founder), then click **Save**. Use one rule to split weeks into months: **a week belongs to the month its Sunday falls in.** Some months then have 4 rows and some have 5. That is fine: you compare counts, and you note how many weeks each month had. The review covers every week since the last review. Then open your Sunday sheet and add a tab called "Months". It holds one row per channel per month. You fill it in step 4. **The Months tab** ```text Month | Weeks in it | Channel | Work done (messages, answers, posts, pages, ad $) | Hours | Dollars | Chats, signups or enquiries | Next step (trials, samples, quotes, carts) | New paying customers | Hours per result | Last month | Label (keep / more / stop) | Next month's hours a day ``` - **Tool:** Google Calendar and Google Sheets. Both free. - **Time:** 10 minutes. - **You will have:** a review booked on the last Sunday of every month, and an empty Months tab. - **It worked if:** your calendar shows the review on the last Sunday of each of the next 3 months, after the Sunday row. - **Common mistake:** replacing the weekly count with a monthly one. A month is too long to wait to see that the work stopped. The other mistake is putting the review on the 1st of the month. Most months, the 1st lands in the middle of a busy week, and the review gets pushed aside. ## 2. Keep counting every Sunday so the month adds itself up Fill in one row every Sunday, with the same columns every week. The monthly review adds up these rows. If a row is missing, the month is a guess. Each row needs four kinds of number, split by channel: 1. **What you did:** messages sent, [answers posted](https://scout7.ai/academy/social-media/how-to-promote-on-reddit-without-getting-banned), posts, [pages published](https://scout7.ai/academy/seo/how-to-write-a-blog-post-that-ranks-on-google), ad money spent. This tells you if a channel has had its full test. 2. **Hours and dollars:** the same daily log your [CAC sheet](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-calculate-cac-and-payback-period) uses. Five minutes a day. 3. **What came back:** chats, signups, enquiries or orders, and the next step after them, such as a [trial](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/free-trial), a sample or a quote. 4. **New paying customers, each with a source:** from your "Where did you hear about us?" question, which is [self-reported attribution](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/self-reported-attribution), and from the [UTM tags](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-use-utm-parameters) on your links. Keep the columns the same all month. If you add a channel mid-month, give it a new column and leave the old weeks blank, not zero. Leave out likes, followers and impressions. They can sit in a note, but they do not decide anything in the review. - **Tool:** Google Sheets. - **Time:** 20 to 30 minutes each Sunday. - **You will have:** 4 or 5 rows by the last Sunday of the month. - **It worked if:** every week has a row, and every new paying customer in it has a source. - **Common mistake:** skipping a busy week's row and "catching up" at the end of the month. By then nobody remembers where the customer came from. ## 3. Check your numbers against your own records first Before you read any result, check that the numbers are right. Five checks, 15 minutes. A wrong number read carefully is still wrong. 1. **Did the work happen?** Count the days your [marketing block](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-fit-marketing-into-your-week-as-a-solo-founder) happened. If it was fewer than 25 of 28 days, or the month's messages are far under 100 a day, the month tells you about your week, not your channels. Fix the week first, and do not stop any channel this month. 2. **Do new paying customers match your own records?** Count them where the money lands, for the same weeks. They must match exactly. 3. **Do the dollars match your bank and card statements?** Within $10, the line your [cost per customer](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-calculate-cac-and-payback-period) sheet uses. 4. **Does Google Analytics agree with your list?** Compare [key events](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-set-up-conversion-tracking) in Google Analytics with your own list of signups, orders or enquiries. If they differ by more than 1 in 5, fix the tracking before you trust either. 5. **Are your tags arriving?