As a business owner, there’s a lot on your plate already when it comes to marketing. But then you’re tasked with actually understanding your marketing data.
What’s working? What’s not? What could be improved? Where are people coming from?
Typically when you have these questions, you likely refer to trusty Google Analytics to give you some insight! And while that can be helpful, what I often hear from clients is that looking at Google Analytics often feels like this:
Even as someone who LOVES data (yes, I’m a proud nerd!), I’ll even admit that Google Analytics is confusing and can definitely be overwhelming if you don’t know what you’re looking at.
So what’s the solution?! A custom marketing dashboard that allows you to have all the analytics that matter to you in one, easy to read spot.
With a custom marketing dashboard, you can go from trying to track all of your metrics in a spreadsheet like my client Amanda of Studio A Designs (and still missing trouble spots) to having a clear dashboard that helps you make informed marketing decisions based on what’s currently working and what’s not!
About Studio A Designs
Before fully diving into Amanda’s custom marketing dashboard project, I want to briefly give you some background about her business because she is an absolute powerhouse that’s been in business for 18 years!
Studio A Designs is an established Brand & Website Designer for Iowa Small Businesses with a strong portfolio, multiple marketing channels, and a consistent content rhythm.
Her marketing ecosystem includes her website with strong SEO, helpful lead magnets, bi-weekly blog and email content, consistent Instagram and Facebook posts, bi-weekly Google Business Profile posts, and local directories.
Soooo basically, Amanda has been putting in the WORK for years! 👏🏼
When asked why it finally felt the right time to start accurately and consistently measuring her marketing, she said:
💬 “2025 was the year of investing time and money into consistency with my marketing, so I’d really like a healthy picture of how that’s all paying off and what efforts are getting better, brand awareness and eventual leads.”
And maybe you can relate to that…
You’re doing allll of the marketing that you know is important. You’re putting in the time, effort, and sometimes even money to make sure you’re consistent with it.
But then comes the big question… is it actually working?
That’s where a custom marketing dashboard can come into play! And that was the exact solution for Amanda.
What is a Custom Marketing Dashboard?
Before we go any further into the behind-the-scenes of Amanda’s project, I want to make sure we’re on the same page!
Because you might be reading this and thinking, “WAIT! What exactly is a custom marketing dashboard?!”
To help you fully understand what a custom marketing dashboard is, it’s actually helpful to start with what it’s NOT!
A custom marketing dashboard is not just a template analytics report! While there’s nothing inherently wrong with using a template (in fact, I created one for people who prefer them!) to create an analytics report for you, I often find that people are still left confused and overwhelmed by the data.
And they often have the same questions – what does this number mean? That acronym stands for what? Does this data really even matter?
A custom marketing dashboard, on the other hand, is a centralized, strategic reporting system built specifically around how your business operates.
For Studio A Designs, that meant combining:
- Google Analytics 4
- Google Search Console
- Google Business Profile data
- Facebook + Instagram reporting
- Email marketing data
- Quiz funnel performance
- Affiliate link tracking
- Internal spreadsheets (projects booked, add-ons, hours worked, sales pipeline)
Instead of tracking vanity metrics provided solely from Google Analytics this dashboard prioritized outcome-based metrics like:
- Contact form submissions
- Opt-ins
- Booked projects
- Revenue by source
- Conversion flow from calls → proposals → booked clients
- Hours worked alongside revenue signals
The goal with a custom marketing dashboard isn’t to simply put more numbers in front of you and leave you guessing about what they actually mean.
The goal is to create a clear picture of your data that you can actually understand and make data-driven marketing decisions!
Studio A Designs Custom Marketing Dashboard Project Overview
A lot of times business owners wonder when is the right time to start tracking their data – and my answer is always this: the SECOND you have anything to track.
And luckily for this project specifically, Amanda wasn’t lacking data! She had:
✔️ Website analytics
✔️ SEO tools in place
✔️ Email reports
✔️ Social media insights
✔️ Google Business Profile metrics
✔️ Internal spreadsheets tracking projects, add-ons, hours worked, and pipeline activity
The only thing she was really missing was clarity with all of these things combined.
Amanda was seeking a clear picture with everything in one place to answer questions like:
- Which marketing sources are driving real inquiries – not just traffic?
- Where are bookings actually coming from?
- Are people using the lead magnets?
- What content efforts are gaining traction over time?
- How do discovery calls turn into proposals and then revenue?
- Is the business being built in a sustainable way based on hours worked?
💬 In her words: “I knew there had to be a better way of understanding my data. I was doing all my metric tracking in spreadsheets and I wasn’t easily able to see progress or trouble spots.”
And that’s what her custom marketing dashboard solved!
Studio A’s Reality Before Using a Custom Marketing Dashboard
As mentioned above, before starting this project, tracking was happening, but it wasn’t efficient.
Metrics lived in multiple spreadsheets and platforms, making progress hard to see and trouble spots hard to… spot! Actually reading the data required lots of time and mental energy on Amanda’s part and then actually understanding the data? Well, it was overwhelming!
She really desired:
- An at-a-glance view of her marketing ecosystem
- Clear visibility into user journeys
- Real attribution for bookings
- Insight into whether lead magnets were working
- The ability to remove marketing efforts that weren’t worth the time
And perhaps most importantly, a SYSTEM she would actually use.
💬 If something like this were possible, Amanda said, “I KNOW I will look at it often!”
The Process of Building a Custom Marketing Dashboard
Knowing all of this, I excitedly got to work on Amanda’s custom marketing dashboard for her business, Studio A Designs, and MAN was it a fun one!
