You’ve in all probability used Looker Studio (previously Google Information Studio) to create stories for stakeholders or purchasers.
I had the pleasure of seeing SearchLab’s Greg Gifford current on “Freddy Krueger’s Information to Scary Good Reporting” not too long ago. He spoke about methods to enhance your Looker Studio reporting to make it extra helpful for purchasers.
Beneath are key learnings from Gifford’s session within the type of do’s and don’ts, plus some examples of knowledge visualizations that search entrepreneurs will discover most useful.
1. Don’t enter information right into a textual content field manually
Work smarter, not more durable. Arrange a knowledge supply for the platform to immediately pull information from.
You possibly can join it to a particular Google Adverts account and report on metrics immediately from there.
There are many connectors constructed and supported by Looker Studio.
Nonetheless, if you wish to join a platform that’s not on that listing, you are able to do so by means of a third-party information integrator reminiscent of Supermetrics or Funnel.io.
You possibly can export information to a Google Sheet and pull it into Looker Studio that approach.
2. Don’t embody metrics with out comparability
Purchasers pay you to inform them a narrative, not spit out numbers that may already be discovered on their very own.
- Why did clicks lower in comparison with final month?
- Why did the conversion charge drop a complete proportion? There have been 40 leads final month.
- How does that evaluate to final month or this time final 12 months?
Present them what traits you’re seeing in an easy-to-understand approach.
Right here’s an instance.
It is a approach to show month-over-month (MoM) and year-over-year (YoY) adjustments for particular metrics.
You possibly can add these by clicking into the metric, navigating to the Setup part, and including a comparability date vary.
Looker Studio will routinely calculate the share change and make it inexperienced or purple primarily based on a optimistic or unfavorable development.
This chart offers a visible illustration of leads by month over time.
You possibly can simply see month-over-month (MoM) and year-over-year (YoY) adjustments. Take into account a chart like this to your report.
3. Don’t give them metrics that don’t inform them the entire story
Time on web site is a metric generally reported on. It’s usually assumed that the extra time a consumer spends on the web site, the higher.
Gifford challenged this mindset. Couldn’t spending extra time in your web site imply that individuals are unable to seek out what they actually need?
If they arrive to your web site, discover your contact us kind, fill it out with their info, and go away all of it inside 45 seconds, that’s really factor.
So long as they convert, you have to be comfortable (and the sooner they convert, the higher).
Problem your self to decide on metrics to report that can give a extra correct image of what’s taking place.
Get the every day publication search entrepreneurs depend on.
So now you recognize what not to do. Let’s focus on what you must do together with your Looker Studio stories.
4. Do present an govt abstract, listing of labor accomplished and listing of subsequent steps
That is arguably an important a part of the report.
This could function a tear sheet so the shopper has a spot to shortly reference an important insights from this previous month.
All the pieces else within the report is supplemental and helps present extra colour to the traits and insights you’ve supplied in your govt abstract.
When you consider crafting your govt summaries, ask your self, “So what?”
- My shopper noticed 40 leads this month, so what?
- Site visitors was up 25% month-over-month, so what?
Use the manager abstract to inform your shopper a narrative and provides them the why.
Inform them about how site visitors was up 25% month-over-month as a result of that non-brand marketing campaign you restructured has been performing effectively and drove 80% of the whole leads for the month.
Additionally, now that you have seen how nicely that marketing campaign restructure is doing as a subsequent step, you will restructure one other marketing campaign to additional enhance efficiency equally.
Growth!
Now you’ve given your shopper the story about what occurred, why that occurred and what you propose to do subsequent consequently.
See an instance govt abstract template beneath.
5. Do give a visible illustration of the place you’re trending towards your key efficiency indicators (KPIs)
It’s crucial to align KPIs together with your shopper earlier than making a report.
For those who don’t have a aim you are attempting to realize, then how are you going to show your worth to a shopper?
Consider it this manner:
Put your self within the shopper’s sneakers. Which sounds higher to you?
“We generated 40 leads in July.”
or
“We generated 40 leads in July, which is double our lead aim of 20.”
Let’s put all this collectively into your Looker Studio report.
Present your shopper that you just exceeded your KPIs, don’t simply inform them.
Beneath is an instance of the best way to visualize your KPI progress.
The blue bar exhibits the variety of clicks generated in a given time interval.
The road exhibits the press KPI for the given time interval.
The shopper can now simply see that you just exceeded the goal.
6. Do pull collectively information that can reply your purchasers questions
Take into consideration formatting each chart as if it had been answering a shopper’s query, Gifford recommended.
What actions did folks tackle our web site?
Present them information outlining what number of telephone calls, contact kind submissions, tour schedules, and so forth. they acquired out of your advertising and marketing efforts.
Right here’s an instance of the best way to break down conversions by sort for a shopper:
One other widespread query we get is, “So that you drove 30 leads for us, however what does that imply for my enterprise?”
Connecting lead information to gross sales is highly effective to incorporate in reporting.
Whether or not it’s precise income (by means of a CRM import) or estimated income (primarily based on a mean order worth), you possibly can unlock extra revenue-based metrics in your reporting, reminiscent of ROI.
You possibly can start to reply their query by letting them know what proportion of these leads changed into gross sales, whole income, and ROI for a given month.
Creating helpful shopper stories with Looker Studio
Looker Studio is an extremely highly effective reporting instrument that reduces time spent manually typing in metrics.
It allows you to immediately pull collectively highly effective information visualizations to assist inform your digital advertising and marketing story.
Now, you’ve bought an inventory of do’s and don’ts that will help you get began in your path to extra beneficial shopper reporting!
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