A Marketing dashboard plays a more important role than you might imagine. It can impact what happens in your career. A study by Trade Desk identifies electing and reporting on the metrics that demonstrate Marketing’s value to the rest of the enterprise to be among “The Top Issues That Keep CMOs Up At Night.” Spenser Stuart studies continue to monitor the movement of Marketing people and changes in Marketing roles across industries. When CMOs turn over in their role, two primary reasons tend to surface:
- Poor alignment between the CEO and CMO on the mission (and the timeline) of the Marketing organization’s output
- Too little time spent defining clear CMO priorities can lead to flawed or incomplete assessment criteria.
Addressing these reasons and this sleep-stealing issue takes the right kind of Marketing dashboard.
What’s the Right Kind of Marketing Dashboard?
More and more organizations are expecting their marketers to provide an actionable Marketing dashboard. Marketing Dashboards are an integral tool that every marketer should use, as they provide a visual that explains the connection between Marketing objectives and business outcomes, thus proving Marketing’s value to the business.
The challenge is that what you can then measure is only limited by your imagination. We’d like to be so bold as to say you’re probably missing the mark when it comes to having an effective dashboard. Most Marketing dashboards we review fall short of tracking the performance of core Marketing strategies and processes and communicating Marketing’s value to the C-Suite. These dashboards primarily focus on campaign and activity performance.
Any Marketing organization striving to excel at Marketing Performance Management (MPM) needs a well-designed Marketing dashboard.
How To Build Your Marketing Dashboard: Just Add Data – Some Assembly Required
Good data is a vital ingredient for creating any dashboard. Data is needed to establish your measures, metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). Without the data, it will be difficult to measure Marketing’s value, determine how well Marketing is moving the needle, and/or how well Marketing is aligned with the rest of the organization and the overall strategy.
Even with the data, it’s possible for the metrics to distort reality. For those of you investing in business intelligence tools and various marketing and sales software systems, remember to put the necessary checks and balances in place to evaluate the usage and quality of the data. You will need a way to quickly address data inaccuracies so the metrics don’t steer execution in the wrong direction. It will also be important to have a process for evaluating aspects of the organizations that are hard to measure.
In addition to data, you need the metrics chains. These chains are the foundation for your dashboard. Where do you find them? In your Marketing plan. These chains are fundamental to your measurement playbook.
Keep in mind that metrics can help create alignment as well as improve and prove the value of Marketing. One of the most overlooked aspects of the performance management process and Marketing dashboards is the dialogue they create and the opportunity for organizations to discuss the meaning and implications of the metrics.
Actionable Dashboards Help Answer These Questions
1. Informs the leadership team of the contribution and impact marketing is making on acquiring, keeping, and growing the value of customers.
2. Provides a direct link between your marketing programs and investments and business results?
3. Enables you to make strategic decisions?
4. Help you mitigate risk?
If you’re not sure and you’d like your dashboard to demonstrate Marketing’s value, impact, and contribution to growth and customer success, hit the pause button and go through our Marketing Dashboard Assessment process. Don’t be one of the CMOs lost in the shuffle.
FAQ:
A: Because selecting and reporting metrics that demonstrate Marketing’s enterprise value is a top concern for CMOs. When the dashboard fails to prove contribution, it increases scrutiny and weakens Marketing’s position with leadership.
A: (1) Poor alignment between the CEO and CMO on Marketing’s mission and timeline, and (2) too little time spent defining clear CMO priorities—leading to flawed or incomplete assessment criteria.
A: It creates clarity and alignment by explicitly connecting Marketing objectives to business outcomes, enabling leadership to assess Marketing contribution using agreed-upon criteria rather than activity volume.
A: A decision-support tool that visually explains the connection between Marketing objectives and business outcomes—proving Marketing’s value and guiding course corrections, not merely reporting activity.
A: Most dashboards over-focus on campaign and activity performance and fall short of tracking core Marketing strategies and processes or communicating Marketing’s value to the C-Suite.
A: Good data plus governance. Data enables KPIs; checks and balances ensure data quality and prevent metrics from distorting reality. You also need a process for evaluating what is hard to measure.
A: Metrics chains link Marketing programs and investments to business results. They are the foundation of the dashboard and are found in the Marketing plan—forming the measurement playbook.
A: Is Marketing contributing to acquiring, keeping, and growing customer value? Is there a direct link between programs/investments and business results? Can we make strategic decisions? Can we mitigate risk?
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