Understand why you should not track your digital marketing results on a dashboard in Excel
Creating a dashboard in Excel or in Google Sheets is still one of the most sought-after methods by digital marketing professionals to keep track of their project results.
After all, the platform has a very low cost, has been used for years by most companies, and allows the creation of numerous spreadsheets, charts, and formulas.
However, with the development of digital marketing and the ease of accessing and measuring the data obtained from various social media platforms, having a dashboard in Excel may not be the most practical way to track metrics and KPIs of your strategies.
Therefore, in this article, you will check out 7 reasons not to bet on this tool considering its usability, functionality, and the communication experience it provides to your client. Check the list below.
1 It is not very practical to create a dashboard from scratch in Excel
As the first reason, we couldn’t fail to mention the lack of practicality when creating a dashboard from scratch in Excel.
Since spreadsheets can take various forms when registering data and need to fit the model most aligned with your agency’s needs, this means you will need to plan this entire structure so that it is easy to understand and update.
Therefore, it is necessary to spend hours on planning and building your dashboard so that no information is missing and all formulas are running at full capacity.
In the end, this format, although it can be replicated for other clients later, does not have a very simple process and can make your team lose a lot in productivity, as we will discuss in topic 4.
2 Design is not the tool’s strong point
It is true that Excel allows the creation and customization of different tables, charts, and other platform features. However, this does not mean that design is its strong point.
As it allows the development of many spreadsheets and has various layout-related functionalities, it is necessary to be very careful so that the information is not lost or becomes difficult to understand.
If you, your team, or your clients can’t quickly glance and understand the data present, this can generate even more time loss and communication failures regarding these results.
3 It does not allow automatic data updates
Because it does not have integration with the media you work with, the dashboard in Excel does not allow for the collection and automatic updating of metrics.
This means that from time to time, you and your team need to be prepared to make this recording manually.
In other words, you need to open all the report panels of these platforms, gather the most important information, add it to each client’s spreadsheet, and finally conduct your analysis.
It sounds complicated, doesn’t it? It is this issue of manual updating along with the impractical creation of dashboards in Excel that leads us to the next topic: time consumption.
4 It consumes a lot of the team’s time
If you lack practicality in creating your dashboard in Excel and especially in updating the information, it means your team will have to spend a lot of time in the process of data collection and recording.
As a consequence, productivity will drop significantly, of course. In other words, the hours spent searching for results on each medium and filling in the cells could all be used for even deeper analysis of the project and defining new actions.
The more time your team has to be strategic, the better the return on efforts will be, in marketing and in communication with clients.
5 Spreadsheets are not very intuitive
The truth is, with so many formulas and features for creating tables and charts, spreadsheets become more difficult to handle, especially for those who are not accustomed.
Even when the agency has a ready-made model of a dashboard in Excel, professionals sometimes feel a bit of difficulty when filling in the information or creating new charts.
It’s not just about glancing and knowing what to do, but sometimes you need to research and even take courses to better understand the tool.
6 Advanced features require specialization
If to do the basics the spreadsheet is not so intuitive, imagine handling more advanced features of formulas and charts.
The more your dashboard needs to evolve to align with project needs, the more difficulty you may have in the process of creating and recording new tables.
It’s no wonder that there are many Excel specialization courses They really help in delving into the numerous features of the platform.
But will investing in these courses and going through these difficulties still make the initial motivation related to the tool’s low cost worthwhile.
7 It does not always facilitate data communication with your client
Finally, we couldn’t fail to mention a very important point, the communication of data with the client After all, the dashboard also exists so that decision-makers can easily access their results, right?
In the case of a spreadsheet, this does not happen in a very simple way. Firstly, because to show it to the client, you need to show the document in Excel or in PDF format or share it via Google Sheets).
In any of the three options, even if Google Sheets allows for real-time updates, your client will not have full freedom or ease to visualize these metrics.
It may even be that in many cases, they do not have access to very recent data since the collection of information does not happen automatically. Moreover, in this format, period comparisons are also outdated.
This can then make it difficult for the client to understand what is happening in the project, and in the long run, they may not value the partnership with the agency or freelancer as much, for example.
Read also Report and Dashboard understand the difference between the concepts
So how to solve the dashboard issue in Excel
Well, if you have made it this far and realized that creating a dashboard in Excel can be more laborious and more expensive than anticipated, then it’s time to look for other solutions.
Currently, there are several platforms that can automatically collect social media data and record it on a dashboard for you, facilitating your team’s work and contact with your client.
Here at Reportei for example we have recently launched this functionality In addition to being quite similar to our reports, the dashboard can be.
- Created intuitively to analyze metrics from various media such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Ads, Analytics, Search Console, RD Station, and more
- Generate information or comparisons of various periods
- Be updated at any time, even by the project decision-maker themselves
- And receive a customized template for each project according to the most important media and metrics for it
Curious to learn about this tool and escape the Excel dashboard? Then click here and check out its benefits!
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