Websites, copy, blogs, email paid ads, social media – it’s a lot to think about and keep track of. So, what do you do? You set up a marketing dashboard.
“How do I set up a marketing dashboard,” you ask?
There are different ways to go about this. You could manually gather all of your data together, through creating a powerpoint presentation or a spreadsheet — but this takes time and a lot of it!
Another solution would be to use a dashboard system like Google Data Studio. Through Google Data Studio, you can set up plug-ins or connectors to pull in data from various website analytics or social platforms in real-time. This is a more modern, time-efficient solution in creating your weekly, monthly or annual dashboards because you set it and forget it.
With marketing dashboards from Data Studio, you get real time data without all of the cutting and pasting!
Here are some of the more common, helpful metrics that are being included in digital marketing dashboards.
Site Metrics (Google Analytics)
Your website is your brand or business’ central hub. It’s where users, and potential customers, complete a lot of different actions when finding out more about your business. Through Google Analytics, you can discover a treasure trove of data about your website and how people are engaging with it.
Whenever you think about your website, you want to know the answers to questions like, “How many visitors am I getting?” or “How are visitors finding out about my website?”
Regardless of your questions, there is a metric that can present you with answers that you can include in this section of your dashboard. Here are some of the more common metrics for websites:
- Page Views
- Unique Page Views
- Bounce Rate
- Session Length
- Traffic Sources
Having these metrics at the forefront of your marketing dashboard presents you with a high-level view about the current status of your site as it pertains to how people are getting to it, how many people are seeing it and what they’re doing once they get to it.
It’s important to know what’s happening with your brand, both on-site and off. Having the traffic sources metric on your dashboard in conjunction with your traffic breakdown paints a clearer picture of your brand’s digital footprint. Fleshing out the website analytics section of your dashboard, this displays detailed insights into how users are finding out about your site, and ultimately, your business.
Adding Google Analytics to your dashboard presents a host of important website traffic metrics like page views, and bounce rate and traffic sources. So, whether you have a new site, new page or a big update to your site, you’ll want to know that your efforts are driving traffic to your site.
Keyword Metrics
Keyword data connectors such as those from Moz or SEMrush (insert links here) add in-depth keyword data to your reporting dashboard:
- Organic Keyword Rankings
- Paid Keyword Rankings
- Search Volume
Insights from your organic and paid keyword positions allows you to see what keywords your site is currently ranking for as well as any position increases. Featuring this in your dashboard gives you high-level insight as to what the stronger keywords are at the center of your SEO and content strategies.
Together with search volume, you’ll have the ability to monitor the quality of the keywords you’re ranking for. Over time, this section of your dashboard will present you with great opportunities to improve your rankings in search while assisting you in improving and further developing your content strategy.
Email Metrics
E-mails such as newsletters are a big part of any content strategy. And, like anything else in marketing, It’s essential to have metrics that keep you aware of how your content strategy is doing. Understanding what audiences are receptive to your email campaign helps to further optimize the components of your email strategy, such as audiences and content.
These are a few important metrics to keep in mind when building out the email section of your dashboard:
- Click Rate
- Open Rate
- Subscribers
Adding email data to your dashboard, including open rates, click rates and new subscribers will give you a clearer picture as to how this arm of your content strategy is doing on a regular basis.
Open rates will be the first metric that you will want present, as it gives you a look as to how many of its receivers saw the content of your email, while click rates can better inform you about your email’s linking strategy and how it’s driving engagement with your content.
Seeing how many new subscribers you’re getting through your email campaign is a good way to know just what your audience has been the most receptive to lately.
Using email data connectors like those from Mailchimp (insert links here) can help to display what is necessary for your content/email strategy. Together, this data gives you a better indication more in-depth understanding of how clients, or potential clients, are engaging with your email campaigns immediately.
Paid Ads Metrics (Google Ads, etc.)
When developing an ad strategy, you’re always experimenting to strengthen your ad strategy and get the most out of your ad budget. To do this, you should have as much data at your disposal as you can get. Although, there is a lot of data to delve into when it comes to paid ads, presenting a straight-forward way to see how your ads are doing saves a lot of time.
Here are a few of the metrics to keep in mind when creating the paid ads section of your dashboard:
- Quality Score
- Cost Per Click (CPC)
- Campaign Spend
- Conversion Rate
These metrics will paint a better, easier to digest picture of how your ads are doing without needing to comb through all of the data that is presented to you be Google Adwords.
The quality scores of your ads will give you a good idea as to how your ads are seen in terms of quality, which could indicate a higher CPC and, ultimately, a higher conversion rate.
Adding a cost-per-click (CPC) metric to your dashboard is a great way to see the high-level data to know how your dollars are being spent for your digital ad campaign to know how best to utilize your budget.
Through adding conversions, you’ll know just how much your efforts are paying off in regards to your ads. After all, conversions are the goal.
Understanding the data from your ad campaigns is essential to developing a stronger, more informed ad strategy. Through monthly metrics to track your ads to develop a more informed ad strategy. You can track various paid ad campaigns from Google and get a high-level view of how your ad campaigns are performing.
Social Media Metrics
Your social media presence plays a big part of your brand’s digital footprint, so it’s worth always keeping track of. Your social media reach shows you so much about how your posts and content are resonating with target audiences.
These metrics will give you a clearer understanding about the value that your posts are bringing to your customers and help you to further develop your social strategy, as you optimize your content to reach a wider audience:
- Reach
- Engagement
- Impressions
- Likes/Posts
Insights from social media, regardless of platform, are important to have to better understand your social reach. Your dashboard’s social metrics give you an idea as to how your social efforts are being received, so you understand where, and how, your time is best spent when developing content.
Conclusion
While these connectors are useful for you to keep track of various metrics when creating a marketing dashboard, these only scratch the surface of what you can do. As your marketing efforts evolve and grow in scope, your marketing dashboard will follow suit, growing pages long to assist you in getting an understanding of your marketing strategy at a deeper level.
