How to produce a better PPC QBR for your stakeholders

Quarterly business reviews can be stressful, especially for agency teams. 

They’re meant to showcase your impact and align on future strategy – but too often, they turn into 45-minute monologues packed with PPC metrics and little engagement.

Having worked across multiple agencies, I’ve seen firsthand that there’s no single “right” way to run a QBR – but there are plenty of ways to make them better. 

In a digital marketing landscape that’s evolving faster than ever, you can’t afford to waste the rare opportunity to have stakeholders’ full attention.

My agency has refined our approach to QBRs to make them more engaging, forward-looking, and valuable for clients. 

The result: clearer communication, stronger alignment, and a sharper focus on business goals.

This article covers the key improvements we’ve made, including:

• Better readability.
• Audience alignment.
• Building a narrative.
• Proactivity and forward motion.

Aim for readability

This applies to any presentation, but it’s especially crucial for QBRs where there’s a lot to cover: keep the pace brisk and the key messages clear.

In deck format, that means:

Leverage your slide titles (your most important real estate)

• Use the title to specify the main takeaway, not just the topic. For example, instead of “UGC on Meta,” say “UGC on Meta drives 95% completion rates.”
• Include numbers and impact where possible.
• Use verbs, not labels.

Streamline text

• Replace long blocks with concise, bullet-format summaries.
• Make slides easier to skim and present live.

Lean on visual call-outs

• Use bold font, simple iconography, or strategic positioning to highlight key stats. 
• Replace select tables with charts or key numbers. Don’t make the audience hunt for the takeaway.

Because a big part of readability comes down to presenter pacing, make sure your team:

• Is well-practiced.
• Doesn’t spend more than a minute on each slide.
• Uses the speaker notes section, hyperlinks, and an index to include details that would make the main slides too busy.

Dig deeper: How to deliver PPC results to executives: Get out of the weeds

Align your QBR content with your audience’s needs

Even if only your usual team of day-to-day client contacts will be in the room (or Zoom) for your QBR, you need to account for the fact that higher-ups and executives will have very different priorities for results, metrics, and next steps. 

Whether you’ll be presenting directly to company leaders or enabling your regular contacts to relay information, QBRs should include an executive summary of more high-level material: 

• Achievements.
• Focus areas.
• Next steps/tests.
• Performance against top-line goals.

Dig deeper: How to set and manage PPC expectations for teams and stakeholders

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Build a narrative

One of the common brand complaints about agencies is that they aren’t aligned with the brand’s business goals.

Many still report on shallow metrics like CTR and CPC without tying those to business outcomes.

A QBR is a great place to put that reputation to bed by focusing on the key business goals you’re helping your clients address. 

Keep those goals at the forefront of your QBR framing, and tie every data point, insight, and go-forward recommendation back to them.

This might even mean that you can’t focus as much as you like on some of the achievements you view as the biggest from the last few months. 

For instance, let’s say you finally got under your CPA goal in your Meta campaigns thanks to some valuable testing insights. 

That’s a win, but if the client’s top priority is improving the conversion rate of MQLs to SQLs, it shouldn’t be the centerpiece of your QBR.

Instead, you’ll be better served by focusing on your success with down-funnel growth and showing how you plan to build on that progress in the quarters ahead.

Dig deeper: How to approach weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual PPC reporting

Establish forward motion

Early in my career, I sat through too many QBRs that recapped the goings-on and results from the last quarter and left it at that. 

Instead, make sure you go into the QBR knowing the top-line goals for the next quarter.

Spin every result and insight into a recommendation for how to address those goals – essentially, going from “what happened and what we learned” to “what we do now.”

This is the difference between reporting “AOV dropped 10% quarter over quarter” to “AOV dropped 10% quarter over quarter, which highlights the opportunity to test value-based bidding.”

This framework also provides context for what we call “tactical opportunities.”

By that, we mean the resources needed – or the obstacles that must be removed – before we can act on those next steps.

This might mean:

• A request for a dedicated in-house contact for CRM questions to clean up data issues.
• A standard of one business day to get client feedback for P1 initiatives.
• Or a recommendation to be flexible with margin goals if there’s a chance to unlock scale in the process.

Forward motion in the form of next steps is essential, and you can enforce the momentum in the way you deliver your presentation, specifically by:

• Leading with the main point instead of building up to it.
• Letting key stats breathe before moving on.
• Previewing the next slide before you move on.
• Using connector phrases to keep the flow tight.
• Aiming for 30 to 60 seconds per slide. If you can’t get under a minute, split the slide.

Turning QBRs into growth opportunities

Instead of dreading the QBR process, reframe it as a chance to set yourself and your client up for success.

Yes, the reporting piece is important. But it’s far more valuable if you can pull out learnings and next steps from the past quarter’s results – and deliver them with a focus on what matters most to the people in the room.

Ideally, you’ll leave with both sides energized about what you’ve accomplished together – and, more importantly, aligned on how you’ll build on that growth moving forward.

Dig deeper: Agency-grade PPC audits: How to turn reports into growth roadmaps