What this means for your practice
Document the cost basis and attribution assumptions before calculating efficiency. Include known missing costs and avoid presenting a partial figure as total acquisition cost.
An example to discuss with your team
Move a fictional invoice into the next month while leaving the campaign dates unchanged. Confirm the report treats the timing consistently with its stated method.
What to discuss with your agency
Use a fictional invoice paid a month after the campaign ran. The agency should explain where it belongs under the chosen method. Keep missing costs visible and distinguish a partial campaign measure from a complete acquisition cost. The explanation should be reproducible by whoever reviews the next period.
Put the brief into practice
Agree what spending belongs in the calculation and which date places it in a reporting period. Advertising charges, agency work and other relevant costs may be recorded differently, so the report needs a stated basis rather than an unexplained total. The responsible finance and marketing owners should resolve those choices together. Define the outcome being compared with the cost and explain how it is connected to the campaign under your approved measurement arrangements. Keep missing or excluded amounts visible.
Ask the agency to walk through a fictional delayed invoice and a campaign spanning two periods. Can another reviewer reproduce the calculation from the written method? Review changes to the method before comparing with older figures, because a more complete cost total may appear worse while actually being more honest. The purpose is a useful decision about resource allocation, with known limits, not a single efficiency number that conceals different timing, coverage or attribution assumptions.
How to check the result
Monitor cost per defined outcome alongside coverage of the included cost data.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.
Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.
Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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