You can't know where you're going until you know where you've been. This is true for both life and business.
And for businesses, the best way to know where you've been is by synthesizing your data into digestible reports. Easier said than done.
For businesses using HubSpot, the reporting area can be intimidating. I frequently hear from clients who are unsure where to begin with all the choices available, and that's before even getting into the custom reports.
To help you get started with reporting, I've gathered some recommended pre-built reports you can add to your dashboards. These are organized by department and topic.
How to Find Pre-Built Reports
The reporting section of HubSpot can take a bit of getting used to. When you go to the reports section, you'll see options for report library, saved reports, and create report. When I say "pre-built reports," I'm referring to the reports available from the report library. You can find a tutorial on how to search and save these reports on HubSpot's Knowledge Base article: Use a report from the report library.
The starting point for any report and dashboard is to find the reports you may want to use in the future. This can be done through the report library or by creating a new report. You'll then have the option to save the report. This is similar to downloading a file from the cloud onto your computer. You can now add this report to any dashboard.
If you're looking for a bit more in-depth info on reporting and all things HubSpot, I recommend checking out the HubHeroes Podcast. They do a great job of breaking down complex options in HubSpot. And I've met up with their hosts every time I'm at Inbound - it's a great team.
Marketing Dashboard
When building a marketing dashboard, you want to look at the content, social, and PPC efforts that are driving success for your business. These are the reports I recommend to get an overview, without going so deep that you get lost.
Reports to add:
1. Blog posts performance with page views and CTA actions
What it does: This report gives you a quick look at the overall performance of only your blogs.
Why add it: Blogs typically see a longer average time on page and more engagements than other pages on your website. Looking at them independently of the rest of your web pages helps you get an idea of how your blogs are performing compared to each other.
2. Blog posts by most total views
What it does: This report sorts your specific blog posts in descending or ascending order based on views.
Why add it: It's helpful to see what topics resonate with your audience so you can determine what to write about in the future. Since blogs often take a while to generate repeat traffic, it can show you which of your older blogs are attracting the most visitors and should be updated.
Related Content: Making a Marketing Plan for 2025
3. Social interactions by network
What it does: Shows you the number of interactions on each of your social networks for a given time period.
Why add it: With this report, you can compare networks against each other and also track growth through engagements.
4. Email sent, opened, and click totals by email send date
What it does: Shows you a summary of marketing email performance.
Why add it: This is useful for seeing the average performance of your marketing emails. You can also pair this with the marketing email sent totals with engagement rates report to examine each specific marketing email.
5. Ad campaigns with cost per click
What it does: Shows you a cost-per-click breakdown of all of your ads.
Why add it: This is a great high-level ad report. You can look at performance across different ad platforms in one place to see where you're getting the most value for your money.
General Sales Dashboard
Dave wrote an entire article on specific types of sales dashboards and recommended additional reports, which goes much more in-depth than I'm about to. For this dashboard, I focus on high-level sales metrics: How is the pipeline moving, what needs to be done, and what has been closed-won?
Related Content: 5 HubSpot Sales Dashboard Templates to Try
Reports to add:
1. Quota attainment
What it does: Lists out the amount closed in dollars compared to your total revenue goal, sorted by sales rep.
Why add it: It provides a great visual of the sales team's overall performance against goals.
2. Leads funnel
What it does: Shows you the journey that your leads take throughout your sales funnel.
Why add it: This is a nice high-level look at how leads are flowing through your system. What percentage become opportunities and customers?
3. Deal funnel
What it does: Shows you the journey that your deals take, from creation to close.
Why add it: Looking at your deal funnel helps you spot overall behavior trends, which can help you optimize your sales process.
4. Completed activities
What it does: Shows you all completed activities by salespeople within a specific timeframe.
Why add it: This report gives you a quick reference on how your sales team spends their time. It can show you quickly what channels are causing time suck, so you can look at creating automations.
5. Call outcomes
What it does: It provides information on the total number of calls made by sales reps and the outcomes of these calls.
Why add it: Sales teams spend a lot of time on the phone. This report shows you the outcome of these calls, so you can track trends. Are your salespeople leaving a lot of messages but not hearing back? Or are they having longer conversations?
Customer Service Dashboard
Customer service teams and their managers must sift through a lot of data. For a general overview, I recommend starting with these five pre-built reports.
1. Support volume
What it does: Shows you the number of tickets created by your users over time.
Why add it: This report allows you to see which time periods are busier than others, so you can scope your workload accordingly. For example, you may find that most of your tickets are received during the same window of time each day.
2. Average time to close ticket
What it does: Shows you how quickly tickets are closed. It can be overall, or segmented by teams or individuals.
Why add it: The time it takes to resolve a ticket directly impacts the customer experience. This report shows you how long it takes to close a ticket and where you can improve efficiencies.
3. Chat wait time
What it does: It gives you an average of how long contacts wait for a chat response.
Why add it: This report is absolutely vital for any organization that uses live chat on its website and/or external chat platforms (like Facebook Messenger). It shows how long your contacts have to wait before receiving a non-automated response.
Related Content: HubSpot Service Hub vs. Zendesk
4. Time in ticket pipeline status
What it does: Shows you how long tickets are open in each status.
Why add it: This gives you a quick look at how tickets progress through your customer support journey.
5. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
What it does: Tracks customer satisfaction after support interactions.
Why add it: Get a quick look at how satisfied your customers are after going through your support pipeline. Are there areas for improvement?
These reports and dashboards will give you a jumping-off point for building your reporting in HubSpot. Starting small makes it easier to track performance. This, in turn, lets you start digging into your data.
For the next step of using this data once you have it, check out our on-demand recording: Why Your Marketing Didn’t Work: How to Use Your Results from Last Year to Make This Year Better.
Watch it on YouTube, or watch the embed here:
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