The Marketing Data Challenge

Modern marketers juggle data from Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, HubSpot, Google Analytics, email platforms, and more. Each tool has its own reporting - different formats, different definitions, different timeframes. Assembling a complete picture requires hours of data wrangling.

What if you could export key metrics from each platform, combine them in Excel, and generate a unified dashboard in 60 seconds? That's exactly what this tutorial covers.

Preparing Your Marketing Data

Gather exports from your marketing tools. The key is having consistent date ranges across all sources.

Campaign Performance Data:

Date - Day, week, or month

Campaign Name - Consistent naming

Channel - Paid search, social, email, etc.

Spend - Cost in dollars

Impressions - Views/reaches

Clicks - Traffic driven

Conversions - Leads or sales

Revenue - If applicable

Lead Data:

Lead Date - When captured

Source - Where they came from

Status - MQL, SQL, Opportunity, Customer

Value - Deal size if available

Pro tip: Create a master spreadsheet that combines data from all platforms. Use consistent column names and date formats.

Building the Campaign Performance Dashboard

Start with overall campaign performance. Upload your combined data and use this prompt:

"Create a marketing campaign dashboard showing spend vs revenue by campaign, ROI ranking, cost per conversion trends, and channel performance comparison. Add filters for date range and channel."

Key campaign visualizations:

Spend vs Revenue scatter: Bubble chart showing campaign size and efficiency
ROI bar chart: Campaigns ranked by return on investment
Cost per conversion trend: Are you getting more efficient over time
Channel comparison: Which platforms deliver best results
Budget utilization: Spend vs budget by campaign

Lead Generation Funnel Dashboard

Visualize your lead pipeline from first touch to closed deal:

"Build a lead funnel dashboard showing leads by stage (MQL, SQL, Opportunity, Customer), conversion rates between stages, lead source effectiveness, and time-to-convert analysis. Show trends over time."

Lead funnel components:

Funnel Visualization

Classic funnel showing volume drop-off at each stage. Where are you losing the most leads?

Conversion Rate Cards

MQL to SQL rate, SQL to Opportunity rate, Opportunity to Customer rate. Track each handoff.

Source Quality Analysis

Not all leads are equal. Which sources produce leads that actually convert to customers?

Velocity Metrics

Average days in each stage. Where are deals getting stuck?

Channel Attribution Dashboard

Attribution is the holy grail of marketing analytics. Visualize how channels contribute to conversions:

"Create an attribution dashboard showing first-touch vs last-touch channel credit, multi-touch attribution if available, channel assist analysis, and customer journey path visualization."

Attribution visualizations:

First touch breakdown: Which channels introduce customers
Last touch breakdown: Which channels close deals
Assist analysis: Channels that appear in paths but don't get credit
Path visualization: Common customer journeys across touchpoints
Attribution model comparison: How results change under different models

Marketing Spend Dashboard

Track where every marketing dollar goes and what it returns:

"Build a marketing spend dashboard showing budget allocation by channel, spend vs plan, cost per acquisition trends, and ROAS by campaign type. Include month-over-month comparisons."

Financial metrics for marketing:

Budget pacing: Are you on track or overspending
Channel allocation: Where is budget distributed
CPA by channel: Cost to acquire a customer from each source
ROAS: Revenue generated per dollar spent
CAC payback: Months to recover acquisition cost

Essential Marketing KPIs

Add KPI cards for at-a-glance performance:

Acquisition

Total Leads
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
Lead to Customer Rate
Customer Acquisition Cost

Engagement

Click-Through Rate
Conversion Rate
Bounce Rate
Average Session Duration

Revenue

Marketing-Sourced Revenue
Marketing ROI
Pipeline Value
Average Deal Size

Efficiency

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Marketing as % of Revenue
LTV:CAC Ratio
Pipeline Velocity

Content Performance Dashboard

Track how your content assets perform:

"Create a content dashboard showing top performing blog posts by traffic, content conversion rates, social engagement by post type, and email performance metrics. Include trend analysis."

Content metrics to visualize:

Traffic by content piece: Which pages drive the most visits
Content conversion rate: Which content generates leads
Time on page: Engagement depth by content type
Social performance: Shares, likes, comments by platform
Email metrics: Open rates, click rates, unsubscribes

Digital Advertising Dashboard

Combine data from Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms:

"Build an advertising dashboard comparing performance across Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads. Show impressions, clicks, conversions, and CPA by platform. Include quality score and relevance metrics."

Cross-platform advertising views:

Platform comparison: Side-by-side performance
Creative performance: Which ads work best
Audience insights: Performance by demographic
Budget optimization: Where to shift spend
Trend analysis: Performance over time by platform

CMO Executive Dashboard

Create a high-level view for marketing leadership:

"Create an executive marketing summary showing total marketing spend, revenue influenced by marketing, overall ROI, pipeline contribution, and key wins/concerns. Keep it high-level for board presentation."

Executive summary elements:

One-number ROI: Simple return on marketing investment
Pipeline contribution: Marketing's impact on sales pipeline
Budget status: Spend vs plan with forecast
Top campaigns: Highlight what's working
Action items: What needs attention

Integrating Multiple Data Sources

The real power comes from combining data across platforms. Create a master sheet with:

1. Standardize Date Formats

Use consistent YYYY-MM-DD or MM/DD/YYYY across all exports. The AI will handle the rest.

2. Normalize Campaign Names

Use a consistent naming convention: Channel_Campaign_Date. E.g., "Google_BrandSearch_Q1"

3. Map Channels

Consolidate variations: "google", "Google Ads", "google cpc" should all be "Google Ads"

4. Include Source Tags

Add a column indicating the data source for troubleshooting and validation

Common Marketing Dashboard Mistakes

Vanity metrics: Impressions and followers don't pay bills. Focus on revenue impact.
Missing attribution: Without attribution, you're guessing which channels work.
Inconsistent timeframes: Compare apples to apples - same date ranges across sources.
No segmentation: Averages hide insights. Break down by channel, audience, and campaign.
Static data: Marketing changes fast. Update dashboards weekly at minimum.

Example Prompts for Marketing Dashboards

Try these with your marketing data:

"Show which campaigns are losing money and recommend where to cut"
"Create a weekly marketing performance email with key metrics"
"Build an ABM dashboard showing account engagement and progression"
"Compare organic vs paid performance across all channels"
"Show marketing's contribution to closed-won deals this quarter"
"Create a competitive share of voice dashboard from social data"

Marketing Dashboard from Excel: Campaign ROI, Leads & Attribution

What You'll Build