The weekly client report template that keeps retainers from churning

Section 1: This week in numbers

Three to five numbers. Ad spend, leads, booked jobs, revenue if you have it. Compare to last week with a small +/-. No charts.

Plain text in a table. The point is glanceable, not impressive. The owner is on their phone, between jobs.

Section 2: What worked

Two or three bullets. Specific to the week. Name the ad set, the audience, the creative, or the channel that did the lifting. If a particular lead booked at unusually high value, mention them by first name.

Avoid generic claims ("audience refinement is paying off"). The owner has heard that line every week from every agency they have ever worked with. They need specifics.

Section 3: What did not work (be honest)

Two bullets max. Acknowledge things that flopped. A creative that fatigued, an audience that ghosted, a tech glitch that lost a day.

Acknowledging losses builds trust faster than hiding them. Owners are running businesses; they know weeks have bad streaks. The agency that pretends every week is a win loses the retainer when one bad week is finally undeniable.

Section 4: What we are doing this week

Two to four concrete actions. New creative going live, audience swap, automation tweak, photo shoot. Tie each one to a number we are trying to move.

Action without target ("we will refresh creative") is undirected. Action with target ("we will refresh creative because CTR dropped from 2.1% to 1.4%, target getting back above 1.8%") is accountability.

Section 5: Anything we need from you

Always include this section, even if the answer is "nothing this week."

When you do need something (photo from the job, approval on a quote, a piece of context), this section is where it goes. Owners scan to this section first to see if they are blocked. Removing friction from "what does the agency need" reduces the delay between asking and getting it.

Tone notes

Use the client's first name. Sign off as a person, not an agency. Plain English. No marketing speak. No em dashes.

Length: 250-400 words. Under that, the client wonders what they are paying for. Over that, they skip it.

Where :Impact fits

The data lives in the lead system already. :Impact's weekly client reports use exactly this structure, auto-generated by Claude from the previous 7 days of activity. Operator edits for tone before sending. Cuts the 15-minute write per client to a 2-minute edit. Reduces the silence problem at scale.