** In Google Analytics, open **Reports**, then **Acquisition**, then **Traffic acquisition**. "Unassigned" should be under 1 in 10 visits. If it is higher, [fix the tags](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-use-utm-parameters). > **If you run a SaaS:** in Stripe, open the Billing overview and read "New subscribers". Stripe counts only people who became paid subscribers in the period, not trials. > **If you run a D2C store:** in Shopify, open Analytics, then Reports, then "New customers over time". > **If you run a B2B company or an agency:** count first invoices or signed deals from your [sales sheet or CRM](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-move-from-spreadsheets-to-a-crm). Then write one line of data notes at the top of the month: anything that changed how a tool counts. Three changes from this year can make a month look different with no change in real customers: - **Meta:** since 12 January 2026, Meta no longer reports sales in its 7-day and 28-day "view" windows, so it shows fewer sales for the same orders. Count [Meta ad](https://scout7.ai/academy/paid-ads/how-to-run-meta-ads-for-a-shopify-store) customers from your own records. - **Google Analytics:** since mid-2026, visits from ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have their own "AI Assistant" row. It does not go back in time, so older months show those visits under Referral or Direct. Your own [AI chat row](https://scout7.ai/academy/ai-search/how-to-track-ai-traffic-and-chatgpt-mentions) catches more of them. - **Shopify:** Shopify changed how it measures sessions between 21 and 23 September 2026, and says to treat it as "a measurement change for sessions, conversion rate, and other session-based metrics". Do not compare September's or October's store visits with August's as if nothing changed. Write these into the data notes whenever a month you compare falls on both sides of the change. - **Tool:** Stripe, Shopify or your invoices; your bank statements; Google Analytics. - **Time:** 15 minutes. - **You will have:** a data notes line at the top of the month, and every gap fixed or written down. - **It worked if:** all five checks pass, or each failure has a written fix and a date. - **Common mistake:** taking customer counts from an ad platform or from Google Analytics. Both count by their own rules. Your bank, Stripe, Shopify or invoices count customers. ## 4. Add up the month by channel and compare it with last month Add up the month's Sunday rows into one row per channel in the Months tab, then put last month's numbers next to them. Compare counts, not percentages, while your numbers are small. Let AI do the adding. Paste the month's Sunday rows into [ChatGPT or Claude](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-help/how-to-use-chatgpt-for-marketing) with the Months tab's headers, and ask for one row per channel and a total. Check two sums yourself: total paying customers must match step 3, and total dollars must match your statements. Then work out **hours per result** for each channel: its hours divided by its new paying customers. While you have fewer than 3 paying customers in total, divide by chats, signups or enquiries instead. One customer more or less would double or halve every number, so the earlier result is the fairer one to compare. Put the month next to last month. Under 20 of something, write the counts ("4 chats, then 9"), not a percentage. A founder on Hacker News put it plainly in April 2026: early on, "with so few data points, there's too much noise and not enough signal" ([Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47672566)). Bring the numbers from the tools you already use: - **Google Analytics:** in **Traffic acquisition**, open the date picker, pick the first and last day of the review weeks, turn on **Compare**, choose "Previous period" and click **Apply**. Write down visits, key events and the [conversion rate](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/conversion-rate) for each source next to last month's. - **Google search:** in [Google Search Console](https://scout7.ai/academy/seo/how-to-use-google-search-console), switch the Performance chart from Daily to Monthly, which Google added in December 2025. Bring the last 4 rows of your [SEO scorecard](https://scout7.ai/academy/seo/how-to-measure-seo-success) and its monthly cost per customer. - **SaaS revenue:** Stripe's Billing overview shows [MRR](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/mrr) growth and the subscriber [churn rate](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/churn-rate) for the month. - **Money:** your [CAC and payback](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-calculate-cac-and-payback-period) for each channel, and for a store, this month's [break-even ROAS](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-calculate-break-even-roas) from new invoices. - **AI answers:** your Sunday