When you drive a car, the dashboard provides you with key information to properly operate your vehicle. When you work in online marketing, the dashboard should aid you in much the same way. Unfortunately, dashboards often excel in the dazzling graphics department and don’t offer much insight.

To build a good dashboard two fundamental questions must be answered:

• What data should you put on your dashboard?
• How should you visualize that data?

The first step is to determine your Key Performance Indicators, the most important elements on your dashboard. They are the metrics that have a direct impact on the bottom line and give an indication of your progress towards your objectives. Once you have those metrics, the next challenge arises : how do you effectively communicate that data?

Information visualization

The recent rise of information visualization, also known as infovis, illustrates that exact question and the struggle that many companies face. This is the infovis definition by Wikipedia:

“A compact graphical presentation extracted from a large data set, which enables users to make discoveries, decisions and explanations.”

The dashboards should contain graphs which show trends, patterns and possibly relations between channels and campaigns. It adds value by preventing information overload by presenting only that part of the data which is needed to achieve your objectives. When something is wrong, you immediately know what it is. You can then dive into your analytics to expose the cause of the rise or fall of performance.

Key Takeaways

• Determine your Key Performance Indicators
• Visualize them on your dashboard
• Monitor your performances

So, how can we help you?

Stop wandering through the data, lets us help you build a dashboard that really tells the story of your business. Contact us now!