FREE TEMPLATE

Multi-Channel Paid Media Report Template

Four documents and three sheets that build one table from your platform exports, and a reconciliation sheet that names the cause of every gap.

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What you get

Pack of 7 files: 4 documents, 3 spreadsheets

Multi-Channel Paid Media Report Template

Reporting MethodologyDocument
Metric DefinitionsDocument
Export ChecklistDocument
Unified Spend and PerformanceSpreadsheet
Platform ReconciliationSpreadsheet
Blended EfficiencySpreadsheet
Monthly ReadoutDocument

Multi-Channel Paid Media Report Template

Monthly Readout

Paid media, period ending

Prepared by · Reviewed by · System of record

1. The number

One figure, the one the audience actually acts on, with the prior period beside it and the change in both absolute and percentage terms. Then one sentence naming the single driver.

Metric	This period	Prior	Change
Total paid spend
Acquisitions, system of record
Cost per acquisition

2. By channel

Spend, clicks and cost per click per platform. Reported conversions appear labelled by platform and by window, and there is no cross-platform total row in this section.

3. Why the platforms disagree

The largest gaps as plain sentences with the arithmetic in them, pulled from the reconciliation. Then the line the section exists for:

The load-bearing sentence

The number in section 1 comes from ____________. The platform figures in section 2 are what each platform optimises against. They are not added.

4. What this means

Two or three decisions, each with the figure behind it, an owner and a date.

Appendix: what this report cannot see. Appendix: restatements.

Foldwell spent $296,000 on paid media in August across Google Ads, Meta and LinkedIn. The three platforms together claimed 1,934 conversions. The CRM held 1,004 records created that month with a paid source attached. Divide the spend by the summed platform figure and the month cost $153 per demo request. Divide it by the CRM count and it cost $295. Both numbers come from the same exports, and only one of them has a denominator anybody can defend in a budget meeting.

That gap is not an error in anyone's tracking. Meta's reporting API returns a separate field for each attribution window, from one day after a view to twenty-eight days after a click, plus one unlabelled value field holding whichever window the account defaults to. Google Ads dates every conversion to the click that earned it. GA4 splits credit fractionally across a ninety-day lookback. Four platforms, four questions, four correct answers, and no valid sum.

So the pack normalises the three columns that agree and labels the ones that do not. Spend, impressions and clicks go into shared columns. Platform conversions keep their own, each carrying its window and counting method, under a sheet with no total row. Every gap becomes a row with a named cause. It installs into the marketing workspace, next to the Google Ads account audit, the Search Console keyword map and the rest of the template library. Send River your exports, or take the files blank.

One table, and the sheet that explains why the platforms disagree

The Unified Spend and Performance table, the Platform Reconciliation, and the Blended Efficiency sheet.

Multi-Channel Paid Media Report Template

Unified TableReconciliationBlended

Unified Table

Unified Spend and Performance

August rows for a fictional company, Foldwell.

Platform	Campaign	Spend	Clicks	CPC	Reported conv.	Window
Google Ads	Brand Exact	18,400	4,120	4.47	268	30d click
Google Ads	Non-Brand Core	71,300	5,940	12.00	214	30d click
Google Ads	PMax Retarget	56,500	2,420	23.35	122	30d click
Meta	Prospecting Lookalike	52,900	13,180	4.01	604	not in export
Meta	Retargeting Visitors	35,600	8,160	4.36	514	not in export
LinkedIn	Sponsored Content ICP	44,800	2,910	15.40	168	30d post-click
LinkedIn	Document Ads Retarget	16,500	850	19.41	44	30d post-click
GA4	All paid channels				861.4	90d, fractional
Total		296,000	37,580	7.88	no total

Three columns sum and one does not. Spend, impressions and clicks are counted the same way on every platform. The conversion column has no total row, because the four figures above it answer four different questions.

Two rows say the window is not in the export. That is the honest cell, not a blank one. Until somebody reads the ad account setting, 604 and 514 are numbers with no denominator.

The GA4 decimals are correct. Credit for one key event is split across the path.

Reconciliation

Platform Reconciliation

One row per gap per cause. A gap with two causes gets two rows.

Metric	Platform	Record	Gap	Named cause	Status
Conversions, all platforms	1,934	1,004	930	Same buyer claimed by two platforms	settled
Meta reported leads	1,118	486	632	Window length	settled
Meta reported leads	1,118	486	632	View-through included	open
GA4 key events	861.4	1,004	142.6	Fractional credit, not a tally	settled
LinkedIn conversions	212	74	138	138 records carry no lead source	open
Clicks to sessions	37,580	31,240	6,340	Departures counted against arrivals	settled
Google Ads spend	146,200	145,880	320	Invalid traffic credit after close	settled

Settled does not mean fixed. The 930 is definitional and permanent, which is why the report has no cross-platform conversion total and computes cost per acquisition from one source only.

The 138 is the one that caps everything. Records with no source attached cannot be attributed to any channel, so that count bounds what every attributed figure on the page can claim.

An open row carries a named next step and an owner, or it becomes a permanent open row.

Blended

Blended Efficiency

Every row names its denominator. One row is here as a contrast.

