What to Include in a Quarterly Marketing Performance Review for a PI Firm

Monthly reports tell you what happened. Quarterly reviews answer a bigger question: is the marketing program working?

The quarterly marketing performance review is the most important reporting cadence for PI firms — not because it has more data, but because it has enough time horizon to see whether decisions made three months ago actually produced results. It's the review where vendor changes get validated, strategy decisions get made, and budgets get adjusted for the next quarter.

Done well, a quarterly review takes 45 to 60 minutes and produces concrete decisions. Done poorly, it's a two-hour meeting where everyone agrees the numbers look interesting and nothing changes.

Here's what to include — and how to run it.

The Five Sections of an Effective Quarterly Review

Section 1: Quarterly Scorecard Against Goals

Open with the headline metrics for the quarter. This is not the place for nuance — it's the place for clarity. Did the quarter hit its goals?

• Signed cases vs. quarterly target: 142 signed cases vs. a 150-case target — 94.7% of goal.
• Cost per case vs. prior quarter: $3,920 this quarter vs. $4,310 last quarter — a 9% improvement.
• Total marketing spend vs. budget: $573,000 spent vs. a $600,000 quarterly budget — 4.5% under budget.
• Intake conversion rate: 22% this quarter vs. 20% last quarter — a meaningful improvement.

These four numbers tell the story of the quarter. Everything else is supporting evidence. If your managing partner is a “bottom line first” thinker — and most attorneys are — this scorecard should occupy the first two minutes of the review.

Section 2: Vendor Portfolio Assessment

The quarterly review is the right moment for a thorough vendor assessment. Monthly reporting can track performance trends, but the quarterly view gives enough data to make confident portfolio decisions.

For each active vendor, present:

• Total quarterly spend
• Total leads delivered
• Signed cases (90 days)
• Cost per case (90 days)
• Trend vs. prior quarter (improving, stable, declining)
• Recommended status for next quarter

The quarterly view often reveals patterns that monthly data obscures. A vendor whose monthly cost per case oscillated between $3,800 and $5,200 across three months might show a quarterly cost per case of $4,400 — which tells a different story than any single month.

Vendors with three consecutive months of underperformance need a decision at the quarterly review: renegotiate, reduce, or remove. Don't carry problem vendors into another quarter without a specific intervention plan.

Section 3: What Worked and What Didn't

This section is where many quarterly reviews get vague. Push for specificity. For each marketing decision made last quarter, report the result:

• “We increased Vendor A's budget by $20,000/month in Q1. Their quarterly cost per case came in at $2,900 — their best performance in 12 months. The increase paid off.”
• “We launched a new TV campaign in February at $45,000/month. Q1 generated 18 signed cases from TV — a cost per case of $7,500. Above our $5,000 threshold. Recommend a reduced test budget in Q2 with a 90-day improvement window.”
• “We cut Vendor F entirely in January. No meaningful disruption to lead volume — other vendors absorbed the demand. Confirms the attribution model was correct.”

This format creates institutional learning. Your firm is running controlled experiments — budget decisions are hypotheses, quarterly results are data. Building a record of what worked and why is how PI marketing programs improve year over year.

Section 4: Intake Performance Review

Marketing and intake are not separate functions when you're measuring cost per case. A marketing program that delivers 450 leads is only as good as the intake process that converts them. The quarterly review should include an intake performance section:

• Overall conversion rate: What percentage of leads became signed cases this quarter?
• Conversion rate by lead source: Which sources are converting at or above average? Which are below?
• Rejection and withdrawal rates: Are we turning away cases we should sign? Are signed cases being withdrawn early at a rate that suggests intake quality issues?
• Response time performance: What is average time from lead receipt to first contact? Are we within best-practice windows?

If intake conversion improved from 20% to 24% over the quarter, that deserves the same attention as a vendor performing below threshold. A 4-point intake improvement on 450 leads produces 18 additional cases. At $45,000 average case value, that's $810,000 in additional case value — from a process improvement, not additional marketing spend.

Section 5: Q2 Budget Recommendations

The quarterly review should end with concrete budget recommendations for the next quarter. Not directional guidance — specific numbers.

• Vendor A: increase from $55,000/month to $70,000/month. Three quarters of below-threshold cost per case. Track whether performance holds with higher volume.
• Vendor C: maintain at $40,000/month with a formal 60-day improvement window. Cost per case of $5,800 is above threshold but trending down.
• Vendor D: reduce from $45,000/month to $25,000/month. Three months above $6,500 cost per case with no improvement. Reallocate savings to Vendor A and trial budget.
• New vendor trial: $25,000/month for 90-day evaluation. Minimum 50 leads required for meaningful cost per case assessment.

Budget recommendations framed this specifically move through managing partner approval faster. There's nothing to interpret — just a decision to make.

How Long the Review Should Take

A well-structured quarterly review should take no more than 60 minutes. This requires that data be prepared and distributed in advance — at least 48 hours before the meeting. Managing partners who walk into the meeting having already reviewed the report spend the meeting making decisions rather than absorbing information.

Agenda structure that works:

• Minutes 0–10: Scorecard review (everyone confirms they've read it)
• Minutes 10–25: Vendor portfolio decisions
• Minutes 25–40: Intake performance discussion
• Minutes 40–55: Q2 budget approval
• Minutes 55–60: Open questions and next review date

The Data Infrastructure That Makes This Possible

A quarterly review with this level of specificity — cost per case by vendor for 90 days, intake conversion by lead source, budget vs. actual by channel — requires connected data. Not three spreadsheets and a CRM export, but a system where marketing spend, lead attribution, and case outcomes are tracked in one place.

Without that infrastructure, building the quarterly review takes 15 to 20 hours of preparation. With a revenue intelligence platform, the data is already organized. The review prep takes 30 to 45 minutes, and the review itself produces real decisions rather than agreements to gather more data next quarter.

The firms that run quarterly reviews like this consistently see 15 to 20% improvements in marketing ROI within 90 days — because every quarter produces specific, data-backed optimizations that compound over time.

RevenueScale's quarterly performance view structures the data your quarterly review needs — showing what the most effective PI firms track every 90 days, without 20 hours of prep work.