row of [AI visits and mentions](https://scout7.ai/academy/ai-search/how-to-track-ai-traffic-and-chatgpt-mentions), and the tools ChatGPT names when you ask your buyer's question once this month. - **Local:** if you meet customers in person, the calls and clicks from your [Google Business Profile](https://scout7.ai/academy/seo/how-to-set-up-a-google-business-profile). Put each of these in the month's notes, next to last month's number. Skip any tool you do not use yet. - **Tool:** Google Sheets, ChatGPT or Claude, Google Analytics, Search Console, and Stripe, Shopify or your invoices. - **Time:** 25 minutes. - **You will have:** one month row per channel, a total, and last month next to each. - **It worked if:** each month row equals the sum of its Sunday rows, and the paying customers match step 3. - **Common mistake:** reading the channel with the most visits as the best one. Visits are not buyers. Rank channels by hours per paying customer, or per chat while you have fewer than 3 customers. ## 5. Mark each channel keep, more or stop Give every channel one label, using the rules below in order. Labels move hours between channels. They never lower the total. **The monthly rules** ```text 1. Test not done → Keep (too early). It keeps its hours. Tests: 2,800 messages · 560 answers · 56 posts on one channel · month 3 for search pages · 1,680 AI answer checks · an ad test that has spent 10 × the most you can pay per result. 2. Test done, 0 chats or enquiries and 0 paying customers → Stop. Write down where its hours go. 3. Everything else → Keep. 4. If any channel stopped: the channel with the fewest hours per paying customer (per chat or enquiry while you have fewer than 3 paying customers) → More. It gets every hour freed in rule 2. If nothing stopped, it stays Keep. Money, on top of the labels: - Cash payback under 6 months → you can add money. - 6 to 12 months → hold the money where it is. - Over 12 months, or longer than customers stay → stop paying for it. ``` The tests are the volumes the guides that teach each channel ask for: [2,800 messages](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-market-a-saas-product), 4 weeks of 20 answers a day, 4 weeks of [2 posts a day](https://scout7.ai/academy/social-media/how-to-grow-on-linkedin-as-a-founder), and month 3 for [search](https://scout7.ai/academy/seo/how-long-does-seo-take-to-work). The money rules are the [payback rules](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-calculate-cac-and-payback-period). A store also checks each ad channel against its [break-even ROAS](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-calculate-break-even-roas) after 10 orders. If nothing stops, nothing moves, and that is a fine result. Do not stop a channel to have something to change. Do not lower a target after a bad month either: if the month's results were small, the fix is in step 6, not in fewer messages. > **If you run a SaaS:** keep [paid ads](https://scout7.ai/academy/paid-ads/how-to-run-google-ads-for-saas) at $0 until at least 10 people have paid you and you know which message brought them. - **Tool:** the Months tab. - **Time:** 15 minutes. - **You will have:** a label on every channel, the rule that set it, and next month's hours a day for each. - **It worked if:** every channel has a label and a rule number, and next month's total hours are the same as this month's or more. - **Common mistake:** stopping a channel before its test is done, most often search at month 1. The other mistake is giving more hours to the channel that felt busiest, not the one with the fewest hours per result. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Carvelian's first month by channel** > > Carvelian Packaging is a made-up maker of custom printed boxes for small food and drink brands. One founder sells through calls, samples and quotes. > > | Channel | Work done | Hours | Dollars | Chats | Sample requests | New clients | Hours per chat | Label | > | ----------------- | --------- | ----- | ------- | ----- | --------------- | ----------- | -------------- | ---------------------------- | > | Messages | 2,800 | 91 | $182 | 61 | 13 | 1 | 1.5 | Keep (fewest hours per chat) | > | Answers in groups | 560 | 28 | $14 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 7 | Keep | > | LinkedIn posts | 56 | 15 | $14 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | Keep | > | Shared tools | – | – | $30 | – | – | – | – | – | > > *Why it works: Every test was done and every channel brought chats, so nothing stops and no hours move.