Supervisors and customers don’t always grasp the entirety of your daily tasks. They might have a vague understanding, knowing you’re involved with PPC and sprinkle some SEO magic on webpages before launch. But beyond that? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Think of reporting as a form of salesmanship.
Monthly, you advocate for the value you deliver, quantifying it in dollars and cents. You showcase your ability to exceed expectations and justify the need for additional resources. However, reality often paints a different picture. Reporting frequently turns into a dreaded chore, consistently ranking high on marketers’ “biggest time-wasters” list. This is partly because marketers still struggle to prove the ROI of marketing activities. Despite the frustration, reporting remains essential. Clients and bosses, for reasons unknown, have an unwavering curiosity about their money’s whereabouts. To ease the pain, we present five top-tier SaaS reporting tools designed for marketers and advertisers, guaranteed to transform your end-of-month reporting woes into a pleasant experience.
Top 6 Reporting Tools for Marketing and Advertising Professionals
Whether your focus is SEO or PPC, these tools will streamline your reporting process.
1. Google Analytics & the “Opportunity Pie”
Google Analytics often receives unwarranted criticism for being “too simplistic” or fixated on vanity metrics. While there’s some truth to these claims, it’s not the whole story (for a deeper dive, check out our comprehensive PPC metrics guide). The key is to delve beneath the surface. Beyond the superficial reports lies a treasure trove of valuable insights. For instance, “conversions” can encompass various actions like sign-ups, subscriptions, leads, or purchases. In the realm of reporting, excessive ambiguity is detrimental. However, Google Analytics’ Top Conversion Paths feature can provide much-needed clarity:
By employing the primary dimension of Source / Medium and the secondary dimension of landing page URL, you gain a crystal-clear understanding of the user journey from initial touchpoint to conversion, pinpointing the pages that facilitated the acquisition along the way. Sorting by the secondary dimension injects valuable context into your reports. Context, in reporting, equates to enhanced accuracy and heightened credibility. This inherent value often gets overlooked, making Google Analytics a hidden gem. It’s brimming with valuable data; however, unlocking its true potential often necessitates customizing reports to extract insights beyond basic metrics like impressions and clicks. Another invaluable report is the conversion opportunity pie, a brainchild of the brilliant Avinash Kaushik.
Image source The premise is simple: Not every website visitor possesses the potential to convert. Consequently, relying solely on standard conversion rates can be misleading. Imagine a scenario where a prominent website links to yours, generating a daily influx of 1,000 visitors. However, what if their audience primarily consists of SEO enthusiasts, while you specialize in PPC services? The majority of that traffic likely holds no interest in your offerings, implying a slim chance of conversion even with a tempting 50% discount. Meanwhile, your Analytics dashboard might misleadingly display a 1-2% conversion rate. This discrepancy arises because a significant portion of the traffic never had a genuine interest in your services. The opportunity pie addresses this by filtering out unlikely converters to reveal your true conversion potential. In GA, crafting your own opportunity pie report within the Conversions > Overview section is straightforward.
Start by adding a behavior-based segment, restricting the grouping to users with a session duration exceeding 15 seconds. Kaushik advocates for this approach to eliminate individuals who bounce immediately after landing on your site, realizing it doesn’t align with their needs. This filtering process ensures a more accurate representation of your conversion data by excluding those with no genuine conversion intent. Remember to apply this process to PPC-driven traffic as well. Google Analytics proves to be an invaluable data repository for marketers and advertisers alike. The key lies in mastering custom report building to unlock the treasure trove of information it holds, ultimately leveraging it to your advantage.
2. Cyfe
Cyfe emerges as a leading all-encompassing, single-dashboard solution tailored for marketers and advertisers. Its strength lies in its deep integration capabilities, seamlessly connecting with the majority of social media, analytics, and CRM platforms available. By harnessing these integrations, Cyfe constructs a unified dashboard that visually represents the impact of changes in one area on results in others, eliminating the need to juggle multiple logins across different tools.
