A marketing dashboard is the single screen that tells you whether marketing is producing enough of the right enquiries to hit your revenue target. If you only build one, build this one. This article answers how to create a marketing dashboard in Reporting on the levelpartner.ai platform, which five widgets every service firm needs on it, and how it should look in practice, with marketing dashboard examples for a small and a mid-sized company.
What the dashboard has to answer
Three questions, every week. Are enough new contacts arriving? Are enough of them turning into conversations? Are those conversations turning into revenue? Everything on the screen should help answer one of those three.
That keeps the dashboard short. It also keeps it honest, because the third question forces you to connect marketing to won work rather than stopping at leads.
The five core widgets
- New contacts this period, by source.
- Booked calls or appointments this period, by source.
- Opportunities created this period, with value.
- Won value this period, by original source.
- Contacts with no source, as a data health check.
Add spend if you track it. Anything else belongs on a more specialised dashboard.
Before you start
- Every form, calendar and inbound number records a source on the contact.
- A pipeline in Opportunities with values on deals.
- Ad accounts connected in Settings if you want spend on screen.
- One person who will open the dashboard each week.
How to set it up
- Go to Dashboard and open the Dashboard Selection Menu.
- Click + Add Dashboard and name it after the weekly meeting.
- Click + Add a widget manually and add Contacts by Source.
- Add Booked Appointments beside it.
- Add Total Opportunity Value underneath.
- Add Opportunity Revenue Over Time, filtered to Won and First Attribution, grouped by Session Source.
- Add Lead Source Report and watch the N/A row for missing sources.
- Add Meta Ads or Google Ads widgets if accounts are connected.
- Click Save Changes, then set the Date Picker and comparison range.
- Open the Action Menu and use Manage permissions to share it.
Marketing dashboard examples
A 15-person consultancy. Two sources matter: referrals and LinkedIn. The online marketing dashboard has four widgets: contacts by source, discovery calls booked, proposals sent, and won value. It fits on a phone screen and the owner reads it on Monday mornings.
A 120-person agency. Six sources, a marketing team of four and a sales team of eight. The main dashboard holds the five core widgets plus spend. Separate dashboards cover campaigns, content and paid channels, and each team lead owns one.
Suppose the first month shows 240 new contacts, 61 booked valuations, 34 opportunities worth an illustrative £170,000 in fees and £48,000 won, plus 52 contacts with no source. With more than one contact in five unattributed, the first action would not be a marketing change at all. It would be finding the forms that fail to record a source and fixing them, so the next month's figures are complete.
What it replaces
It replaces the weekly email where someone lists lead numbers from three different tools. It replaces the question "how is marketing doing" asked in every leadership meeting, because the answer is on screen. It also replaces the debate about which channel works, because source runs through every widget.
Weekly time cost
To create a marketing dashboard like this takes one to two hours if source capture is already working. Reading it takes ten minutes a week. A monthly review with the wider team takes 30 minutes. The dashboard updates itself, so there is no preparation time.
The mistake most people make
Stopping at leads. A dashboard that shows contacts and nothing further rewards channels that generate volume and ignores whether any of it turns into clients. Always include booked calls and won value, even if the won value widget is sparse at first.
When not to use it
If you win fewer than five new clients a month and know each one personally, a dashboard adds little. Keep a list of each new client and how they found you. It is also premature if your pipeline is not used consistently, because the opportunity and won widgets will be wrong.
For the leadership version, see the CMO dashboard. For a channel-by-channel breakdown, read the digital marketing dashboard guide. When you need to explain a drop, open the marketing analytics dashboard. For sources on won deals, see marketing attribution.
Troubleshooting
Booked calls exceed new contacts. Existing contacts are booking again. That is fine, but label the widget clearly or filter to new contacts only.
Won value looks low. Salespeople are not entering a value when they mark deals won. Make value a required field before a deal can move to won.
One source dominates every widget. Check it is not a default value applied when source is missing. Some forms set "website" when nothing is captured.
People stop opening it. Read it on screen at the start of the weekly meeting. The habit forms in about a month.
Frequently asked questions
Can I create marketing dashboard views for different team members?
Yes. Build the core dashboard once, then duplicate it and filter by source or campaign for each channel owner.
Should the dashboard include social media figures?
Include contacts and booked calls from social. Keep reach and engagement on the social planner reports or a separate channel dashboard.
What date range works best?
Current month with last month beside it for weekly reading. Quarter to date for the monthly review.
How many marketing dashboards does a company need?
One main dashboard for everyone, plus one per channel or campaign owner if the team is large enough to need them.