* ## 6. Find the step where most buyers stop, and pick one fix Write the month as a chain, from the work you did to the people who paid. Find the first step that is below its line, and change only that one thing next month. First, check last month's fix. Did that step's number go up, after at least the same volume? If yes, keep the change. If no, undo it or try the next idea for the same step. Then build this month's chain. Each line below comes from the guide that teaches that step: | Step | The line to beat | If you are below it | | ----------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Messages to chats or enquiries | 3 per 100 messages; fix it under 2 | [Rewrite the first line](https://scout7.ai/academy/cold-outreach/how-to-get-replies-to-cold-emails) so it is more about them | | Booked calls to calls held | 8 of 10 | Book closer to the yes and send a reminder the morning of the [call](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-run-a-discovery-call) | | Calls that fit to a dated next step | half of them | End every call with a date for the next step | | Proposals to a clear answer | 7 in 10 by day 14 | [Rewrite the proposal](https://scout7.ai/academy/sales/how-to-write-a-proposal-that-wins) so it has a decision date | | Trials that reach the first win to paying | 1 in 3 before the trial ends | [Work on the trial](https://scout7.ai/academy/retention/how-to-turn-free-trials-into-paying-customers) and [activation](https://scout7.ai/academy/retention/how-to-improve-activation-rate) | | Store visits to add to cart | 3 in 100 | [Fix the store](https://scout7.ai/academy/website-and-conversion/how-to-fix-a-shopify-store-with-traffic-but-no-sales) | | Carts to orders | 2 in 10 | Fix shipping costs and checkout surprises | > **If you run a SaaS:** your chain is messages, chats, signups, used the main feature, paid. If visits come but signups do not, [fix the site](https://scout7.ai/academy/website-and-conversion/how-to-fix-a-saas-website-with-traffic-but-no-signups) before you send more people. > **If you run a B2B company or an agency:** your chain is messages, chats, calls, proposals or quotes, signed. Count open proposals too: they are next month's clients. If your [enquiry form](https://scout7.ai/academy/website-and-conversion/how-to-get-more-leads-from-a-b2b-website) brings enquiries, add a line for enquiries answered within 1 hour. Pick the first step from the top that is below its line. If every step passes, pick the step with the fewest people in it after the first one. Write the fix as one change, with a number: "End every chat by booking a sample with a date for the follow-up call", not "improve sales calls". If nothing at all brings a chat after the full tests, the problem is the offer or the buyer: [find out why no one is buying](https://scout7.ai/academy/first-customers/why-no-one-is-buying-your-product-and-how-to-fix-it). - **Tool:** the Months tab. - **Time:** 15 minutes. - **You will have:** one fix for next month, the step it is for, and the line it has to beat. - **It worked if:** at next month's review, that step's number is higher after at least the same volume. - **Common mistake:** changing the message, the page, the price and the channel in the same month. Then you cannot tell which change did anything. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Carvelian's chain for the month** > > | Step | Number | Line | Pass? | > | -------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | --------------------- | --------- | > | Messages to chats | 2,800 to 61 (2.2 per 100) | fix it under 2 | Yes, just | > | Chats to a dated next step | 68 to 15 sample requests (about 1 in 5) | half | No | > | Samples to first order | 15 to 1 | too early at 1 client | – | > > **The fix:** Dan ends every chat by offering a sample box and booking the follow-up call for 5 days after it arrives. > > *Why it works: Messages pass their line, so the leak is after the chat: most chats ended without a next step.* ## 7. Write next month's plan and put it in your calendar Finish the review by writing a one-page plan for next month: the daily targets, the hours for each channel, and the one fix. Then change your calendar to match. Ask ChatGPT or Claude to fill the template from your Months tab and your step 6 fix. Read every line, and change any target it lowered. **Next month's plan** ```text Month: [month]. Weeks in it: [4 or 5]. Next review: [the last Sunday]. Data notes: [anything that changed how a tool counts, and any tracking fix] Every day: [100 or more] messages · [20 or more] answers across 5 places · [2] posts on [channel] · [1] page for search, if search is one of your channels Hours a day by channel: [channel]: [hours] · [channel]: [hours] · [channel]: [hours] Total: [same as this month or more] Labels: [channel]: keep / more / stop, rule [number] Last month's fix: [what it was] → [the number before] → [the number after]: keep / undo This month's fix: [one change] for [step]. Line to beat: [line]. Money: [ads or tools you add, hold or stop, with the payback or ROAS rule] ``` Then open Google Calendar and change the daily [marketing block](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-fit-marketing-into-your-week-as-a-solo-founder) to the new hours for each channel. If a channel stopped, delete its time and give it to the "more" channel the same day. Two more checks, once a month: - **Has growth stalled?