From social media performance and Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) data to financial and sales metrics, Cyfe tracks it all. Its custom report building and dashboard management features empower you to create tailored dashboards aligned with specific goals or team functions. For instance, allocate dedicated dashboards to the SEO team, PPC team, or any other department, ensuring focused insights.
Alternatively, if you’re a multi-tasking marketing and advertising aficionado, create multiple dashboards to maintain a structured and organized view of your efforts.
Adding to its appeal, there’s a free version! In this economic climate!
Structure your dashboards around specific segments like advertising, blogging, email marketing, SEO, and more. Each segment comes equipped with its own set of widgets that effortlessly pull data from your connected tools with just a couple of clicks.
Gone are the days of relying on a multitude of tools and spending countless hours sifting through raw data. If a reporting tool capable of unifying data from multiple sources is what you seek, look no further than Cyfe. The availability of a free version sweetens the deal, allowing you to dip your toes in the water before committing to a purchase.
3. Whatagraph
Clarity reigns supreme in the realm of marketing reports. Your clients or managers should be able to effortlessly digest the information presented, extracting actionable insights without deciphering complex charts and graphs. Whatagraph distinguishes itself as the reporting tool that empowers anyone to craft visually appealing and functional reports. Say goodbye to report-building anxieties with their library of over 100 marketing report templates covering everything from Facebook performance to SEO insights and e-commerce store analytics. Simply connect your accounts, select a template, and you’re good to go.
Customization is at the heart of Whatagraph. Every element within your report is adaptable – from connected data sources and displayed widgets to color palettes, fonts, imagery, and even the report URL shared with your clients.
For agencies striving for a cohesive brand identity, the white-label feature feature allows the removal of all Whatagraph branding elements, enabling the use of your agency’s logo for a truly personalized touch.
With integrations spanning over 40 data sources, including Google Ads, LinkedIn, TikTok, WooCommerce, CallRail, and many more, Whatagraph ensures comprehensive data coverage.
In conclusion, Whatagraph presents a compelling proposition for both in-house and agency settings. Priced at $199 per month, it’s an investment that promises substantial time savings on monthly reporting tasks.
4. Supermetrics
Similar to Cyfe, Supermetrics excels at data aggregation, pulling information from multiple tools into a centralized, comprehensive dashboard. However, instead of relying on its own platform, it leverages connectivity with Google Data Studio to visualize metrics and data. Supermetrics seamlessly gathers data from PPC and SEO tools, social media platforms, and website analytics platforms, effectively handling the heavy lifting behind the scenes. Schedule automated reports to be collected, organized, and delivered directly to your inbox in CSV format (or conveniently linked back to the platform).
Supermetrics further simplifies the reporting process with pre-built report templates crafted by experienced data analysts, eliminating the need for you to become a data wizard overnight. Its cross-platform reporting modules provide a unified view of traffic, user behavior, and ad spend across all your advertising campaigns within a single dashboard. Automation stands out as Supermetrics’ crown jewel. It constantly scours connected platforms for real-time data updates, diligently emailing you weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports tailored to your preferences. (Or, bypass the manual step entirely and have reports sent directly to your bosses and clients, effectively automating the entire reporting process.) The cherry on top is their unrestricted 14-day free trial, granting you full access to explore its capabilities over a two-week period and witness firsthand the time savings it offers.
5. Analytics Canvas
Let’s play a quick guessing game: How many tools do you think the average marketing or advertising professional utilizes to monitor their campaigns? If your guess falls short of 12, you’re off the mark. Recent data reveals that marketers and advertisers, on average, employ a staggering more than 12 distinct tools tools for data management. Some even juggle 31 or more! If that doesn’t send chills down your spine, nothing will. Interestingly, these same users highlighted “improved integration of existing tools” as a critical factor in enhancing marketing and advertising reporting efficiency.
