For many marketing dashboards there seems to be a fascination about having the-all-in-one dashboard which has an overdose of metrics that is impossible to digest and navigate providing no real insights.
I saw a daily dashboard which had 30 metrics, multiple tables and charts making it incredibly hard to take any action. The dashboard had metrics that were telling very different insights making it impossible to trust. There was so much that was wrong, it's just very bad data play
— Dipesh Shah (@mrdipeshashah) September 4, 2025
Building the data foundations
‘Winning’ with marketing dashboards, means dashboards are providing the right insights and action is taken from those dashboards. To ‘win’ with marketing dashboards it comes from having a structure and a process which may not be the most exciting, but they are the key pillars.
The 2 key pillars it cannot be achieved without:
- KPI Framework
- Marketing Data Warehouse
This solves many of the obstacles when it comes to marketing dashboards:
- Lack of alignment and insight into business performance
- Data quality
- Siloed data
- Working with multiple data sources
1 – KPI Framework
The first step to win with marketing dashboards is having the right KPI framework to ensure there is alignment that talks the language of business and marketing. The KPI framework becomes critical to be able to execute, report and optimise against the set KPIs.
When it comes to selecting KPI’s (not based on digital platform KPI’s) it needs to be split into 4 different buckets that covers the full spectrum from business to marketing and planning. The KPI’s should cover what are the effectiveness and efficiency KPI’s to help provide better insights to look at today, tomorrow and the future.
- Business – KPIs that are important to the board
- Brand + Direct Response – KPIs that are important to the marketing team
- Campaign – KPIs that help the marketing team with planning
(Download KPI Framework here)
Within each bucket there should be at least 5 KPI’s allowing to understand what is going on, to diagnose and action.
Having this clear distinction of top level KPI’s it ensures:
- The right KPI’s are tracked from the right data sources
- Ensures consistency of the KPI’s is visible to all within the marketing dashboards
It forces the marketing dashboards to be structured around the core KPI’s.
To support the core KPI’s and enhance the insights looking at additional KPI’s which may come from digital platforms or web analytics such as funnel KPI’s etc may be beneficial.
2 – Marketing Data Warehouse
With the KPI framework mapped out the next step how is the data collected and stored at the level of granularity that’s required. What are the required data sources to build the data pipelines and structure the data is central to the success.
The marketing data warehouse provides solid and consistent data foundation with the right data governance ultimately trust in the data. The big win is the ability to automate dashboards, saving time from manipulating data in excel based dashboards and invest time in actions that should drive better results.
Building dashboards that drive action
With the KPI framework aligned to the business and a marketing data warehouse providing trust in the data the next 2 steps are:
- Dashboard planning
- Dashboard matrix
One thing to consider when it comes to dashboard planning and matrix is what measurement is shared from the data sources that are available and most importantly who will be viewing the dashboard to act on. This framework is designed to deliver dashboards that drive the right insights. It’s dependant on the data maturity and what data is available. i.e. sharing platform attribution data with senior management would not be recommended or Econometrics may not be available, or it may run once a year or sharing revenue data from Google Analytics in the quarterly dashboard is not ideal when Shopify is available.
(Download Dashboard data requirements here)
To ensure there is value driven from the dashboards it’s critical to think about how the data will be used which will dictate the data sources that are required:
- Daily: Fast data, accuracy is not as important
- Weekly: More accuracy over fast data
- Monthly: Understanding the business impact
- Quarterly: Robust data that can be trusted for strategic decisions
1 – Dashboard Planning
To win with dashboards there needs to be clear goals on what the dashboard is delivering. To help this process and ensure theres clarity on the requirements I have developed a dashboard planning canvas to scope out the requirements which will be needed for each dashboard. This ensures the teams requesting the dashboards are clear in what the requirements are before sharing it with the team designing and building the dashboard.
(Download Dashboard planning here)
Dashboard Name: Title of dashboard which is unique to the dashboard
Goal of the Dashboard: Why is this dashboard being created
Type of Dashboard: What is the category of the dashboard. Only one category should be selected
Key KPI’s: What are the KPI’s that will provide the right insights supporting the goal of the dashboard. The core KPI should be coming from the framework than any additional supporting KPI’s that are required
Decision makers of the Dashboard: Who are the key stakeholders that will be relying on insights from this dashboard
Data Sources: What are the different data sources to get the required data
Dashboard Filters: Are there any specific include or exclude filters that should be added to provide the data that’s required
Breakdown of Data: What is the frequency and granularity of the data that’s required
Additional Notes: Are there any other details or requirements that should be considered when designing and building the dashboard
2 – Dashboard Matrix
To avoid one dashboard being used by all teams and stakeholders ranging from performance team to senior executives and management making it hard to get any real insight. This is where the dashboard matrix comes into play providing a view on which teams are responsible for which dashboards and the frequency of the data updates within each dashboard.
(Download Dashboard Matrix here)
Different teams have different requirements which has different data needs impacting their decision making.
3 – Dashboard Design
A good designed dashboard is a competitive advantage that empowers decision making.
Top 5 rules that make a good dashboard:
- Single page dashboard – focusing on one goal
- Trends – show trends over a period of time to tell a better story
- Ordering of KPI’s – order the KPI’s by business importance
- Explain anomalies – provide context to any anomalies to the data
- Executive Summary – provide a concise summary of the key takeaways
To win with marketing dashboards it has be aligned and part of the work-stream when developing the data and measurement strategy which also ensures there is a coherent approach taken when it comes to marketing dashboards.
