Reporting & Data Visualisation; The Pillars of Effective Strategy

Marketing as a discipline offers the perfect blend of creativity and data-led strategy – but any innovative campaign is only as useful as the reports that partner with it. Identifying and driving conversions is a fundamental business practice but understanding where those leads originated from and their behavioural traits is of equal importance. The ability to delve into user behaviours and patterns, with the opportunity to apply learnings to future activity, can make all the difference to commercial success.

Google Data Studio is one such tool that brings digital reporting to life. Fully customisable, offering API connections with a wide breadth of data sources and easily translatable across multiple devices, the bespoke reports produced from this platform ensure clear, consistent and relevant findings for stakeholders at all levels.

How has reporting evolved within the marketing discipline?

Of all functions within business, marketing has witnessed the most change in recent years. Technology, culture and society have shaped and moulded the approach to delivering messaging that customers really care about. In response to this, marketing has increasingly become data-driven in order to remain effective and efficient.

This shift in methodology has been mirrored in the reporting that sits alongside it. Digital evolution has allowed for a greater level of insights than ever before. Every step of a consumer journey can be identified, tracked and interpreted, to depths that continually surprise even the most experienced of marketeers.

Whilst the trajectory of data insights has been clearly moving in one direction, there have been a few notable fluctuations, most of which correlate with wider data protection laws.

Tracking code that was once placed freely and in abundance into the script of a website is now policed by sophisticated Cookie Policies, giving users the choice of consent. For those who want to maintain privacy, their data is not collected. The volume of willing users however, more than makes up for these occasional barriers.

The value of insight

Reporting is used to analyse a wide variety of business activity, but digital marketing reports can help to inform commercial decision-making across all departments.

• Financial – the ability to analyse which acquisition channels have worked most effectively can either validate or negate a particular resource.
• Recruitment – understanding the demographics of website users could lead to valuable insight into potential candidates.
• Digital – following user flow and identifying opportunities for conversion rate optimisation can then manifest as updates to UX/UI.
• Sales – tracking conversions and monitoring drop-off could signpost improvement to pricing structures or product adaptations.

What is Google Looker Studio?

Whilst Ads, Analytics and Search Console take the limelight when considering key marketing functionality within the Google Suite, Looker Studio (previously Data Studio) is often overlooked.

Offering a customised digital reporting portal that seamlessly pulls metrics from over 630 data sources (including 22 Google Connectors and other iconic marketing tools such as SEMrush), the potential for creating bespoke views and insight is limitless.

What benefit could Data Visualisation bring to my business?

Data visualisation in a format that provides clarity, is engaging and fully interactive (if desired) is something that appeals to all stakeholders, bringing performance to life and enabling buy-in from key decision makers.

Whilst there are other enhanced methods to approach Data Visualisation (enter the TMC 3D Artists and Animators), being able to use this free, efficient tool to mobilise timely monthly reports is invaluable within an agency environment.

By producing reports using Google Data Studio to monitor campaign activity, our clients can rely on;

• Clear, easy to interpret data, bought to life through contemporary graphics
• The seamless blend of qualitative and quantitative data into one document
• Interactive report functionality when viewed in live mode, allowing for comparison between any given date ranges
• Greater data accuracy through reliable API’s
• The function to schedule e-mail deliveries of the reports, to mirror internal deadlines
• Sophisticated formatting to ensure reports are formal enough for all stakeholders
• No one size fits all template – fully customisable dependent on objectives
• Less time spent reporting, more time spent undertaking activity as part of monthly retainer

Embrace the changing nature of insights

Having the reassurance that any campaign, strategy or activity comes complete with reliable, informative data, has been one of the pillars for long-lasting collaboration between TMC and our clients.

If your organisation is ready to start building that award-winning relationship, contact our Account Management team via hello@wearetmc.co.uk