Every marketing dashboard that I build is custom to what my client is truly looking and hoping for, so knowing all of Amanda’s wishes, I was able to incorporate so many pieces that were truly unique to her and her business.
Here’s a quick recap of what I put into place:
Website + Traffic Visibility
Using Google Analytics 4, I built a foundational performance layer that tracked:
- Sessions and users
- Engagement rate
- Average session duration
- Traffic sources and channel groupings
For this section, I made intentional decisions about how data was grouped to ensure it was intuitive and actionable – not just technically accurate!
Conversion Tracking (Traffic → Action → Booking)
Next up, I knew I wanted to create a dedicated section to track her:
- Contact form submissions
- Key conversion events
- Conversion rates
- Source-level performance
This is the part of the dashboard that instead of just answering “how much traffic did we get?”, it will directly and clearly tell her which sources are driving ACTUAL inquiries!
Projects Booked + Revenue Patterns
This was one of the most powerful custom additions.
Using the client’s existing project tracking spreadsheet, I was able to create a visual that included:
- Project date
- Client name
- Project type
- Source of inquiry
- Add-ons attached
This allowed Amanda to see:
- What gets booked
- When it gets booked
- Where it came from
- Which add-ons attach most often
This section specifically connects marketing efforts directly to revenue patterns, which is something that most standard dashboards don’t do!
Business Development Pipeline
For this section, I mapped out the number of discovery calls per month, proposals sent, and clients booked so that Amanda could have a clear visual flow from calls → proposals → booked clients, plus visibility into bookings that happened after follow-up!
With this part of her custom marketing dashboard, conversion is no longer guesswork.
Operational Sustainability: Hours Worked
This is another fun one that I was able to incorporate based on Amanda’s goals!
As a business owner, earning revenue is great and is often the goal. But revenue without capacity tracking can create burnout.
By visualizing hours worked by week alongside booking data, the dashboard helps her answer:
Is the business growing in a way that aligns with the life she wants?
Content + SEO Performance
For this section of the custom marketing dashboard, I combined Google Analytics and Search Console to show:
- Most visited pages
- Keyword rankings
- Impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position
- SEO trends over time
- Individual page performance (behavior + visibility in one view)
This allows Studio A Designs to evaluate whether edits and optimizations are worth it and to spot visibility “pops” tied to specific actions.
Funnel + Platform Reporting
Lastly, the dashboard also includes:
- Opt-in conversion tracking (landing page → thank you page)
- Affiliate link clicks
- Email marketing performance
- Quiz funnel reporting
- Google Business Profile metrics
- Facebook performance (posts vs. reels, engagement, traffic)
- Instagram engagement rate with post-level visibility
All of these insights give Amanda a clear visual of how her marketing efforts are all paying off. With this knowledge, she’s able to understand:
✔️ which platforms are her highest performers (aka what she should do MORE of)
✔️ which platforms don’t perform as well (so she can make decisions accordingly)
✔️ what actions her audience is actually taking (instead of just assuming)
Overall, the custom marketing dashboard helps answer the question, “is this effort contributing to a meaningful outcome?”
The Result of Having a Custom Marketing Dashboard
After implementing her custom marketing dashboard, Amanda didn’t just have organization for all of her marketing data, but more importantly she gained the clarity that she was ultimately looking for!
Studio A Designs can now:
- Identify which marketing sources produce high-intent actions
- See which SEO efforts translate into visibility and clicks
- Spot patterns in project types and add-ons
- Monitor the conversion flow from discovery calls to revenue
- Track hours worked alongside growth
- Make confident decisions about what to keep, improve, or remove
In Amanda’s words:
💬 “This dashboard is going to be a game changer for helping me make more informed marketing decisions. I’ll know which platforms, angles and time investments are working for me, and which ones need attention or aren’t worth it.”
And perhaps the most meaningful feedback:
💬 “The way you designed the dashboard just works so well for my brain.”
THAT is truly the goal, my friend!
Because tracking your data is one thing, but actually having it organized and designed in a way that works for your brain so you actually USE it?! That’s a whole other ballgame and it’s one that I’m so honored to play.
That’s the very reason why I never just deliver your dashboard and send you on your merry way. A huge part of my custom dashboard projects includes a detailed video to ensure you know exactly how to use the dashboard and have an action plan to implement moving forward.
In fact when asked, “what was the most valuable part of the Custom Marketing Dashboard build experience?”, Amanda said:
💬 “I honestly loved each phase, but I think the value was in you helping me read and understand the data, and helping me with an action plan.”
Ready For Your Own Custom Marketing Dashboard?
If you’re investing time into blogs, email, social media, SEO, and business development just like Amanda was, but you can’t clearly see what’s driving revenue, this might be a sign to invest in a custom marketing dashboard built around your business.
If you’re ready to see your marketing clearly and make decisions with confidence, you can CLICK HERE to learn more about my Custom Marketing Dashboard service!
At the end of the day, your marketing data isn’t helpful if it’s overwhelming. A custom marketing dashboard can take your data from something that’s just sitting there to something that’s readable and automated so that you actually ENJOY looking at it!
A Note From The Client
“Aside from being an amazing human, Rebecca is a numbers/data gal through and through. She is able to see connections with data that I couldn’t see and made it visual so it made sense to me. She put a lot of energy into getting all the details figured out…above and beyond.”
Communication Satisfaction: 5 Stars
Outcome Satisfaction: 5 Stars
leave a comment