A dashboard marketing digital setup, more often called a digital marketing dashboard, brings every online channel onto one screen: search, paid ads, social, email, SMS and your website. The point is not to see more numbers. It is to compare channels on the same measure so you can move effort to the ones that produce clients. This article answers how to build that channel-by-channel view in Reporting on the levelpartner.ai platform, with digital marketing dashboard examples for each of the four industries we serve.
One row per channel, same columns for each
The simplest way to design a digital marketing reporting dashboard is as a table in your head: one row per channel, the same columns for every row. The columns that matter are new contacts, booked calls, won clients, won value and spend. When every channel is measured on the same columns, comparison is instant.
Most dashboards fail this test. They show impressions for social, open rates for email and clicks for ads, which cannot be compared. Each channel looks fine on its own metric and nobody can say which one is best.
Choosing your digital marketing KPI dashboard columns
Keep two kinds of measure apart. Outcome measures, such as booked calls and won value, decide budget. Diagnostic measures, such as email open rate or ad click rate, explain why an outcome moved. A digital marketing KPI dashboard should show the outcomes at the top and keep diagnostics on a second tab for the people running each channel.
Before you start
- Ad, email and social accounts connected from Settings.
- UTM values on every digital link, using a shared naming rule.
- Forms and calendars that store source on the contact record.
- Opportunity values entered when deals are won.
How to set it up
- Write down every digital channel you actively use.
- Assign each one a standard UTM source value.
- Check that each channel's links carry that value.
- Go to Dashboard, click + Add Dashboard and name it for the channel review.
- Add Contacts Count Over Time with First Attribution, grouped by Session Source.
- Add Lead Source Report from General below it.
- Add Opportunity Revenue Over Time with Status Won, grouped the same way.
- Add Amount Spent from Meta Ads and Total cost from Google Ads.
- Create a second dashboard for diagnostics, such as Opened Emails.
- Save both and set the Date Picker to the last full month.
Digital marketing dashboard examples by industry
Agencies. Paid social and search usually drive volume, while case-study content and webinars drive the larger retainers. The dashboard should show won value by source, not just lead count, or volume channels will look best.
Consultants. Email to an existing list and LinkedIn content often outperform paid channels. Put email and organic social at the top of the dashboard and watch booked calls from each.
Mortgage brokers. Comparison sites, paid search and SMS follow-up dominate. Speed matters, so add median response time as a diagnostic alongside booked fact-finds by source.
Real estate. Portal leads, paid social for valuations and the website calendar are the main routes. Track booked valuations by source, because that is the step that predicts instructions.
Suppose a month's figures look like this. Portals: 210 contacts, 30 booked valuations, 9 instructions. Paid social, on an illustrative £2,500 budget: 95 contacts, 22 valuations, 6 instructions. Website calendar: 40 contacts, 25 valuations, 8 instructions, with no media cost. Email to past clients: 12 contacts, 8 valuations, 4 instructions. Read that way, the calendar and past-client email would convert far better than their volume suggests and would deserve more attention.
What it replaces
It replaces one login per channel and a weekly round of screenshots. It also ends the habit of each channel owner reporting their own favourite number. Everyone sees the same columns.
Time it takes
Building the main dashboard takes half a day if UTMs are in good order. Reviewing it monthly takes 30 minutes. The diagnostic tab is for channel owners and can be checked weekly in five minutes each.
The mistake most people make
Reporting social and email on engagement while reporting ads on conversions. That makes paid channels look accountable and organic ones look vague, and budget drifts to ads by default. Measure every channel on booked calls and won value first.
When not to use it
If you rely on one or two digital channels, a full channel dashboard is unnecessary. A single marketing dashboard covers it. It is also misleading when a large share of contacts arrive without a source, so fix capture before trusting comparisons.
For giving credit to more than one channel per client, read about multi-channel attribution. The paid side in more depth is covered by the advertising dashboard guide. The wider online path is in the guide to the digital customer journey.
Troubleshooting
One channel shows no contacts at all. Its links have no UTM values, or the value differs in spelling from the one the widget filters on. Standardise the spelling.
Email shows strong engagement but no booked calls. The email links point to pages without a booking option. Add a calendar or clear next step to those pages.
SMS is missing from the dashboard. SMS campaigns need the same UTM treatment on their links. Add the source value to each SMS link.
The totals across channels exceed total contacts. Some contacts carry several sources. Decide whether the dashboard uses first or latest source and apply it to every widget.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a digital marketing dashboard and a marketing dashboard?
The digital version breaks results down by online channel. A general marketing dashboard may also include events, referrals and print, and usually sits at a higher level.
Which KPI should sit at the top?
Booked calls or appointments by channel, followed by won value. Both are close enough to revenue to guide decisions.
How often should channel budgets change?
Monthly at most, and only when the pattern holds for two or three months. Single-month swings are often noise.
Should organic search be on the dashboard?
Yes. Tag contacts from organic search by capturing the referrer on your forms, and give it its own row.