From Idea to Dashboard: Building a Marketing Campaign Performance Dashboard
Introduction
Every Data Analyst has a creative process that takes them from a blank canvas to a dashboard (infographic) full of insights. In this article, I share how I create a marketing campaign performance dashboard from scratch. I’ll walk you through my process from inspiration to data, design, and interactivity.
Note: This is not a step-by-step tutorial on how to build a marketing campaign performance dashboard. It is an unveiling of my creative process.
Inspiration
My creative process starts with a dose of inspiration. Dashboards on Pinterest, Dribble, and Tableau Public are my major sources of inspiration. On Pinterest, I’m usually drawn to static dashboards made by UI/UX designers. My goal is to create visually appealing and functional dashboards. This is accomplished by using vibrant colors and clean layouts that make the dashboards easy on the eyes and clear to understand.
My goal is to create business dashboards that showcase user interaction and enhance user experience. This goal shines through in this marketing campaign performance dashboard.
Here are the Pinterest and Tableau Public dashboards that inspired this work.
Data
My experience working on a client’s marketing campaign performance dashboard opened my eyes to the metrics important in tracking marketing performance. I wanted to incorporate metrics like impressions, clicks on ads, conversions, and engagement rates on my dashboard because these are important to monitor.
Unfortunately, marketing data is rarely found in the “wild,” particularly regarding personal projects. To solve this problem, I resorted to Data Mockstar. Data Mockstar is a custom GPT created by Adam Mico that generates mock datasets mirroring real-world data. For this project, I created a marketing dataset using this Custom GPT.
It took numerous prompts and iterations for me to reach my desired outcome. I optimized the prompts to include information about marketing. The fields/columns captured different dates, sources (origin of marketing activity e.g. email, social media, etc.), activities (ad display, engagement, click, conversion), outcomes, target audience (new visitors, returning customers, subscribers), dates, and more.
When creating projects for your portfolio, you’ve probably encountered the problem of finding real-world datasets. Utilizing AI to generate datasets that mirror real-world data will help solve this problem. This way, you can easily create your dream portfolio with projects across different industries of interest.
Design
Designing the dashboard took time and planning. For the layout and pictures, I wanted it to be easy for people to find what they needed. I created mockups and sketches to determine the ideal layout. My sources of inspiration influenced the fonts and colors I used. This meant using space, colors, and text carefully to create a pleasing design.
For example, I paid close attention to font hierarchy and font color. I also ensured all icons used were of the same type, sourced from flaticon.com. The end result was a vibrant and professional-looking dashboard that was useful and interesting to look at. The dashboard was built completely in Tableau.
Interactivity
The marketing campaign performance dashboard is divided into two parts. The first part of the dashboard shows Insights Overview, while the second part shows Campaign Overview. The Insights Overview displays important marketing metrics that measure the success of the campaign, like impressions and likes. The Campaign Overview breaks down individual marketing campaign activities.
Immediately a user opens the dashboard, a “How to Use” modal dialog pops up. It contains all the information needed to guide the user on how to interact with the dashboard. The user must acknowledge the “How to Use” modal dialog before proceeding to the main dashboard.
I included smart filters so users could choose the information they wanted to view and concentrate on particular campaigns or time frames. With real-time updates based on user decisions, the charts and graphs provide a more in-depth look at the data.
I also added buttons by using parameter actions and parameters to allow a click-to-filter effect and give an experienced style familiar to many users.
In addition, I added tooltips and clickable icons to help users navigate the dashboard effectively. These features ensured that users could easily interact with the information, making the dashboard a powerful tool for analysis that offers an excellent user experience.
Conclusion
Overall, building this marketing campaign dashboard was a great learning experience. It showed me the possibility of generating datasets from different industries and prioritizing user experience.
At the end of this article, I want you to remember three key things:
- User-centered designs apply to business dashboards not just infographics.
- Give proper attention to the minutest of details when building the dashboard.
- Use Pinterest, Dribble and Tableau Public work to keep your creative juices running.
Link to the dataset for anyone interested right here.
I hope this article inspires your creative process and guides your future projects.
Please Note: This dashboard was orginally created by Gbóláhàn Adébáyò. I wrote this article to share his creative process.
