A scorecard is a short report that shows a handful of key numbers against a target or an earlier period, so you can tell at a glance whether marketing is on track. In Looker Studio, “scorecard” is also the name of the chart that displays a single metric as a large number, usually with a comparison underneath.
How a scorecard works
A useful marketing scorecard holds four to eight measures that tie directly to what the business needs, each shown with four things: the actual figure, the target, the previous period and a plain status such as “on track” or “behind”. Most businesses review it monthly.
The measures usually fall into three layers:
- Outcomes: enquiries, sales, revenue, cost per lead, return on ad spend.
- Drivers: visits by channel, conversion rate, average order value, enquiry-to-customer rate.
- Health checks: whether tracking is recording correctly, site speed, Google Business Profile reviews.
Each measure on the scorecard should be a genuine key performance indicator with a named source, so nobody argues later about where a figure came from.
In Looker Studio, a scorecard chart takes one metric and a date range, and can show the change against a comparison period as a number or a percentage, coloured green or red. For cost metrics, where a rise is bad news, you can reverse the colours so an increase shows red.
Why it matters
Owners of small UK businesses rarely have time to read a twenty-page monthly report, and long reports bury the one number that has gone wrong. A scorecard forces a decision about what matters, and gives you, your team and any agency or consultant the same view of success.
It also makes UK-specific comparisons honest. Year-on-year figures show whether a December dip is the normal Christmas pattern or a real problem, and a scorecard is the place to state whether spend figures include VAT. Google and Meta report ad spend without VAT, while your accounts may record it gross, and mixing the two quietly distorts cost per lead.
Common mistakes
- Filling the scorecard with vanity metrics such as impressions, followers or total page views that do not change any decision.
- Showing figures without targets, so every number looks fine.
- Quoting percentage changes on tiny numbers. “Enquiries up 100%” means little when they went from two to four.
- Adding up platform-reported conversions from Google Ads, Meta and GA4, which often count the same sale more than once.
- Comparing a month with the previous month when the business is seasonal, rather than adding a year-on-year comparison.
- Leaving the default colours on cost metrics, so a rising cost per lead shows as a green success.
How to act on it
Start from the business goal for the year, then pick the one outcome that best reflects it, such as qualified enquiries or gross profit from online sales. Add the few drivers that explain movement in that outcome, set a monthly target for each, and write down where each number comes from and whether it includes VAT.
Keep it to one screen or one page. Add a short written note each month explaining any figure marked “behind” and what will be done about it, because a scorecard without commentary invites guesses.
Choosing the right measures and targets is the hard part, and it is central to the digital marketing strategy and consulting work I do with UK businesses.