What is a cross-channel dashboard?
A cross-channel dashboard is an interface tool that consolidates data from multiple sources (e.g., Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, CRM systems) to track and display key performance indicators (KPIs) (e.g., engagement, conversion rates, customer journey metrics), enabling teams to monitor performance across different channels and create presentations for stakeholders.
Cross-channel dashboards are typically built using flexible tools like Google Looker Studio, Power BI, Google Sheets, or platform-specific solutions to enable high customization and integration of multiple data sources.
What to include in a cross-channel dashboard?
An actionable cross-channel dashboard balances context and specificity based on the audience (executives, managers, and analysts) and their use cases.
Executive cross-channel dashboards
Executive dashboards for CMOs, CEOs, and clients show the overall impact of cross-channel strategies. Reviewed weekly, monthly, or quarterly, they include:
- Channel performance analysis: by channel, using attribution models for large budgets.
- Customer journey analysis: tracking customer interactions across channels.
- Cohort analysis: retention, expansion, and LTV by customer cohort (sign-up period, interaction channel).
- Add text for additional context to translate metrics for non-technical audiences. Present in slide decks and simplified Looker Studio reports.
Cross-channel manager dashboards
Manager dashboards have cross-channel views with drill-downs to see performance by client, brand, region, team member, funnel stage, and campaign. They help align teams, define tactics, and include:
- Cross-channel reporting: overall campaign, product, client, or region reporting across channels.
- Goal tracking: compare current performance vs objectives.
- Audits for prioritization and spotting issues.
- Competitive analysis for channel and tactic mapping.
- Topic, keyword, content, audience research.
Operational Cross-channel Dashboards
Operational dashboards for analysts and channel managers have granular, customizable KPIs to solve technical issues. Monitored hourly, daily, or weekly, they cover:
- Channel-specific metrics: budget pacing, engagement, creative performance.
- Social: post metrics, follower growth, engaging topics/hashtags.
- Email: delivery, open, conversion rates.
- SEO: keyword/page rankings, impressions, clicks, speed, errors, backlinks.
Operational cross-channel dashboards are highly customized, built in flexible tools like Google Sheets or Looker Studio to enable data cleaning, blending, annotations, and integrating multiple sources.
How to build a cross-channel dashboard?
To build a cross-channel dashboard, connect your data sources, choose a template on Looker Studio or Sheets, build your queries by selecting metrics and dimensions, choose charts to visualize your data, customize the dashboard, design and share via link, PDF or email.
Here’s the breakdown:
Connect data sources
Define and connect the data sources to bring to your dashboard. Common sources are Google Ads and Meta Ads for PPC performance, GA4 for web analytics, CRM or E-commerce for sales and email data, and Instagram or TikTok for Social Media.
To connect your data sources, go to portermetrics.com, choose the data sources to bring to your dashboard.
You can follow these tutorials on connecting your data:
Choose a template
Choose from dozens of cross-channel dashboard templates in Google Sheets or Looker Studio, designed for use cases like performance monitoring, budget pacing, funnels, and customer journey analysis.
Learn to copy Looker Studio templates.
While templates are the starting point. Make them specific for your business or agency. Map your specific metrics, especially custom conversions, CRM contact data, GA4 events, and all the fields and metrics that you define as "conversions" and "revenue".
Depending on your reporting tool—Google Sheets or Google Looker Studio, pick any of the dozens of templates created by our team and customers to solve your cross-channel reporting use cases, such as performance monitoring, budget pacing, funnels, and customer journey analysis.
Select metrics, dimensions, and charts
Once your dashboard template is downloaded, you may 1)modify it or 2) create a blank page to build it from scratch. Whatever the case, setting up a query always follows these steps:
- Select the data source and the account connected to it.
- Choose metrics (e.g., Clicks, spend, Sessions, conversion rates, etc.).
- Choose breakdowns to segment your data (e.g., by date, campaign name, channel, etc.).
You can follow these tutorials on adding data to your dashboards:
Design
To make your cross-channel dashboards truly white-label you can add logos, colors, fonts, and styling to mirror your brand.
Follow these tutorials to design your cross-channel dashboards:
Share
Share your cross-channel dashboards via links, PDF, schedule emails, and control permissions.
KPIs to include in a cross-channel dashboard?
Cross-channel dashboards should include a mix of funnel—visibility, engagement, conversion—, efficiency, effectiveness, revenue, and cost metrics and KPIs to fully understand the performance of strategies towards business goals. They include:
Cross-channel funnel KPIs measure the buying process (from the marketer perspective), regardless of the channel:
- Visibility metrics: impressions, reach, followers, email deliveries.
- Engagement metrics: clicks, comments, shares, video plays, Sessions, average time.
- Conversion metrics: custom conversions, leads, purchases, key events.
Efficiency KPIs compare your outputs to the cost, including:
- Visibility: CPM (Cost per Mille).
- Engagement: CPC (Cost per Click).
- Conversion: CPA (Cost per Acquisition), CPP (Cost per Purchase).
Effectiveness KPIs compare the input with the output from one funnel stage to another:
- Visibility: Frequency.
- Engagement: CTR, engagement rate.
- Conversion: Conversion rate.
Sales and cost KPIs show the bottom-line impact of your performance:
- Sales: customers, revenue.
- Cost: ad spend, OPEX, payroll.
- Efficiency: ROI, ROAS, CAC.
- Effectiveness: AOV, ACV.
To analyze these KPIs, segment them by:
- Channel: paid, social, Facebook Ads vs Google Ads.
- Time: Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly.
- Campaign: funnel stage, objective.
- Business: client, branch, region.
- Audience: geo, tech, demographics, interests, behavior, placement.
- Content: creatives, format, topic, keyword.
