Step-by-Step Guide to Building Marketing Dashboards That Drive ROI
Why Every Marketer Needs a Real Dashboard
You can’t improve what you can’t measure — and for most marketing teams, that means one thing: a real-time dashboard that connects all channels in one place.
When built correctly, marketing dashboards do more than report numbers — they reveal insights that drive ROI, optimize spend, and align teams around what’s working.
See how we help teams with Data Visualization & Reporting.
Step 1: Define the Purpose of Your Dashboard
Before building anything, ask: Who will use this dashboard, and for what decision?
Examples:
Executives: High-level KPIs (revenue, RoAS, CAC)
Media teams: Channel performance and spend efficiency
Analytics teams: Funnel and attribution breakdowns
Step 2: Choose the Right KPIs
Good dashboards focus on metrics that move the business, not vanity stats.
Suggested KPIs:
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Return on Ad Spend (RoAS)
Conversion Rate (CVR)
Lifetime Value (LTV)
Channel ROI
Align with our Business Challenge: Maximize ROI.
Step 3: Connect and Clean Your Data
A dashboard is only as accurate as its inputs.
Integrate Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, and Analytics (GA4)
Pull spend, conversions, and events into a warehouse (e.g., BigQuery)
Clean data (consistent naming, currency, and attribution)
Step 4: Pick Your Visualization Tool
Your tool depends on audience and tech stack:
Looker Studio: Fast, flexible, free
Power BI / Tableau: Deep enterprise reporting
Looker (Google Cloud): Scalable and governed
Learn more about our Technology partnerships.
Step 5: Build Your Dashboard Structure
Organize by funnel stage or channel grouping.
Example layout:
Top Section: KPIs (CAC, RoAS, LTV)
Middle Section: Paid Channels (Google, Meta, Display)
Bottom Section: Organic & Retention Metrics
Step 6: Automate & Refresh Data
Use scheduled queries or API connectors so your dashboards update daily.
GA4 + BigQuery auto-export
Funnel.io, Supermetrics, or native API integrations
Step 7: Turn Insight Into Action
A dashboard’s real purpose isn’t pretty charts — it’s smarter decisions.
Reallocate budget from low-RoAS to high-RoAS campaigns
Identify underperforming channels
Correlate ad spend with downstream sales
Real-World Example
A subscription brand unified its Google, Meta, and CRM data into a Looker dashboard. Within a month, they identified wasted spend in two underperforming ad sets — reallocating 18% of budget to top-performers and increasing total RoAS by 22%.
Final Thoughts
Great dashboards simplify complexity, unify teams, and make data actionable. With the right structure and KPIs, marketers can turn insights into measurable ROI.
Build your own with help from Red Beryl Group’s Data Visualization & Reporting services.