"Every Monday morning is wasted just on creating ad reports..." "Just summarizing numbers doesn't make the next step clear..."

This is a common concern for many marketing professionals, isn't it? Creating ad reports is an essential task for building trust with clients. However, the work often occupies 30-40% of business hours while struggling to generate high added value, leading to a dilemma. A representative of a marketing company was handling nearly 40 cases a month and spending a lot of time on reporting tasks.

This article isn't just about time-saving techniques for report creation. It presents a "framework of thought" to enhance the outcomes of ad operations themselves.

By the time you finish reading this article, your perspective on reports will change, and you will be able to confidently decide on your next actions based on data.

1. Create "thinking time" through automation, not just "report creation"

Let's suppose that it takes an average of 30 minutes to create an ad report per case. If this accumulates, you will lose 40-50 hours of strategic time each month. This time should be dedicated to the "thinking time" that marketers should focus on.

In fact, there are cases where using AI tools like ChatGPT has dramatically reduced the report creation time to 5-7 minutes per case. One representative noticed that there were 12 comments with the same expressions in a report submitted that month and decided, "This is not something to do manually" and chose to automate. The time created by this automation becomes a valuable resource for thinking about the next move.

What is important here is to understand the essence of automation.

The automation should be of "explaining repeatedly" or "organizing factors that can be patterned", not "thinking".

By entrusting standardized tasks to AI, humans can focus on discovering insights from data and formulating more creative strategies.

Pro-Tip: Starting small, such as letting AI generate just analysis comments, can have a tremendous effect.

2. Judge based on profit (ROI), not revenue (ROAS)

While ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is emphasized in many reports, making investment decisions based solely on it is dangerous. The ultimate goal of a business is to generate "profit". From this perspective, evaluating based on ROI (Return on Investment) is essential.

• ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): It is an indicator that shows "how much revenue was generated against the ad spend".

• ROI (Return on Investment): It is an indicator that shows "how much profit was made against the investment (ad spend)".

Even if ROAS appears excellent at first glance, there are many cases where it actually results in a deficit. Let's look at the following example.

• Ad Spend: 400,000 yen

• Revenue: 800,000 yen

• Average Profit per Unit: 1,000 yen

• Number of Conversions: 200

In this case, ROAS is 200% (Revenue 800,000 yen ÷ Ad Spend 400,000 yen) and looks very good. But what about profit-based calculations?

1. First, calculate total profit: Average Profit per Unit 1,000 yen × Number of Conversions 200 = Total Profit 200,000 yen

2. Next, calculate net profit by subtracting ad spend: Total Profit 200,000 yen - Ad Spend 400,000 yen = -200,000 yen (deficit)

3. Finally, calculate ROI: Net Profit -200,000 yen ÷ Ad Spend 400,000 yen × 100 = -50%

In other words, "Revenue exceeds ad spend, but profit is not being generated". While ROAS is convenient for assessing the revenue contributions of individual media, the final investment decision should always be made based on ROI.

However, this rigorous profit decision based on ROI assumes that the measurable data is accurate. In today's advertising environment, this premise itself is shaky.

3. "Perfect data" doesn't exist. Confront the uncertainty of measurement.

Modern ad operations must start with the premise that "data is incomplete". Due to the industry's overall movements, such as strengthened privacy protection regulations (like the amended Personal Information Protection Law) and the abolition of third-party cookies in major browsers, tracking user behavior accurately has become increasingly difficult.

The modern solution to this "uncertainty of measurement" includes the following technologies.

• Conversion Modeling: A technique that "estimates" unmeasured conversions using machine learning. This models the behavior of "undetectable" user groups, which could not be directly observed due to non-consent for cookie usage, from the behavioral data of "detectable" groups with similar characteristics, thereby complementing the overall picture of advertising performance while considering privacy.

• Conversion API (CAPI): A technology that improves measurement accuracy by sending data directly from the advertiser's server to the ad platform's server without relying on cookies.

The uncertainty of measurement means that the ROAS and ROI on reports are not "absolute truths" but rather "the most plausible estimates". Understanding the technical constraints behind these numbers is crucial to avoiding erroneous management decisions. Recognizing that the numbers on reports are a combination of "observed facts" and "AI-generated estimates" is an essential skill for modern marketers.

