Your quarter → five slides → a board that reads them
Most marketing board updates are twenty slides of activity that invite a debate about tactics. This turns your quarter into five slides about money, risk and direction, and moves everything else into an appendix the board reads after the meeting, not during it.
A marketing board update needs five slides: when spend turns into profit, marketing's total P&L contribution, pipeline coverage against plan, three priorities with their risks and asks, and a four quarter forward view. Activity metrics such as reach, CPM, campaign counts and backlog do not belong in the room, because they invite a debate about tactics the board is not there to have. They go in an appendix sent with the deck. This planner computes the five slides from your quarter's spend, revenue and pipeline numbers, and flags anything that belongs in the appendix. Free, no signup.
Everything below uses these four values. Gross margin turns revenue into the profit figures a board wants to see.
Spend does not come back in the month it goes out. The board should not have to work out when it does. This slide does that math for them.
Acquisition is the easiest lever to measure and rarely the largest. The customer base, pricing and your own payroll are all P&L lines marketing owns.
One coverage number, one sourced number, one influenced number. Stage conversion and velocity go in the appendix. If you need the coverage ratio itself, the Pipeline Coverage Calculator derives it from your win rate.
Three priorities, no more. Each carries the risk that could stop it, the mitigation already in place, and a specific ask with a date. A fourth priority dilutes all three.
Close on direction rather than on a request. The base line is what happens if nothing changes. Each bet names the one indicator you will show next quarter, so the board can hold you to it.
The metrics behind the five slides. They travel with the deck and answer the follow-up questions. They are not presented, and they are not argued over in the room.
| Channel | Spend | Customers | CAC | ROAS | Return (mo) |
|---|
| Stage | Open ($) | Conversion to next % | Days in stage |
|---|
| Line | Budget | Actual | Variance | Note |
|---|
The planner reads what you typed into the five slides and flags anything that belongs in the appendix or nowhere at all.
The headline each slide should carry. Each one states the result, not the topic. If a headline reads wrong, fix the input, not the slide.
The thinking behind the five slides, and the assumptions worth challenging.
Five things. When spend turns into profit, marketing's total effect on the P&L beyond new logos, pipeline coverage against next quarter's plan, three priorities with the risk on each and the asks that go with them, and where the numbers are heading over the next four quarters. Everything else belongs in an appendix sent with the deck.
Team operations, upper funnel activity such as reach, impressions, CPM, CTR and cost per install, the number of campaigns or channels running, the full backlog, and any report longer than a handful of pages. They invite a debate about tactics rather than decisions about money, risk and direction. The appendix is where they go.
Spend divided by new customers gives blended CAC. First-year revenue per customer divided by twelve, times gross margin, gives monthly gross profit per customer. Time to return is CAC divided by monthly gross profit per customer. A CAC of $8,600 against $1,900 of monthly gross profit returns in about four and a half months. If your contracts are annual and paid up front, cash returns faster than this, but the board is asking about profit, not cash.
As one net number with the levers behind it: first-year revenue from new customers, expansion from the existing base, retention saves, and revenue from pricing and promotion programs, all at gross margin, less marketing payroll and tools. Showing payroll as a cost line tells the board you count your own spend against your result. Most CMOs find the base outweighs acquisition once they add it up.
Three hold a board's attention. Three can each carry a named risk, a mitigation and a specific, dated ask. A fourth dilutes all of them and signals you have not chosen. If a new one appears mid quarter, one of the existing three comes off, and the board should hear which.
Channel economics with CAC, ROAS and time to return by channel. Funnel health with stage conversion, days in stage and win rate. Customer base metrics, chiefly net and gross revenue retention. Team and budget with spend against plan and headcount. It is sent with the deck for review after the session. If a board member asks a question the appendix answers, point to it and offer a follow-up.
Yes. No signup, no email gate, no account. Everything is computed in your browser and nothing is stored or sent anywhere. What you get is the story: five headlines, the numbers behind them, and a check on what stays out of the room. Building the deck itself is work I do with clients.
The planner gives you the story. Turning it into slides a board reads in the room, with speaker notes and an appendix that answers the follow-ups, is a different piece of work.
Everything is computed in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere.
Choosing the right three priorities, getting the numbers to survive a board member who wants to argue, building the slides and holding the room are what I do with CMOs and CEOs before every quarter's meeting.