Indeed, a no-brainer! Fortunately, platforms addressing this need have emerged, capable of seamlessly incorporating third-party data from external sources to generate comprehensive dashboards on demand. Analytics Canvas stands out as a frontrunner in this space. While not as user-friendly as Cyfe or Supermetrics, it caters specifically to marketers and advertisers with a strong technical or analytical background. Aesthetically, it might not win any design awards, but its functionality more than compensates:
(Image Source) Analytics Canvas empowers you to create individual “blocks” that instruct the program to extract data from specific sources. You have granular control over the type of data pulled. For example, combine information on specific landing page reports from Google Analytics with corresponding PPC performance data from Facebook. For those who prefer a more visually appealing dashboard experience, Analytics Canvas offers export capabilities to Google Data Studio, allowing you to leverage the strengths of both platforms for an enhanced reporting experience. While this program leans towards the technical side compared to other platforms, its automation features shoulder the burden of report compilation and delivery, sending them straight to your inbox daily. If you possess a knack for analytics, enjoy crafting efficient workflows, and value automation coupled with robust report generation, Analytics Canvas might be your perfect match. A feature-rich 30-day free trial allows you to explore its full potential before making a commitment.
6. CallRail
Phone calls often yield exceptional conversion rates for advertisers, significantly outperforming traditional channels. Typical phone call conversion rates soar as high as 30-50%, dwarfing the typically low, single-digit online conversion rates observed elsewhere. Beyond their impressive conversion power, 65% of people often prefer phone communication over online forms. Statistics paint a clear picture: 70% of consumers have used click-to-call search ads, with mobile search emerging as the primary call source, accounting for 48% of total call volume back in 2015. The average call duration clocks in at a respectable 4 minutes and 52 seconds. The takeaway? Phone calls often represent a golden opportunity to convert hesitant leads into paying customers. But wait, there’s more! Call data from Invoca reveals that phone calls serve as a better lead quality, boasting a conversion rate 10 times higher than web forms. This finding aligns with nexus-security’s own research, which indicates that phone calls are 3x more valuable than a click. So, where’s the disconnect? The issue lies in inadequate call tracking practices. Google Ads and Analytics fall short when it comes to providing comprehensive call data. Area codes and call durations? “Don’t even get me started,” your boss might exclaim, slashing your ad budget in half despite the incessant ringing in the background. This is where a dedicated call-specific reporting tool like CallRail proves invaluable. It offers insights into how, where, and why potential customers contact your business. Detailed dashboards visualize caller locations and browsing sessions, providing a clear understanding of their funnel stage:
For PPC enthusiasts, CallRail allows the creation of dynamic keyword pools. This means each site visitor interacts with a unique tracking phone number, enabling comprehensive tracking of individual sessions.
Free call recording features further enhance your insights, allowing you to monitor call quality, analyze user feedback, identify pain points, and understand objections. If your advertising efforts involve call generation or if you experience significant call traffic, leverage CallRail to generate accurate and detailed reports covering the entire customer journey from acquisition to historical data and conversion.
Bonus: nexus-security’s Enhanced Success Reports
In a world inundated with convoluted reports and data analysis paralysis, nexus-security introduces Success Reports – a solution designed to consolidate data from all your online advertising platforms into a single, unified view. Success Reports provide a single source of truth, empowering you to interpret key metrics across various ad platforms or campaigns using customizable funnels:
Analyze period-based data to track incremental changes in your funnel over time. Success Reports aggregate data from Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads, offering a comprehensive view of funnel attribution from initial acquisition to final conversion, along with associated costs for each stage. Experience the power of Success Reports firsthand with a free trial of nexus-security Advisor. While reporting might not always be the most exciting task, it often serves as your most powerful tool for justifying resource allocation and showcasing your value. Fortunately, amidst the complexities of marketing technology, these top-tier reporting tools emerge as beacons of hope for marketers and advertisers. Give them a try and prepare to experience something unimaginable: a genuine smile creeping across your face during end-of-month meetings.