Creating customised Looker Studio Dashboards to improve marketing effectiveness

You can’t improve what you can’t measure.
Peter Drucker

Nowadays, marketers have more data at their disposal than ever before. But more data doesn’t necessarily translate into better measurement – in our experience, it’s all too easy to get lost in the weeds of spreadsheets and reports from dozens of data sources, so much so that even answering a seemingly simple question like “did this campaign meet its objectives?” can create hours of work and frustration. 

But collating all of your data is just one part of the equation; making sense of your results, and what it means for your business, is arguably even more important. Without the ability to digest and understand your data, you’ll have a much harder time:

• Identifying what’s working and what isn’t

• Deciding what you need to tweak – and how to tweak it

• Communicating your results to your colleagues and C-suite

So how do you make multichannel reporting quick, easy, and most importantly, useful?

This is where data visualisation can help you transform rows and columns of information from multiple different sources, into one easy-to-understand reporting dashboard that presents your key results at a glance, while also allowing you to deep-dive and glean insights that are truly valuable to your business. 

How it works

Using Google’s Looker Studio, we’ll bring together all of your key data sources and create a single report tailored to your objectives and goals. With a combination of built-in data sources, third-party connectors, and manual spreadsheet uploads (if necessary), our dashboards provide a one-stop shop for all of your reporting needs, so you won’t need to export spreadsheets and reports from all your different marketing channels. With date range controls and additional filters, you’ll be able to dynamically change your dashboard, allowing you to see exactly the data you need.

The details

Before creating a reporting dashboard, we’ll ask you to answer a few key questions that will guide the structure of your dashboard and the kinds of data we’ll include, such as:

• Who will be using this dashboard, and how frequently?

• What are the key objectives/metrics to report on?

• Which channels and sources should be included?

Once we have a clear understanding of the dashboard’s purpose, we will begin integrating all the necessary data sources into Looker Studio. Looker Studio has several built-in connectors, and an even wider range of third-party connector options. 

Available data sources include but are not limited to:

• Google Analytics

• Google Ads (including YouTube Ads)

• Google Search Console

• YouTube Analytics

• LinkedIn Ads and Pages (through third-party connectors)

• Google Trends (through third-party connectors)

We use a third-party tool called Two Minute Reports, which provides connectors for many popular channels, including the ones listed above. However, if a particular data source is not available on Two Minute Reports, we may use a different third-party tool or a manual spreadsheet upload. In any case, we have a lot of flexibility about the data we are able to include in these reports, so that it functions as a single source of truth for your reporting needs.

Once the dashboard has been built, you will be able to use it at any point, using filters and date range controls to manipulate the data as needed, as well as sharing it with colleagues either with a shareable link or as a PDF report.