S.T.A.T. Reporting Series Part II: Putting S.T.A.T. Into Practice for Better Insights

Simple.

I love it when we can allow our curiosity to lead us through complex data, then still bring us to a simple insight. Take recruitment, for example. If we notice that there’s a particular job posting dramatically outperforming others, we don’t just note it and move on. We investigate the spend, the geography, the copy itself. We look at placement, time of day, day of the week. We examine the ad’s composition, placement and user access points from every angle. Then, when we’ve found the answer, we compress all of that complexity into a single, clear observation for our client: “This job posting performed because you included IT and tech stack specifics that are searchable by IT professionals. Your finance posting didn’t do that.” That’s simple. More charts and graphs don’t produce more insights; they just produce more things on a page that make it look like a lot of work went into a report. Curiosity produces insights. Simplicity delivers them.

Truthful.

Truthful runs in two directions that clients might sometimes resist. The first is internal: sometimes poor performance isn’t a media problem, it’s an operational one — a slow-loading landing page, a call center that isn’t following up on leads, a product that isn’t competitively priced. If bounce rates are high because a page takes ten seconds to load on a phone, that’s the truth the report needs to tell. The second direction is external: macro-environmental factors are real, and they belong in the analysis. When consumers are stretched thin during a down economy they make hard choices, and no amount of media optimization changes that. The same logic applies in recruitment: if economic conditions are creating a talent glut or a talent drought, that context belongs in the report. We see it with event-driven clients every season: when it’s 72 degrees and sunny on a Saturday, attendance goes up. We won’t pretend our Meta optimizations made the sun shine, but we also won’t hide the data that shows weather as a correlating factor. Truthful reporting earns long-term trust precisely because it doesn’t overclaim.

Actionable.

Let’s talk about the difference between an observation and an insight. An observation tells you what happened. An insight tells you why it happened and what to do about it. That distinction is everything. “Engagement dropped 18% week-over-week” is an observation. It’s accurate, it might even be alarming, but it doesn’t tell anyone what to do. But, if we write that same sentence as “Engagement dropped 18% because we shifted budget away from video and here’s how we fix it” that becomes an insight. It has a cause, a consequence and a next step baked in. You need both the because and the therefore for a report to be actionable.

Timely.

Data takes time to compile and analyze, so there will always be some lag between the end of a reporting period and the delivery of insights. That’s reality. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be more expedient. For our clients who empower us to make optimizations in real time (within agreed-upon guardrails) we’re able to provide better results because we can take timely action. We’re constantly monitoring and optimizing campaigns. So, when we’re in the data and we spot something that needs attention, being able to act within a short window of opportunity allows us to do what’s best for our clients’ interests. To be a great agency partner, we believe it’s our responsibility to lead with great recommendations, act promptly with data-informed service and report with accountability to show what actions we’ve taken on behalf of our clients.

Our new S.T.A.T. framework doesn’t just serve as a reporting checklist — it’s creating a new standard for how we can work closer with our clients to create more effective marketing materials and media plans. When we use S.T.A.T. right, our reporting becomes more than a deliverable — it becomes a competitive advantage.

Keep an eye out for Part III of our S.T.A.T. Reporting series which will discuss the benefits of automation.