Metrics associated with your KPIs can inform every aspect of your B2B marketing strategy. So it’s no surprise that more than two-thirds of marketers cite measuring metrics as their top priority. Key metrics such as gross revenue, customer lifetime value, and market share help B2B marketers make the right data-driven decisions at every stage of their campaigns.
Measuring your metrics helps connect the dots between the information you have and understanding what that data means. Accessing data is the easy part; applying it to your campaigns is the challenge. To draw accurate conclusions that lead to actionable insights, you will need to leverage the power of a marketing dashboard.
What is a marketing dashboard?
Many B2B marketers feel like they are swimming in an ocean of data. While having access to campaign insights can be empowering, sorting through all the data can be a real challenge. A marketing dashboard is software that houses all of your most important KPIs and metrics in one place, making it easy for your team to view and evaluate. It also allows you to present and share the results of your campaigns with company stakeholders that won’t make them dizzy from looking at all that data.
Dashboards will typically share three kinds of metrics: hard metrics, soft metrics, and internet marketing metrics. Together, they form a three-part “story” that makes it easier to understand the complexities of the marketing metrics you’ve gathered. A good marketing dashboard should allow you to view your reports on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to get an overall picture of your marketing campaign. Dashboards will generally include social media metrics, key traffic sources, email click-through rates, and even bounce rates.
Some examples of different types of marketing dashboards include:
- Digital marketing dashboards
- Marketing performance dashboards
- SEO-focused dashboards
- Web analytics dashboards
- Google Adwords campaign dashboards
- Social media dashboards
- Email marketing dashboards
No matter what marketing data your company needs to track, there’s a dashboard out there designed to work for you.
Why should you use a marketing dashboard?
89% of marketers measure their campaigns using key metrics to aid their decision-making. Why not make sure all of your key metrics are in one, easy-to-read place? Smart B2B marketers who work with complex data every day should consider using a marketing dashboard for managing tasks such as email marketing campaigns, evaluating marketing ROI, and social media management.
A good marketing dashboard will make you think about the insights you’ve collected. Testing out your hypothesis and getting actionable next steps are two invaluable benefits of incorporating a marketing dashboard into your workflow. Marketing dashboards give you a crystal clear view of the ROI of your efforts, which makes it easier to hold everyone accountable and manage projects. They give you an aerial view of exactly where your campaign is over time.
11 Marketing dashboards that make you think
1. Klipfolio
Klipfolio is great for business leaders who want a powerful business intelligence dashboard that is easy to use. A key feature which ensures it will grow with your business needs is that new service integrations are updated weekly, without any coding required. A helpful auto-modeling feature also makes it easy for B2B marketers and startups to assimilate complex data into implementable strategy quickly. An optional white-label feature offers full customization, which can be a valuable add-on for startups.
One data analyst shared the easy integrations between other types of services made it easy for her and her team to use. Other users pointed out that chart creation can have a bit of a learning curve that can slow things down, but the ease of getting started far outweighs this minor potential drawback.
Pricing begins with a free trial, but the Plus level membership costs $99 annually.
2. Oktopost
Oktopost is a social media management solutions for B2B marketing. While not being a dashboarding solution per se, at Oktopost our motto is “measure everything”. With that in mind, social media marketers that use Oktopost’s Social Media Analytics tool to gain granular insights into the impact social media has on their marketing funnels.
The powerful UI helps marketers leverage social data and improve the customer experience. Actionable insights, paired with eye-catching graphics and robust versatility, make it easy for B2B organizations to prove ROI and win over clients.
Oktopost is perfect for B2B marketers looking to tap into the power of their social media data to enhance their lead generation efforts. Oktopost includes pre-made dashboards and exportable reports that streamlines cross-team data analysis. One valuable benefit is that it suggests the best posting times for your social media content, leaving the guesswork of the past behind.
Users highlight that Oktopost is great for B2B social management, which helped them boost impressions and user engagement.
Pricing for Oktopost is available upon request.
3. Google Data Studio
The Google Data Studio promises to help busy marketers turn complex data they are already collecting in the Google suite and turn it into visually stunning graphics. This tool is most useful for B2B marketers who want to use Google Data Studio for a Google Adwords or marketing analysis dashboard. It also allows for an easier learning curve, and simplifies importing data from tools like Google Sheets.
Several reviewers mentioned that the awesome graphics make it a great choice to wow clients during presentations and make the most of their data.
Pricing for Google Data Studio is available upon request.
4. Tableau
The Tableau software began as one of the pioneers of marketing dashboard solutions. Today, this powerful tool is best suited for developers who need to build reports to inform other department heads. It allows users to share cross-channel updates, reports, and further analysis quickly.
Enhanced scorecards and the ability to work with Big Data Services make this dashboard good for working with complex metrics. As a B2B marketing analytics solution, it offers the ability to leverage workbook formatting and cross-data source filtering.
