The Dashboard Problem
Somewhere in your organisation, there's a marketing dashboard with 47 metrics on it. It gets pulled up in meetings. People nod at the numbers. Then everyone goes back to doing what they were already doing.
This is what happens when you track everything and understand nothing.
Good dashboards aren't comprehensive — they're opinionated. They answer specific questions that lead to specific actions. If a number on your dashboard doesn't change what you'd do tomorrow, it shouldn't be on your dashboard.
Vanity Metrics vs. Actionable Metrics
Before we get into what to track, let's talk about what to stop tracking (or at least stop featuring prominently).
Vanity Metrics
They make you feel good but don't tell you what to do:
- Total page views — up 20%! But are those visitors doing anything useful?
- Social media followers — 10,000 followers! But only 200 see each post.
- Email list size — 5,000 subscribers! But 3,000 haven't opened an email in months.
- Total impressions — 1 million impressions! But how many converted?
Actionable Metrics
They inform decisions and drive improvement:
- Conversion rate — tells you whether your site actually works
- Cost per acquisition — tells you whether your spend is efficient
- Customer lifetime value — tells you how much you can afford to acquire
- Revenue by channel — tells you where to invest more (or less)
- Engagement rate — tells you whether your audience actually cares
The test: If this metric dropped 20% tomorrow, would you do something different? If yes, it belongs on your dashboard. If no, it's noise.
The KPIs That Matter, By Channel
Website Performance
| KPI | What It Tells You | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Conversion rate | Is your site turning visitors into leads/customers? | 2-5% (varies by industry) |
| Bounce rate | Are visitors finding what they need? | Under 50% |
| Average session duration | Are visitors engaged? | 2+ minutes |
| Pages per session | Are visitors exploring? | 2+ pages |
| Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) | Is your site fast and stable? | All green in Search Console |
What to do with these:
- Low conversion rate → audit landing pages, CTAs, and user flow
- High bounce rate → check page speed, content relevance, and mobile experience
- Low session duration → content isn't matching intent or isn't engaging
SEO
| KPI | What It Tells You | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Organic traffic | Is your SEO strategy working? | Month-over-month growth |
| Keyword rankings | Are you visible for target terms? | Top 10 for priority keywords |
| Organic conversion rate | Is organic traffic valuable? | 2-4% |
| Click-through rate (Search Console) | Are your titles/descriptions compelling? | 3-5% average |
| Referring domains | Is your authority growing? | Steady month-over-month growth |
What to do with these:
- Traffic up but conversions flat → content attracts the wrong audience or site UX needs work
- Rankings dropping → check for algorithm updates, technical issues, or new competitors
- CTR declining → rewrite title tags and meta descriptions
Paid Advertising
| KPI | What It Tells You | Target |
|---|---|---|
| ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) | Is your advertising profitable? | 4:1+ for most businesses |
| Cost per acquisition (CPA) | How much does each conversion cost? | Below customer lifetime value |
| Click-through rate | Are your ads relevant and compelling? | 2-5% for search, 0.5-1% for display |
| Quality Score (Google) | Are your ads well-optimised? | 7+ |
| Conversion rate | Are your landing pages working? | 5-10% for paid traffic |
What to do with these:
- ROAS below target → check CPA, conversion rate, and average order value
- High CPC → improve Quality Score or target less competitive keywords
- Low conversion rate on paid traffic → landing page problem, not an ads problem
Email Marketing
| KPI | What It Tells You | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Open rate | Are your subject lines working? | 20-30% |
| Click-through rate | Is your content driving action? | 2-5% |
| Conversion rate | Are clicks turning into results? | 1-5% |
| List growth rate | Is your audience growing? | 2-5% monthly |
| Unsubscribe rate | Are you over-sending or under-delivering? | Under 0.5% |
What to do with these:
- Low open rates → test subject lines, send times, and sender name
- Low CTR → improve content relevance and CTA clarity
- High unsubscribe rate → reduce frequency or improve segmentation
Social Media
| KPI | What It Tells You | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement rate | Does your audience care about your content? | 1-5% (varies by platform) |
| Reach | How many people see your content? | Trending upward |
| Click-through rate | Is social driving website traffic? | 1-3% |
| Share/save rate | Is content valuable enough to share? | 1-2% |
| Follower growth rate | Is your audience growing? | 2-5% monthly |
What to do with these:
- Low engagement → content isn't resonating. Test different formats and topics
- High reach but low engagement → you're visible but not compelling
- Low shares → content is good but not remarkable. Add more original insight
The North Star Metric
Every business should have one metric that best captures the core value you deliver. Everything else supports it.
Examples:
- E-commerce: Revenue per visitor
- SaaS: Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
- Lead gen business: Qualified leads per month
- Content publisher: Engaged time per visitor
- Agency: Client retention rate
Your North Star sits at the top of your dashboard. Every other metric exists to explain why it's going up or down.
Building Your Dashboard
Step 1: Start With Questions, Not Metrics
Don't ask "what should I track?" Ask "what do I need to know?"
Executive questions:
- Is marketing generating revenue?
- What's our cost per customer?
- Which channels drive the most value?
Channel manager questions:
- Which campaigns are performing?
- Where should I increase/decrease spend?
- What content is driving results?
Tactical questions:
- Which keywords are gaining/losing?
- What's our email performance trend?
- Are landing pages converting?
Build your dashboard to answer these questions — nothing more.
