How can you design marketing dashboards that drive ROI?

Clarity in Measurement Metrics: - Understand how success is measured within your company. Distinct B2B and B2C Approaches: - Recognize the significant differences in strategies and metrics between B2B and B2C scenarios. Working alongside sales: - If possible you can align marketing KPIs with sales objectives for collaborative success. Specially in B2B. Customizing Objectives to Business Model: - Tailor objectives to your business model, emphasizing closing deals, generating revenue, or prioritizing Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQL). Streamlined B2C Tracking: - Leverage the simplicity of shorter sales cycles in B2C businesses. Measure success through leads and sales for straightforward tracking.

KPIs are important, but don't depend on them too much. I've witnessed companies become overly focused on data, neglecting innovation and customer satisfaction in the process. Note that data describes what is, not what might be. Sometimes, discovering new growth opportunities requires going beyond the box of metrics.

Dashboards are designed to comprehend the story at a glance. So the biggest challenge I faced is how to simplify the data so even 5th graders could understand what was going on. To achieve this I used the data flow technique. Where I divided my story into main parts for instance when I prepared dashboards for the digital marketing team, I divided it into three or five sections Overview, SEO, Campaign Performances, ROI, and Recommendations. Each section further I deciding into three sections where every aspect are grasp by looking at the dashboard.

?? Identify Dashboard Users: Understand who will use the dashboard, tailoring it to suit different roles and their data needs. ?? Customization for User Roles: Adapt the dashboard to present high-level KPIs for executives and detailed metrics for marketing managers. ?? Balance Detail and Simplicity: Ensure the dashboard strikes a balance between providing essential data and maintaining simplicity. ?? Solve User Pain Points: Design the dashboard to address specific challenges and needs of its users. ?? Clear Data Visualization: Use graphs and charts for easy data comprehension and interaction. ?? Ensure Usability: Make the dashboard accessible and user-friendly for all skill levels.

In order to achieve reliable and accurate data sources the best practice is to pull your data into a data warehouse. Where you all the marketing data in one place that you access easily and compare it with other data sources to identify inconsistencies in the data sources. My go-to tool for this is Google Big Query. Why I'm using BQ more often because Google dominated the marketing world up to some extent and Google Cloud is way easier to navigate with the newest update with duet AI that has become way more easier . Duet AI is similar to chatGPT where it lives inside the Google Cloud where you can ask anything for instructions.

?? Select Key Data Sources: Choose relevant sources like CRM systems, website analytics, and social media platforms that align with your dashboard goals. ??? Use Integration Tools: Utilize platforms like Google Data Studio or Tableau for seamless data integration from various sources. ?? Ensure Data Quality: Conduct regular checks for data accuracy and consistency. ?? Prevent Data Silos: Choose sources that allow for data integration, avoiding isolated data pools. ?? Automate Data Collection: Automate the process where possible to enhance efficiency and accuracy. ?? Timely Data Updates: Opt for data sources that offer real-time or frequent updates. ?? Ensure Compatibility: Ensure your data sources are compatible with your platform.

01. Line Charts: Best For: Showing trends over time, such as sales growth or website traffic. 02. Bar Charts: Good for comparing large numbers of categories or long category names. Stacked Bar Charts: Useful for comparing parts of a whole across categories, such as sales by product type within regions. 03.Pie Charts: Best For: Showing proportions of a whole when you have a limited number of categories. 04. Histograms: Best For: Understanding the distribution of a dataset, like customer age groups or income levels.

I always tend to show my dashboards to an outsider of the data team. Sometimes people who are involved with the dashboards think that the dashboard is perfect but it's not. Always seeking more observations to ChatGPT comes in handy with this. Take a screenshot and upload the ask its opinion of the dashboard you created.

The best use of dashboards to drive ROI is when you can share them and collaborate on them: 1. Distribute your dashboard as a link that stakeholders can click on and immediately see. 2. Use an analytics tool that lets you add notes or comments to dashboards, this way it will be easier to collaborate, share insights, and ask questions. 3. Be consistent in the way you demonstrate and communicate your marketing impact, use the same dashboards and charts every month/quarter/year. This way people will be able to compare to previous periods and easily see the progress.

Make sure that when you create a marketing dashboard to drive ROI you think about the leading indicators and lagging indicators. Because your leading indicators are the ones driving your lagging indicators. Examples: Lagging indicators - Leads, Opportunities, Revenue, Retention Leading indicators - The performance of Ads that drive Leads, quality of leads that drive Opportunities, engagement in your product that drives Retention.

Creating ROI-driven marketing dashboards requires a human-centered approach. Tailor dashboards to diverse user levels within the marketing team: marketers optimizing strategies, individuals seeking insights into tactics' effectiveness, and those focused on ROI for critical business decisions. Prioritize stakeholders through an iterative design process, emphasizing KPIs crucial to the business. Avoid attempting to boil the ocean by creating a universal solution in the first go as this may lead to data inaccuracies, misinterpretation, and diminished confidence in the process and the people involved.