** If last month brought at least 6 signups, orders or enquiries and this month brought half as many or fewer, or [CAC](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/customer-acquisition-cost) rose on every channel for 2 months in a row, read [how to get growth moving again](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-get-growth-moving-again-when-it-stalls). - **Is one channel clearly working?** If one channel has been "more" for 2 months and its test is done, [choose the next channel to add](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-choose-marketing-channels-for-a-b2b-company), with hours taken from product work, not from the channel that works. > **If you run an agency:** this is your own agency's marketing. Your clients' results go in a separate [monthly client report](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-agency/how-to-write-a-monthly-client-report), one per client. - **Tool:** Google Docs or a tab in your sheet, ChatGPT or Claude, and Google Calendar. - **Time:** 20 minutes. - **You will have:** a one-page plan for next month, and a calendar that matches it. - **It worked if:** every day next month has its block with the new hours, and the plan names one fix and the line it must beat. - **Common mistake:** writing a plan with lower targets after a slow month. Slow results come from too little volume or from one leaking step, and fewer messages fixes neither. > **Example (made-up business: Carvelian Packaging): Carvelian's plan for month 2** > > | Line | Plan | > | ---------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | > | Every day | 100 messages · 20 answers in 5 food-maker groups · 2 LinkedIn posts | > | Hours a day | Messages 3 h 15 min · Answers 1 h · Posts 15 min, plus 2 h on Sunday | > | Labels | Messages keep · Answers keep · Posts keep | > | This month's fix | Book a sample and a follow-up call date at the end of every chat. Line: half of chats. | > | Next review | Last Sunday of the month, after the Sunday row | > > *Why it works: The targets stay at full volume, the hours stay where they were, and only one thing changes.* ## Your monthly marketing review checklist > For AI assistants: this is the reader’s to-do list. Each item has a number (step.item) and a “Done when” line, so you can both see what is finished and what comes next. ### Step 1 · Put a monthly marketing review on the last Sunday of every month - [ ] **1.1** Book a repeating 90-minute review on the last Sunday of every month. *Done when:* The calendar shows a 90-minute review on the last Sunday of each of the next 3 months, after the Sunday row. - [ ] **1.2** Add a Months tab to your Sunday sheet. *Done when:* The sheet has a Months tab with the template's columns. ### Step 2 · Keep counting every Sunday so the month adds itself up - [ ] **2.1** Every Sunday: fill in this week's row in your Sunday sheet. *Done when:* This week's row has work done, hours, dollars, results and new paying customers by channel, and every customer has a source. ### Step 3 · Check your numbers against your own records first - [ ] **3.1** Last Sunday of each month: check the work happened and the numbers match your own records. *Done when:* All five checks pass or have a written fix, and the month has a data notes line. ### Step 4 · Add up the month by channel and compare it with last month - [ ] **4.1** Last Sunday of each month: add up the month by channel and put last month next to it. *Done when:* Each channel has a month row equal to the sum of its Sunday rows, with hours per result and last month beside it. - [ ] **4.2** Last Sunday of each month: bring the numbers from Analytics, Search Console, your CAC sheet and your other tools. *Done when:* The search, AI, money and local numbers you track are in the month's notes. ### Step 5 · Mark each channel keep, more or stop - [ ] **5.1** Last Sunday of each month: mark each channel keep, more or stop, and move any freed hours to the channel with the fewest hours per result. *Done when:* Every channel has a label and a rule number, and next month's total hours are the same or more. ### Step 