How to Build a Marketing Dashboard That Actually Gets Used
I’ve seen dashboards with 47 widgets, 12 tabs, and enough data to make a data scientist weep. They’re beautiful. They’re comprehensive. And they’re completely useless — because nobody looks at them.
The best marketing dashboard is the one that gets checked. Not the most impressive one, not the most detailed one — the one someone actually opens every week and uses to make decisions. That means simplicity wins. Every time.
Here’s how to build a dashboard your team will actually use.
Why Most Dashboards Fail
Before we build, let’s understand why dashboards die:
Dashboard bloat. Someone builds a dashboard, then everyone requests “just one more metric.” Within months, it’s a sprawling mess that answers every possible question but none of them clearly.
No clear audience. A dashboard for a CEO needs different information than one for a marketing manager. When you try to serve everyone, you serve no one.
Too much raw data, not enough insight. Showing that website traffic was 14,328 this month is data. Showing that traffic is up 23% MoM and 80% came from a new blog post — that’s insight.
Set and forget. Dashboards need maintenance. Data sources change, goals evolve, metrics shift. A dashboard built six months ago that hasn’t been updated is showing stale thinking.
The One-Screen Rule
Here’s my non-negotiable rule for marketing dashboards: everything that matters must fit on a single screen without scrolling.
If the person checking the dashboard needs to click through tabs or scroll down to find important data, they won’t. They’ll glance at the top, assume things are fine, and close the tab.
One screen. 5-8 key metrics. Clear visual indicators. That’s it.
What to Put on Your Dashboard
Step 1: Define Who’s Looking
Different people need different views:
Business owner / MD:
- Total revenue from marketing
- Total marketing spend
- Overall ROI / ROAS
- Leads this month vs. target
- One-sentence performance summary
Marketing manager:
- Channel-by-channel performance
- Cost per lead / acquisition by channel
- Campaign performance (what’s live, what’s delivering)
- Conversion rate trends
- Budget remaining / pace
Sales team:
- Lead volume and source
- Lead quality indicators
- Pipeline from marketing activities
Pick your primary audience and design for them. If you need multiple views, create separate dashboards — not one monster dashboard trying to do everything.
Step 2: Choose Your 5-8 Key Metrics
For most SMEs, here’s what belongs on the main dashboard:
- Total leads (this period vs. last period)
- Cost per lead (overall and by top channels)
- Revenue attributable to marketing (or pipeline value if longer sales cycle)
- ROAS / ROI (the efficiency metric)
- Website conversion rate (are visitors becoming leads?)
- Top-performing channel (where should you invest more?)
- Trend line (are things getting better or worse over time?)
That’s seven metrics. It fits on one screen. It answers: “Is marketing working?” and “Where should we focus?”
Step 3: Design for Glanceability
Use these design principles:
Colour coding: Green = good, amber = watch, red = problem. Sounds obvious, but many dashboards use colour for decoration rather than communication.
Comparison context: A number on its own means nothing. Always show it alongside a comparison — last period, target, or benchmark. “247 leads” means nothing. “247 leads (↑ 18% vs. last month, target: 250)” tells a story.
Sparklines and trend arrows: Small trend indicators that show direction without needing a full chart. Is this metric going up or down? That’s usually enough.
Big numbers for big metrics: Your headline metrics (revenue, leads, ROAS) should be large and prominent. Supporting metrics can be smaller.
Tools for Building Your Dashboard
Free: Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio)
This is my default recommendation for SMEs. It’s free, connects natively to Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Google Sheets, and with third-party connectors (some free, some paid) it can pull from Facebook Ads, email platforms, and more.
Pros: Free, flexible, shareable via link, auto-refreshes Cons: Learning curve, third-party connectors can be unreliable, limited design options
Free: Google Sheets
Don’t underestimate a well-designed spreadsheet. For businesses that don’t need real-time data, a weekly-updated Google Sheet with conditional formatting and charts can be remarkably effective.
Pros: Everyone knows how to use it, easy to build, no learning curve Cons: Manual data entry (unless automated), doesn’t scale well, no real-time refresh
Mid-Range: Custom Dashboards
For businesses with multiple data sources (Google Ads, Meta, e-commerce platform, CRM), a custom-built dashboard that pulls everything together automatically is worth the investment.
This is what we build at Black Sheep Marketing — dashboards that aggregate all your marketing data into a single, clean view that updates automatically.
Pros: Exactly what you need, fully automated, single source of truth Cons: Setup cost, needs maintenance
The Dashboard Maintenance Schedule
A dashboard isn’t a “build it and forget it” project. Schedule these reviews:
Weekly (2 minutes): Glance at the dashboard. Are the key metrics trending correctly? Any red flags?
Monthly (30 minutes): Review all metrics. Compare to targets. Identify what’s working and what needs attention. Make decisions based on the data.
Quarterly (1-2 hours): Review the dashboard itself. Are these still the right metrics? Have business goals changed? Does anything need adding or removing? Update the dashboard to reflect current priorities.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
1. Tracking Too Many Things
More data does not mean better decisions. Be ruthless. If a metric doesn’t drive action, remove it.
2. No Targets or Benchmarks
Data without context is just numbers. Set targets for each key metric so you can see at a glance whether performance is meeting expectations.
3. Vanity Metrics Creeping In
Social media followers, page views without conversion context, email list size — these have a way of sneaking onto dashboards because they’re easy to track and look impressive. Resist. Refer back to our reporting guide for what actually matters.
4. Making It Pretty Instead of Useful
A dashboard’s job is to communicate, not to impress. Clear beats beautiful every time.
5. Not Acting on It
The most common failure: building a great dashboard and then not doing anything with the data. A dashboard is a decision-making tool. If it’s not changing decisions, something’s wrong.
Want a Dashboard That Builds Itself?
At Black Sheep Marketing, our automated reporting service (£325/month) includes a custom dashboard that pulls data from all your marketing channels, updates automatically, and gives you a clear, one-screen view of what’s working.
No manual data entry. No spreadsheet wrestling. Just open it up and make better decisions.
Set Up Your Automated Dashboard →
Or if you want the full picture on marketing measurement, read our complete reporting guide for SMEs.
