Marketing reporting dashboards work as a set, not as one screen trying to serve everyone. The board needs a monthly view of revenue. Leadership needs a weekly view of the pipeline. Channel owners need a daily view of their own numbers. This article answers how to plan that set in Reporting on the levelpartner.ai platform: how many dashboards to build, who reads each one and how often, how to name and share them, and how to stop the collection sprawling into thirty half-used screens.
Why one dashboard cannot serve everyone
A dashboard built for the board is too thin for the marketing team. A dashboard built for the marketing team is too detailed for the board. When one screen tries to do both, it grows until nobody can find the number they came for.
The answer is a small, planned set where each dashboard has one audience, one reading rhythm and one question to answer. The set stays small because every new request has to fit one of those slots or replace something.
The three tiers
Tier one: the summary. Read monthly by the owner or board. Four to six numbers: marketing-sourced won revenue, booked calls, cost per booked call and the trend for each. One dashboard only.
Tier two: the working view. Read weekly by the marketing lead and sales lead together. The scorecard of KPIs with targets, plus the pipeline created by marketing. One dashboard, sometimes two if sales and marketing meet separately.
Tier three: the channel views. Read daily or weekly by each channel owner. One per active channel or major campaign. These can come and go as campaigns start and finish.
Most firms of 10 to 250 people need between four and eight dashboards in total. If you have more than ten, some of them are not being read.
Before you start
- A list of everyone who currently asks for marketing numbers, and how often they ask.
- Source recorded on contacts and opportunities, so every tier can trace results back to channels.
- Dashboard permissions agreed, so each owner knows who should see which dashboard.
- An agreed owner for the set as a whole, usually the marketing lead.
How to set it up
- List every person who asks for marketing figures and what they ask for.
- Group each request into the summary, working or channel tier.
- Go to Dashboard, click + Add Dashboard and create the summary first.
- Keep the summary to six widgets or fewer.
- Create the working dashboard with the KPIs and marketing-sourced pipeline.
- Create one channel dashboard for each channel with a named owner.
- Put the tier and audience in every Dashboard Name.
- Use Manage permissions in the Action Menu to limit each audience.
- Delete older duplicates through the Action Menu and Delete Dashboard.
- Book the reading slots in the calendar: monthly, weekly and daily as agreed.
What it is for in a stalled company
When revenue has flattened, everyone wants numbers, and requests pile onto the marketing manager. Without a plan, each request becomes a new dashboard or a new spreadsheet. A tiered set turns those requests into a structure. The board's question goes to tier one, the sales director's question goes to tier two, and the paid media owner's question goes to tier three.
It also protects the marketing manager's week. Building a new dashboard for every question can take a day a fortnight. Pointing people to the right tier takes a minute.
Say an audit finds 23 dashboards in Reporting, only 6 of which were opened in the last month. A replacement set might hold one summary for the partners, one weekly working view, four channel views for paid search, paid social, email and referrals, and one campaign view for a seasonal launch. That would be seven dashboards in place of 23, and an end to the time spent keeping unused screens up to date.
Time it takes
The audit and planning take two hours. Building the set takes a day if most widgets already exist on older dashboards. Running it costs the reading time agreed for each tier. The set's owner spends 30 minutes a quarter checking which dashboards are still opened and retiring the rest.
The mistake most people make
Building every dashboard from the same widgets in a different order. When all tiers show the same numbers, people read whichever one is nearest and ignore the rest. Each tier should hold numbers the others do not. The summary has trends. The working view has targets and pipeline. The channel views have inputs.
When not to use a tiered set
If one person reads every marketing number, a single dashboard is enough. The marketing dashboard guide covers that case. The set also adds little before source tracking works, because every tier would show the same incomplete figures.
Troubleshooting
People keep asking for new dashboards. Ask which tier the request belongs to and whether an existing widget answers it. Most requests are one widget on an existing screen.
Figures differ between tiers. Different date ranges or filters. Set the same default range on every tier, usually month to date, and note any exceptions in the widget Description.
Some dashboards are never opened. Either the reading slot was never booked or the audience was wrong. Book the slot or retire the dashboard.
Leadership wants the numbers in their inbox. Send the summary on a schedule rather than building a separate version. The automated marketing reporting article shows how.
Frequently asked questions
How many marketing reporting dashboards should we have?
Usually four to eight: one summary, one or two working views and a channel view for each active channel. Campaign dashboards come and go on top of that.
Who should own the set?
The marketing lead. They decide what goes in each tier, approve new dashboards and retire unused ones. Channel owners own the content of their own views.
What belongs on the summary tier?
Results and trends only. The CMO dashboard is a good starting point. For channel views, start from the marketing metrics dashboard and filter to one channel.
Should campaigns get their own dashboard?
Large campaigns with their own budget, yes, for their duration. The marketing campaign dashboard guide covers building one and closing it down afterwards.