One user noted that ease of visualizing data made it perfect for CEO-level meetings. Some users pointed out that while the software is easy to use, working with certain types of data sets can be a challenge.
Pricing starts at $70 per month (billed annually).
5. Datapine
Datapine incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning to create a dashboard that is ideal for displaying marketing data. It is geared towards managers and data scientists to help them chart and track their KPIs to spur new business growth. For this reason, it is great as a marketing ROI dashboard, SEO dashboard, and PPC dashboard.
One of the key features of this dashboard software is that you can apply it to different data needs such as marketing analytics, social media reports, and CRM data. For more experienced Datapine users, there is also a dedicated SQL feature that allows an enhanced level of access.
A Head of Sales user was impressed with Datapine’s drag-and-drop feature that allowed him to view important sales KPIs such as backlink monitoring on the fly.
Pricing for Datapine is available upon request.
6. Whatagraph
Whatagraph makes it easy to track analytics across all social media platforms and works well as an email marketing dashboard. The intuitive design boasts an automated data-pulling process that helps busy B2B marketers quickly assimilate large amounts of data. It also allows you to add customization to any of their dashboard templates.
Geared more towards Head of Content-type roles for Social Media marketing dashboards, it makes it easy to pull data across multiple social platforms. It also provides for a wide variety of integrations.
One agency owner shared that Whatagraph is a must-have for agency owners. Several users have favorably commented on Whatagraph’s valuable ability to cut reporting time in half.
Pricing for Whatagraph is available upon request.
7. AgencyAnalytics
As the name implies, AgencyAnalytics is a marketing dashboard tool designed for today’s B2B agency owner. As an all-in-one tool, it is best suited for marketing analytics reporting or as an SEO dashboard.
Geared towards SEO proficiency, it includes helpful SEO features built-in such as rank tracking, backlink monitoring, and website audits. These reports are automatically sent to the client, which makes managing campaigns easier.
One marketing director shared that the ability to create dynamic reports made AgencyAnalytics ideal for sharing customizable reports directly with clients to keep everyone up-to-date on marketing ROI and campaign performance.
Pricing begins at $49 per month.
8. Zoho Analytics
ZohoAnalytics creates visually appealing reports that you can use to manage customizable data and KPIs easily. It is best suited as a B2B marketing analytics dashboard. One advantage of ZohoAnalytics is that it allows users to connect to multiple data sources seamlessly. Other key features include the option to create columns with customized calculations in an intuitive display.
One user was impressed by the software’s ability to use AI to make recommendations on action steps that their B2B company should take based on the auto-generated reports. For this reason, it comes highly recommended as a marketing analytics tool.
After the free trial, pricing starts at $30 per month.
9. ClicData
ClicData is designed to work well for agency owners, department managers, and data analysts who want to sync data between their entire team. It is also versatile enough to benefit B2B managers who need to track and manage inventory since it can connect to over 250 data sources.
ClicData features real-time reports, making it easy to share insights around sales and key performance metrics with clients and team members. It also operates well on mobile devices. One potential drawback is that the learning curve for editing dashboards is steep. On the upside, it boasts bold colors and a crisp display.
One satisfied user shared how the use of Azure for data storage and data connectivity with multiple data sources is one of the most significant benefits of using ClicData.
Pricing for ClicData starts at $71 per month.
10. Looker
Looker prioritizes speed and effectiveness for digital marketers, product managers, and marketing managers who churn out large amounts of data. This software is best for marketers looking to capitalize on diverse data sets from marketing analytics to sales dashboards. Its easy pairing with AdWords campaigns also makes Looker an excellent dashboard for managing ad campaign performance metrics. A helpful feature is the data dictionary, which makes it easy for new users to get acclimated to the software.
A senior data analyst lauded Looker for its blazing fast response times, which comes in handy when uploading large data sets. The increased speed is also helpful when it comes to increasing productivity for teams and improved workflow.
Pricing for Looker is available upon request.
11. Power BI
Microsoft packages their reliable gold standard for developing effective software into a sleek marketing dashboard – Power BI. It is a visually stunning solution geared towards analysts of all experience levels as a marketing funnel dashboard. Central to its design is the easy functionality. This ease of use is found in features such as data refresh, which lets you set the parameters of when dashboard data should be updated.
Users have pointed out that the reliability of the familiar UI makes this software solution a good option for B2B marketers who are well acquainted with Microsoft products.
Pricing starts at $9.99 per month.
Powerful tools that make your think
As B2B marketers, it is all too easy to get comfortable with our assumptions about what data means. Using a marketing dashboard to test and refine your insights can help you rethink your strategy. Then it becomes much easier to make the necessary changes that lead to better results.
Incorporating the power of a marketing dashboard is the most effective way to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks in your B2B marketing campaigns. While each of these 11 marketing dashboards will help you maximize your efforts, we recommend selecting the one that’s right for the job – and makes you think the most.
