Data analysts worldwide use different tools to automate their marketing data reporting in Google Data Studio.
Marketing data reporting is automated in Google Data Studio by adding different data connectors and visualizing the aggregated data. One of the most popular tools for this on the market is called Power My Analytics.
While Power My Analytics can be a great tool for some use cases, many alternatives may be more appropriate for your needs as a data analyst or a business owner.
In this post, we will look at some of these Power My Analytics alternatives, what they offer in comparison and why you might consider one of them instead of Power My Analytics.
Power My Analytics
Before we dive deeper into the alternatives to Power My Analytics, let us take a look at what makes Power My Analytics so popular.
Power My Analytics is a reporting automation tool that collects data from social media, email, shopping, and many other platforms and then integrates the metrics into various data destinations, including Google Data Studio, Google Analytics, SQL, and more.
The tool works by using a data warehouse model. Instead of providing a link between the data source and the data destination, the tool takes your data from the data source you choose and stores it on its own server first.
Once the data is on the server, Power My Analytics feeds it into the data destination of your choice.
The benefit of this approach is that if one of the APIs goes down, the data is still available.
However, you have to wait for Power My Analytics to download their data into their warehouse before you can start visualizing it, meaning that the data is not always up to date.
What are the Benefits of Using Power My Analytics
For many users, Power My Analytics provides great value with a solid range of data sources at their disposal. Connecting with data sources is easy to integrate for almost all data sources.
They also provide pre-built dashboards making it easy to visualize data quickly. The dashboards are a great starting point as users can add new or edit existing metrics.
Many people online cite their pricing tiers as more flexible for small businesses that need a simple way to present their data.
What are the Drawbacks of Using Power My Analytics
While Power My Analytics can be great for some use cases, the software has flaws. For example, many people online cite the lack of certain connectors as the main con of Power My Analytics.
For others, the biggest drawbacks with Power My Analytics are the lack of the ability to export certain data groups from Facebook Ads, the lack of tutorials for certain data destinations such as Google Sheets and a somewhat messed up migration process.
If you run into the same or similar problems, you have likely considered finding and using an alternative to Power My Analytics.
Why You Shouldn’t Use a Free Service as Your Primary Analytics Tool
Free marketing data reporting software can be great for any business, especially those that are just starting to dab with data analytics. While free tools can have impressive benefits, they are often limited in many aspects.
Most of them only allow you to use the basic features for free and if you want to get the full experience, you will need to pay for it.
If it is open-source software, they usually lack proper customer support and a great user experience. Also, many free data reporting tools are limited when it comes to data sources and data destinations.
Top Alternatives to Power My Analytics in 2021
Now that we have explored the pros and cons of Power My Analytics and why you should not use free analytics software, let us take a look at the Top Power My Analytics alternatives you should consider.
Porter
Porter is a marketing data reporting tool that lets you quickly connect your apps and reporting tools in seconds. With our tool, you can automate all marketing reporting in your small business or agency.
Basically, you can think of our platform as Zapier for data visualization as you can use it to send the marketing data from the apps you use to Google Data Studio whenever you need it.
No matter what kind of small business or agency you run, you can be sure that our tool is one of the Top Power My Analytics alternatives you should try.
Using our tool, you can create beautiful dashboards that show all the data and info you need to build more trust and better relationships with your clients.
Datorama
Datorama is a cloud-based BI tool developed by the people of Salesforce. With Datorama, data analysts and marketers can easily access their various data.
The tool automatically connects all marketing tools and appropriate reports in one location. The users can then access different dashboards, reports and AI-based insights.
Because Datorama is a cloud-based dashboard software, it can be easily accessed from anywhere with an internet connection.
Some of the standout features of Datorama include the ability to explore a lead gen funnel, connect and monitor Facebook Ads, analyze email marketing efforts, compare performance, and get info about competitors.
Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is a reporting and analysis tool. Just like Datorama, which is a part of Salesforce, Zoho Analytics is part of a big suite of tools (over 45 of them) from Zoho.
Zoho Analytics helps its users monitor different aspects of the sales cycle, including lead gen analytics, funnels, KPIs, email analytics and more.
With Zoho Analytics, users can visualize their data using different dashboards to get an overview of various business insights.
The reports created in Zoho Analytics can be shared with others and there are also a few collaboration features. Zoho Analytics can be embedded into other CRM platforms, ERP tools and others.
Informer
Entrinsik Informer is a business intelligence tool developed with business and IT people in mind. The tool allows users to extract data in real-time from multiple data sources using a web interface.
The users of Informer can use that data to create different dashboards and reports.
Some of the key benefits of Entrinsik Informer include a user-friendly interface, the ability to easily change the formatting of data, assign users and teams, great visuals and scheduled data jobs.
With Informer, users can create reports that pull from multiple databases allowing users to create reports quickly.
Tableau
Tableau is an analytics and business intelligence software that people use to analyze their business data to generate insights. Users can use Tableau to collect data from different sources including SQL, spreadsheets, Google Analytics and more. Just like Datorama, Tableau is owned by Salesforce.
Tableau can be used to manipulate different datasets to generate insights into a business. It also features interactive maps which allow data analysts to analyze data across different geographical points.
The visualized data in Tableau can be easily shared with others. It is offered as an on-premise solution and in the cloud.
Final thoughts
So there you have it — the five best alternatives to Power My Analytics. All of them can be great in certain use cases, so here is a quick summary of all of them:
- Porter — Our solution is great if you are running a small business or an agency and want to visualize your data in a simple way that only requires a few clicks.
- Datorama — If you want AI-based insights and a way to explore your email, lead gen and other marketing efforts, Datorama could be your choice.
- Zoho Analytics — Zoho Analytics is similar to Datorama, but it can also be integrated with various ERP and CRM tools.
- Informer — This Power My Analytics alternative incorporates a great user interface that can combine multiple dashboards into one easily.
- Tableau — Tableau is probably the most complex solution we explored in this article. It has pretty much any functionality you would want, but being so complex also means you need a lot of time and effort to master it truly.
