Around day 60 or 90 of any local marketing retainer, the client asks the question that decides whether you get renewed: “So… is this working?” If your answer is a shrug, a ranking screenshot, or a speech about algorithms, the retainer is in trouble — not because the work failed, but because you cannot prove local SEO results in language the client trusts. The good news is that Google Business Profile hands you honest, client-shaped proof for free. You just have to know which numbers matter, record the starting point, and present the change plainly.
This article is about choosing the proof and having the renewal conversation. The format of the report document itself — the one-page layout clients actually read — is covered in the one-page local marketing report; read that for presentation, and this for what goes in it.
The short answer
To show a client their Google visibility improved, compare the same period before and after using the four numbers owners care about: calls from the profile, direction requests, search views, and reviews gained with the current rating. Record the baseline on day one — without a starting point, later numbers prove nothing.
The four numbers a client actually cares about
Business owners do not think in impressions and click-through rates. They think in customers. Google Business Profile’s performance data maps onto that thinking better than most freelancers realise:
- Calls. Phone calls placed from the profile. The closest thing to money on the whole dashboard.
- Direction requests. People asking for directions to the business — intent to visit, in numbers.
- Search views. How often the profile appeared in search and Maps results. This is the visibility number: it proves more people are seeing the business than before.
- Reviews gained and rating. New reviews in the period, the current average, and the fact that every one was answered.
Website clicks from the profile can be added as a fifth where relevant. What you leave out matters too: raw “impressions” across every surface, position-tracking screenshots for keywords the client never asked about, and any metric you cannot explain in one plain sentence. If you cannot say what a number means for their till, it is decoration, and clients can tell.
Why the baseline is everything
Improvement is a comparison, and a comparison needs a starting point. On day one of any engagement — before you change a single thing — record the profile’s previous 90 days: calls, direction requests, search views, review count and rating. Screenshot it, save the numbers, and note the date. This takes ten minutes and is the single most skipped step in local marketing.
Without a baseline, day-90 numbers are just numbers. “You got 31 calls” means nothing. “You got 31 calls, up from 12 in the 90 days before we started” is a renewal conversation that goes well. Keeping the baseline for every client in one reporting workspace from day one is what makes that comparison effortless later. The baseline habit fits naturally into the discovery work of a Google Business Profile audit — if you audit before you start, the baseline records itself.
A worked example: one client’s 90-day snapshot
Here is an illustrative before/after, with fictional numbers, laid out the way you might show it to the client:
| Measure | 90 days before | Last 90 days | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search views | 1,150 | 2,340 | about double |
| Calls from profile | 12 | 31 | +19 |
| Direction requests | 28 | 57 | +29 |
| Reviews | 41 total, 4.2★ | 63 total, 4.5★ | +22 reviews |
And here is how you say it, in one breath: “In the three months before we started, your profile was seen about 1,150 times and produced 12 calls. In the last three months it was seen about 2,340 times and produced 31 calls and 57 direction requests, and you gained 22 reviews, which took your rating from 4.2 to 4.5. That is what the monthly work bought.”
Notice the discipline in that script. It claims exactly what the numbers show — visibility and enquiries — and nothing more. It does not claim revenue, because you cannot see the client’s till. It does not promise the next 90 days will double again, because growth flattens and honest freelancers say so. Paradoxically, that restraint is what makes the client believe the numbers.
Honesty rules that keep the proof credible
- Use the same period lengths. 90 days against 90 days, month against the same month last year where seasonality bites (a garden centre in May is not comparable to February).
- Mention the dips. If calls fell in one month because the business closed for a holiday, say so in the report. A report that only ever goes up reads as fiction.
- Never buy or borrow proof. No purchased reviews, no screenshots from another client’s dashboard, no “results may vary” stock claims. One dishonest report discovered ends every retainer you have, not just that one.
- Separate your work from the weather. A hot summer lifts ice-cream shops regardless of marketing. Where an outside cause is obvious, name it. Clients trust proof more when you decline to take credit you have not earned.
- Keep the raw screenshots. Save the dashboard views behind every reported figure. If a client ever questions a number, you can show the source in seconds instead of arguing from memory.
The renewal conversation
Have it before the client has to ask. At day 90, send the snapshot, then one short message: what improved, what you worked on, what you would do next quarter. Clients renew momentum they can see. They churn silence — a monthly invoice with no visible story attached is the easiest cost a small business ever cuts. This is why the proof step is built into the monthly local marketing routine rather than left to a panicked end-of-quarter scramble, and why keeping baselines, monthly figures and client reports organised in one simple system makes the renewal conversation a formality instead of a rescue mission.
Questions owners ask next
I never recorded a baseline. Is the proof ruined?
No — but start today. Pull the client’s last 90 days of profile performance now and write the four numbers down where you will find them in three months. If no starting point was ever recorded, today’s numbers become the baseline; better late than never. From here the habit is cheap: on day one of every engagement, before you change a single thing, record the previous 90 days and note the date.
Should I report rankings, impressions and website traffic too?
Only what you can explain in one plain sentence about their till. Owners think in customers, not click-through rates: calls, direction requests, search views and reviews map onto that thinking. Leave out raw impressions across every surface and position screenshots for keywords the client never asked about, and never claim revenue — you cannot see their till, and claiming exactly what the numbers show, no more, is what makes a client believe them.
One month’s numbers dipped. Do I hide it?
No — mention the dip and its cause. If calls fell because the business closed for a holiday, say so in the report; compare like with like (90 days against 90 days, a month against the same month last year where seasonality bites) and name outside causes rather than taking credit or blame you have not earned. A report that only ever goes up reads as fiction, and one dishonest report discovered ends every retainer you have.
When should I have the renewal conversation?
Before the client has to ask. At day 90, send the snapshot, then one short message: what improved, what you worked on, what you would do next quarter. Clients renew momentum they can see; they churn silence, because a monthly invoice with no visible story attached is the easiest cost a small business ever cuts.
What to do next
For every client you currently serve, do the baseline exercise backwards today: pull their last 90 days of profile performance and write the four numbers down where you will find them in three months. If you never recorded a starting point, today’s numbers become the baseline — better late than never. Then diarise the day-90 snapshot. When the client asks “is this working?”, you will answer with their own numbers. And if you want the tracking, reporting and monthly proof organised in one place across all your clients, you can see the setup on my Local Alchemist AI page.
Disclosure: the page linked above contains an affiliate link. If you buy through it, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.