Starting from a parametrization of the quantum effective action for gravity, we calculate correlation functions for observable quantities. The resulting templates allow us to reverse engineer the couplings describing the effective dynamics from the correlation functions. Applying this new formalism to the autocorrelation function of spatial volume fluctuations measured within the causal dynamical triangulations program suggests that the corresponding quantum effective action consists of the Einstein-Hilbert action supplemented by a nonlocal interaction term. We expect that our matching-template formalism can be adapted to a wide range of quantum gravity programs allowing us to bridge the gap between the fundamental formulation and observable low-energy physics.