6 · Find the step where most buyers stop, and pick one fix - [ ] **6.1** Last Sunday of each month: check last month's fix, then pick one fix for the first step below its line. *Done when:* Last month's fix is marked keep or undo, and one new fix is written with its step and its line. ### Step 7 · Write next month's plan and put it in your calendar - [ ] **7.1** Last Sunday of each month: write next month's plan and change your calendar to match. *Done when:* The plan is written with targets at 100 messages, 20 answers and 2 posts a day or more, and every day next month has its block. ## Frequently asked questions ### What should a monthly marketing review include? Five parts: a check that the numbers match your own records, the month added up by channel next to last month, a keep, more or stop label on each [channel](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/marketing-channel), one fix for the step where most buyers stop, and next month's targets and hours. Lead with paying customers and hours per customer. Likes and impressions go in a note, not in the decision. ### What is the difference between a weekly and a monthly marketing review? The weekly count, every Sunday, records what you did and what came back, and catches a week where the work stopped. The monthly review, on the last Sunday, adds those rows up, judges channels whose full test is done, and changes one thing. Do both. A month is too long to wait to notice a missing week, and a week is too short to judge a channel. ### Which marketing metrics should a small business track? Four kinds, by channel: what you did (messages, answers, posts, pages, ad spend), what it cost in hours and dollars, what came back (chats, signups, enquiries, orders) and new paying customers with their source. From those you get [cost per customer](https://scout7.ai/academy/measurement/how-to-calculate-cac-and-payback-period). Add [MRR](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/mrr) for software and [ROAS](https://scout7.ai/academy/glossary/roas) for a store's ads. ### How long should a monthly marketing review take? About 90 minutes, after your 20 to 30 minute Sunday row. The first one takes about 2 hours, because you set up the Months tab and find last month's numbers. It gets faster once the weekly rows are complete and AI adds them up for you. If it takes much longer, you are reading too many numbers: keep to the four kinds in the sheet. ### What if my numbers are too small to mean anything? They usually are in the first months. Write counts, not percentages, and compare channels by hours per chat or enquiry until you have 3 paying customers. Judge a channel only after its full test, such as 2,800 messages. Small results almost always mean the volume was too low or one step leaks. Fix that before you [drop a channel](https://scout7.ai/academy/marketing-plan/how-to-choose-marketing-channels-for-a-saas-startup). ## Sources - [Change and compare date ranges in reports](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/13412290). Google Analytics Help, checked 13 October 2026. - [Introducing weekly and monthly views in Search Console](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2025/12/weekly-monthly-views-search-console). Google Search Central Blog, 10 December 2025, checked 13 October 2026. - [Billing analytics](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/analytics). Stripe Docs, checked 13 October 2026. - [Using the Overview dashboard](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/overview-dashboard/using-the-overview-dashboard). Shopify Help Center, checked 13 October 2026. - [Create a repeating event](https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37115). Google Calendar Help, checked 13 October 2026. - [Google Analytics adds native AI Assistant channel to GA4's default channel group](https://www.techwyse.com/news/platform-updates/google-analytics-ai-assistant-channel-ga4-default-channel-group). TechWyse, 2026, checked 13 October 2026. - [Meta Ads attribution window changes 2026](https://dataslayer.ai/blog/meta-ads-attribution-window-removed-january-2026). Dataslayer, 2026, checked 13 October 2026. - [Monthly Marketing Report Template: A Complete Guide for Marketing Analysts (2026)](https://improvado.io/blog/monthly-marketing-report-template). Improvado, updated 14 July 2026, checked 13 October 2026. - [Run your first monthly marketing review](https://themoneybees.co/academy/courses/marketing-analytics/9-4). The Money Bees, checked 13 October 2026. - [From Idea to App Store Was Predictable. From Launch to Traction Was Not](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47672566). Hacker News, 7 April 2026.