Marketing DashboardHaving marketing dashboard software can save your company time and money. 

Through automated data visualization and real-time insights, a digital marketing dashboard serves as a single source of truth for efficient, agile decision-making, and problem-solving for brands and marketers. 

What is a Digital Marketing Reporting Dashboard?

A marketing reporting dashboard is a business intelligence (BI) tool that collects, analyzes, and populates data from different sources on a user interface.

If you have multiple marketing campaigns running across different platforms like Facebook and Google, a reporting tool can pull all the data through data connectors, and turn them into actionable business insights. 

Data connectors are pre-built or custom APIs that integrate various marketing channels in one centralized location without having to write backend codes yourself. However, some marketing dashboards may ask users to configure settings before pulling in data. This can be confusing if you don’t know what you’re looking for. 

A good marketing dashboard should act as a command center. You should be able to see all media, messaging, and performance, so you can make real-time decisions based on how the market is responding to your creatives and whether your target audiences are moving towards purchase. 

Here are five things to consider before selecting a digital marketing platform for your advertising campaigns: 

Consideration #1: It should visualize real-time data.  

For marketers who must repeatedly ask loaded questions, such as from which acquisition funnels lead to conversion, during which time of the day are prospects most active, and the like, real-time visualization cuts through the pile of raw data standing in the way of getting those questions answered. 

Marketing dashboards let you analyze real-time data across all marketing channels in detail. When you have real-time data, you can quickly take advantage of opportunities and fix issues. 

Consideration #2: It should track the most important marketing KPIs.

A marketing dashboard visualizes key performance indicators (KPIs) for your social media campaigns, content marketing campaigns, and influencer marketing campaigns. Some examples of typical KPIs found on marketing dashboards include:

  • Cost-per-click (CPC): how much marketers pay for ads running across websites or social media based on the number of clicks an ad receives. 
  • Click-through rate (CTR): the total percentage of people who visit your website by clicking on an ad or a search result. 
  • Bounce rate: an SEO metric showing the percentage of site visitors who leave without taking any action. 
  • Conversion rates: the number of visitors to a site that complete a desired goal (a conversion) out of the total number of visitors. 

Consideration #3: It should be easy to use and connect to all your data sources.  

Have you ever had to manually select all the different marketing metrics you want to import and get frustrated because of how complex it was? 

Marketing reporting dashboards are designed to be truly plug and play – no code or dev needed so you can easily get your workspace to set up in minutes, even if you are switching from another dashboard software.

A marketing dashboard covers integrations with the whole marketing spectrum–from ad platforms to CRM tools. Some dashboard companies also offer custom integration via Google spreadsheets if they don’t support a specific data integration natively. 

Consideration #4: It should automate the process of client report creation. 

Marketing dashboards are designed to automate tasks and leverage a single source of truth to streamline creative development, strategic planning, and campaign execution. 

Whether you’re trying to juggle 10 or 100 accounts, an automated marketing dashboard is not only more cost-effective than hiring multiple account managers, but also lets you automate your reporting so you can grow and scale your marketing agency with ease. 

Consideration #5: It should generate white-labeled reports and visualized data displays.

The job of a marketing dashboard doesn’t end at visualization. You should be able to create white-labeled reports instantly customized to each client’s specific needs, interests, and priorities with brand visuals. 

Using a marketing dashboard allows agencies to both create in-depth dashboards for internal management (agency overview, client, or team overview), and client-facing dashboards. 

Wrapping Up

With a digital marketing dashboard, you can spend less time worrying about gathering data from multiple sources to create reports, and more time focusing on campaigns and implementing key advertising strategies for your brand. 

Want a full analysis on marketing dashboard software reviews? Check out this post