Stop building marketing dashboards nobody reads

The Looker Studio tab has not been opened since last quarter. The weekly email still ships a twelve-chart board of sessions, bounce rate, and users.

The meeting still starts with how last week looked. It still ends with keep an eye on it. Nobody changes a campaign from that file.

A report earns the slot if it names an action you will take this week. Mark those actions. Cut the wallpaper.

Sessions are not a decision

Sessions, users, and bounce rate describe traffic volume. They do not tell anyone which form to fix, which ad group to pause, or which page to stop sending paid clicks.

A board that leads with those three numbers trains the room to nod. The next slide is more of the same, sliced by device. The hour is gone, and the budget is unchanged.

If the only question the file can answer is whether traffic went up, it is not a marketing report. It is a weather chart. Weather charts do not pause spend.

Mark the few events that are actually the business

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) calls those actions key events. About key events is blunt.

A key event measures an action that is particularly important to the success of the business. Any collected event can become one, but only after you mark it.

Marking every scroll, video start, and outbound click as a key event recreates the unread board inside Analytics. The Key events column then fills with noise.

Landing-page and acquisition reports still show a number. It is no longer a number anyone will act on.

Google's own key events versus conversions example is useful here. Scroll depth on a lead page can be a key event if you are studying whether people reach the form.

The sign-up submit is the event you would create an Ads conversion from. Do not put both on the weekly board as if they were the same win.

Ads conversions are not extra wallpaper

A conversion in this model is the action you use to measure ad campaigns and bidding. You create it from a GA4 event, often after that event is already a key event.

Standard Analytics reports still use key events. Ads conversions show in the Advertising section, not as more tiles on the sessions board.

If the weekly file charts All conversions while bidding uses a different primary action, the room is arguing about two jobs. Naming the biddable action before a retainer is a contract problem, covered in how to audit an agency media plan before signing the contract. The dashboard problem is repeating that mix every Monday.

Match the board to one named action, such as a form submit, booked call, or purchase. Then show the channels that received credit for that action. Do not add a second scoreboard of pageviews beside it.

Cut until the board answers one weekly question

Write the question at the top of the report. Which campaigns should we pause, keep, or fix this week, based on the named action. If a chart cannot change that answer, remove it.

1. Name the one action the business will defend in the meeting, then mark it as a key event.
2. Create the Ads conversion from that same action, not from scroll or video start.
3. Lead the board with that count by channel, not with sessions or bounce rate.
4. Keep one comparison to last week or last period, and drop the twelve-way device grid.
5. Delete any page that nobody used to change a campaign in the last two meetings.

A shorter board that people open is more useful than a complete one they ignore. Completeness is how the unread tab got twelve charts.

Unlike a full digital strategy and fractional CMO engagement, this post covers only what belongs on a weekly marketing report. For a look at whether the live board still leads with sessions, start with Get Free Assessment.