4. Stop listing numbers and construct a "story" that conveys change.

Good reports are not mere lists of numbers. They convey a story of "change". While a list of numbers appeals to reason, a story stimulates the secretion of neurotransmitters like dopamine and oxytocin, directly affecting emotions. This significantly enhances understanding and retention of data.

The most efficient story structure for gaining the understanding and consent of stakeholders is the "V-shaped story". Let's build a report using the following three-act structure.

• Act 1: Problem (The Collapse of Daily Life): "After the campaign started, a problem occurred where CPA exceeded the target value by 20%."

• Act 2: Encounter (Implementation of Measures): "Therefore, we implemented an initiative of A/B testing with a modified creative appeal axis."

• Act 3: Resolution (A New Normal): "As a result, CPA improved to a level 15% below the target value, leading us to a new normal where stable acquisition is possible."

BI tools like Tableau are very useful for intuitively visualizing these "stories of change" through graphs, quickly forming a common understanding among stakeholders.

A common mistake is reporting only the result numbers and failing to verbalize the background or causality of "why this happened." By telling a story, mere reporting transitions into a strategic meeting that leads to the next action.

5. Treat reports as "diagnoses". Identify bottlenecks and prescribe improvements.

Let's view advertising reports as "diagnosis" documents that indicate the health condition of a business. Their role is not merely to look at superficial numbers, but to analyze the interdependence of metrics and identify the root causes of problems (bottlenecks).

• Diagnosis example: "While click-through rates (CTR) are high, conversion rates (CVR) are low."

• Estimated Cause (Prescription): This suggests that "the advertising creative is attractive and gathers people, but the content of the landing page (LP) is misaligned with user expectations."

By correctly analyzing KPIs in this way, the next actions to take become clear. This is the key to rapidly cycling through the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, especially as the quality of the "Check (Evaluation)" determines the precision of the "Act (Improvement)".

Pro-Tip: Always include sections for "Considerations" and "Improvement Proposals for Next Week" at the end of the report. Without these, the report will end up being just a record of the past.

By diagnosing the interdependence of metrics and identifying bottlenecks, you can determine what the most impactful lever for improvement is: creativity.

6. Those who control creativity, control operations.

In many ad reports, creative analysis tends to be overlooked, but it is one of the most important factors that influence operational results. In particular, a "creative report" that visually conveys which ads have high effectiveness by displaying banner ads and video thumbnails is extremely valuable in maximizing return on investment.

The key is to analyze the A/B test results of creativity and extract the factors that explain "why that creative was successful". For example, finding best practices such as "creative using human images has a high CTR" and "handwritten-style fonts enhance engagement" and sharing them organization-wide can lead to maximizing outcomes.

Creatives that generate high CTR ultimately contribute to improving CPA as well. By quantitatively demonstrating the results of creativity through reports, you can connect this to larger strategic decisions such as optimizing bidding strategies and reallocating budgets.

Conclusion: Transform reports from "tasks" to "strategies".

The six new common understandings introduced in this article are not just individual techniques. By combining them, reports can transform from mere documents that record the past into strategic assets that create future outcomes.

1. Use time gained through automation,

2. Focus on the essential profits of ROI,

3. Interpret data with an understanding of measurement uncertainty,

4. Unify stakeholder intentions through stories,

5. Identify bottlenecks through a diagnostic approach,

6. And concentrate resources on the most impactful creatives.

This entire thought framework is the key to achieving the true purpose of advertising reports—turning "the task of reporting the past" into "strategic decisions that create future outcomes." Excellent reports serve as a powerful engine to align the entire team's focus and accelerate the data-driven improvement cycle.

However, conducting these advanced analyses and optimizations manually still requires immense time and expertise.

What I would like to introduce is the AI agent "Cascade", which optimally streamlines ad operations without waste. Cascade completes analyses that used to take hours in just seconds and even suggests optimal budget allocations.

If you want to free yourself from the "tasks" of report creation and daily analysis and focus more on the "creative and strategic work," please consider Cascade.

Request materials here. Reserve early here.