Month	Paid spend	Acquisitions	Blended CPA	No paid source	Denominator
Jun	268,400	912	294.30	104	CRM demo requests
Jul	281,600	948	297.05	121	CRM demo requests
Aug	296,000	1,004	294.82	138	CRM demo requests
Aug	296,000	1,934	153.05	n/a	platform sum
Apr	241,800	blank	blank	blank	not established

The shaded row is the same month done the wrong way. Nothing in its arithmetic is wrong. The numerator is real spend, and the denominator counts several buyers more than once, so the month reads as half as expensive as it was.

April is deliberately blank. Lead source was not a required field until May, so the unattributed share cannot be established and no blended figure is computed from it. A plausible estimate in that cell would be indistinguishable from a measured one within a quarter.

Untracked spend stays in the numerator, so every channel view is short that amount by construction.

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What's in the pack

Unified Spend and Performance

One row per platform, month and campaign, with spend, impressions and clicks normalised and every conversion figure carrying its own window.

Platform Reconciliation

One row per gap per cause, sized and evidenced, with the definitional gaps marked permanent instead of left looking like broken tracking.

Blended Efficiency

Every row names its denominator, and one contrast row shows the same month computed the indefensible way so the difference is visible.

Reporting Methodology

The system of record, the period, each source's time zone and the windows in force, so a challenge is answered by pointing at a section.

Metric Definitions

Every metric in three parts: the source field, the arithmetic, and what it is not. The third part settles most of the arguments.

Export Checklist

What to switch on before you download, including the seven formats Google Ads offers and the columns that are off by default. The same pull drives the Google Ads account audit.

Monthly Readout

Two pages in the order the questions actually arrive: the number, the channels, why the platforms disagree, and what to decide next. A pace that already looks off by period end is a signal to start the budget pacing and reallocation pack before the next period, not after it.

How to use it

1
Open in River, or take it blank
Open the pack in River and send your platform exports, or download the Word documents and CSV sheets and fill them in yourself.
2
Name the system of record
One line decides the headline number: which system is authoritative when two of them disagree. Until it is answered, every efficiency figure in the space is undefined.
3
Send the exports
A Google Ads report, an Ads Manager CSV, a Campaign Manager export, a GA4 pull, a CRM list. Partial files and mismatched date ranges are fine.
4
Read the reconciliation first
The gaps, largest first, each with a named cause and a status. The table is the easy half, and this sheet is the half that survives a budget meeting.

Frequently asked questions

Is this template free?

Yes. The zip is Word documents and CSV sheets, and it needs no account and no card. Edit with AI is the optional half: the agent reads the exports you already pull, fills the table, and opens a reconciliation row for every gap it can name a cause for. The other packs sit in the template library.

What format are the downloaded files?

Word (.docx) for the four documents, CSV (.csv) for the three sheets, zipped together. Excel, Numbers and Google Sheets open the sheets straight off the download, and the documents open in Word or Pages. There is nothing to convert and no proprietary format in it anywhere.

Why is there no single cross-platform conversion number?

Because that number would not correspond to any quantity in the world. Two platforms both claim a buyer who touched both, so the sum counts one person twice. It always reads lower on cost and higher on volume than the truth, and it is computed from data that is entirely accurate.

Our platforms are off by more than half. Is our tracking broken?

Usually not. Check the ordinary causes in order. The same buyer gets claimed twice. A window credits a conversion weeks after the impression that earned it. View-through conversions never appear in a click-based source field. Records arrive with no lead source at all. Most large gaps are two or three of those together.

Does this replace a reporting dashboard?

It answers a different question. A dashboard shows the current state of every channel, refreshed. This produces the monthly artifact somebody senior reads and challenges, which needs a stated method, a named denominator and a written explanation of the gaps. Point a dashboard at the same exports and keep both.

What happens to a channel that has no conversion tracking?

It gets a row with spend, impressions and clicks filled and the conversion column empty, and the amount is named in the readout. That spend belongs in the numerator of every blended figure and can never appear in an attributed one, so every channel-level view is short by exactly that much.

What does Edit with AI actually do?

It signs you up, installs this pack as a private workspace of your own, and puts the agent in front of an empty table. Then you send what you already pull, in whatever shape it is in: three exports on three date ranges, a spreadsheet somebody abandoned, a screenshot of last month's deck.

Sources

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

LinkedIn GitHub X

Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

LinkedIn X

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Find out what your paid number actually rests on

Take the Word documents and CSV sheets blank, or open this exact pack in River and send it the exports you already pull every month.

Edit with AI

Multi-Channel Paid Media Report Template

Paid media, period ending

1. The number

2. By channel

3. Why the platforms disagree

4. What this means

One table, and the sheet that explains why the platforms disagree

Unified Spend and Performance

Platform Reconciliation

Blended Efficiency

What's in the pack

Unified Spend and Performance

Platform Reconciliation

Blended Efficiency

Reporting Methodology

Metric Definitions

Export Checklist

Monthly Readout

How to use it

Open in River, or take it blank

Name the system of record

Send the exports

Read the reconciliation first

Frequently asked questions

Is this template free?

What format are the downloaded files?

Why is there no single cross-platform conversion number?

Our platforms are off by more than half. Is our tracking broken?

Does this replace a reporting dashboard?

What happens to a channel that has no conversion tracking?

What does Edit with AI actually do?

Sources

Chandler Supple

Related workspaces

More free templates

Find out what your paid number actually rests on