Step 2: Choose Your Tool
Google Looker Studio (free)
- Connects directly to GA4, Google Ads, Search Console
- Custom dashboards with drag-and-drop
- Scheduled email delivery
- Shareable links
AgencyAnalytics
- Built for agencies and marketing teams
- 80+ integrations (Google, Meta, social, SEO tools)
- Client-facing reports
- Automated scheduling
Databox
- Mobile-first dashboard design
- 200+ integrations
- Goal tracking and alerts
- Good for executives who check on their phone
HubSpot
- Best if you're already in the HubSpot ecosystem
- Marketing, sales, and service metrics in one place
- Custom report builder
Klipfolio / Geckoboard
- Real-time TV dashboards
- Good for office displays
- Focus on live data
Step 3: Design for Clarity
Layout principles:
- Most important metrics at the top
- Group by channel or funnel stage
- Use consistent colours (green = good, red = needs attention)
- Include trend lines, not just current numbers
- Add context (targets, benchmarks, previous period)
The one-page rule: If your dashboard requires scrolling on a laptop screen, it has too many metrics. Create additional detail pages, but keep the primary view to one screen.
Step 4: Add Context to Numbers
A number without context is meaningless.
Bad: Conversion rate: 3.2%
Good: Conversion rate: 3.2% (↑ 0.4% vs. last month | Target: 4.0%)
Always include:
- Comparison period (vs. last month/quarter/year)
- Target or benchmark
- Trend direction (up, down, flat)
Reporting Cadence
Daily (5 minutes)
Glance at:
- Ad spend pacing
- Any major traffic anomalies
- Campaign status (errors, disapprovals)
Purpose: Catch problems early
Weekly (30 minutes)
Review:
- Channel performance vs. targets
- Top and bottom performing content
- Conversion rate trends
- Budget pacing
Purpose: Tactical adjustments
Monthly (2 hours)
Deep dive:
- Full channel performance analysis
- ROI by campaign and channel
- Funnel analysis (where are we losing people?)
- Content performance
- Competitor movements
Purpose: Strategic decisions and budget reallocation
Quarterly (half day)
Strategic review:
- North Star metric progress
- Channel mix effectiveness
- Customer acquisition cost trends
- Lifetime value analysis
- Goal setting for next quarter
Purpose: Big-picture strategy adjustments
Connecting Marketing Metrics to Revenue
The biggest gap in most marketing reporting is the connection between marketing activity and actual business results.
The Revenue Connection
Traffic → Leads → Opportunities → Customers → Revenue
Track conversion rates between each stage:
- Traffic to lead: 2-5%
- Lead to opportunity: 10-25%
- Opportunity to customer: 20-40%
When you know these rates, you can work backwards:
- Need $100K in revenue?
- Average deal size: $5K → need 20 customers
- 25% close rate → need 80 opportunities
- 15% lead-to-opportunity rate → need ~530 leads
- 3% conversion rate → need ~17,700 visitors
Now you know exactly how much traffic you need and can plan your marketing accordingly.
Attribution
Which channels actually drive revenue? Don't rely on last-click attribution alone. Use multi-touch attribution (covered in our attribution models article) to understand the full picture.
At minimum, track:
- First-touch channel (what introduced them to you)
- Last-touch channel (what closed them)
- Assisted channels (what influenced them along the way)
Red Flags to Watch For
Your dashboard should surface problems before they become crises.
Traffic dropping suddenly? → Check for technical issues, Google algorithm updates, or tracking problems
Conversion rate declining? → Check site speed, UX changes, traffic source mix shifts, or competitor activity
CPA rising steadily? → Ad fatigue, increased competition, or audience exhaustion
Email engagement declining? → List hygiene needed, content fatigue, or frequency too high
Organic rankings slipping? → Content freshness, technical SEO issues, or new competitors
Set up alerts in your tools for significant deviations. You shouldn't have to discover problems in a monthly meeting — they should surface in real-time.
Common Reporting Mistakes
- Reporting metrics nobody acts on — if it doesn't drive a decision, drop it
- No comparison periods — numbers without context are meaningless
- Mixing up correlation and causation — traffic went up AND we launched a campaign doesn't mean the campaign caused the increase
- Reporting too frequently on slow-moving metrics — checking SEO rankings daily creates noise, not insight
- Cherry-picking good numbers — if you only report wins, you lose trust and miss problems
- No targets or benchmarks — "3% conversion rate" means nothing without knowing if that's good or bad for your industry
- Siloed channel reporting — channels work together. Report on the ecosystem, not just individual parts
- Ignoring offline conversions — phone calls, in-store visits, and sales team closes need to be captured
Your First Dashboard (Keep It Simple)
Start with just these metrics:
Row 1: The Big Picture
- Revenue attributed to marketing
- Total leads/conversions
- Overall cost per acquisition
Row 2: Traffic
- Total sessions (with channel breakdown)
- Organic traffic trend
- Paid traffic with ROAS
Row 3: Conversions
- Conversion rate by channel
- Top converting pages
- Funnel drop-off points
Row 4: Engagement
- Email performance (open rate, CTR)
- Social engagement rate
- Content performance (top pages by engagement)
That's it. One screen. Everything you need to know at a glance, with the ability to drill deeper when something needs attention.
A dashboard isn't a trophy wall of big numbers. It's a diagnostic tool. Build it to surface problems, highlight opportunities, and drive the next decision.