How to build an analytics or overview dashboard

You will learn

Learn how to build a dashboard to visualize all email, SMS, flow, and deliverability trends, and understand the health of your business. Dashboards (also referred to as overview dashboards) provide an all-encompassing, customizable report detailing your success across each marketing channel.

Creating or accessing the dashboard

1. Navigate to Analytics > Dashboards.
2. If this is your first time creating a report, click Create Report. Otherwise, choose a pre-existing report from the list below. You will already have a pre-built dashboard (i.e., Overview dashboard) created for you and can customize this dashboard if you like.

Customizing the analytics dashboard

Choosing a date range

By default, your dashboard will show your performance metrics over the last 30 days.

1. To change the date range, click on the dropdown next to Date range.

You can adjust the date range to show:

• Week-to-date
• Month-to-date
• Last 7 Days
• Last 30 Days
• Last 90 Days
• Custom (note: you can pull up to 12 months maximum within your date range)

Choosing a conversion metric

Besides the date range, you also can choose any account-wide conversion metric. The conversion metrics will pull from any integration or custom conversion-related event and visualize your data.

1. To change the conversion metric, click on the dropdown next to Conversion metric.
2. Choose the conversion metric that suits your current dashboard's needs.

Changing the comparison period

You also have the option to choose whether you want to compare your performance in your date range to a previous period, either the previous year or the previous month.

1. Click on the dropdown next to Comparison and choose your option (i.e., Previous Year or Previous Period).

In the example below, the date range is the last 90 days. If you were choose the Previous Year option, your data will compare to the same 90days in the previous year. If you choose the Previous Period, your data will compare to the same prior date range or, in this case, the 90 days prior to our chosen data rage.

Note that if you use the custom time range, the range cannot exceed 12 months and, if typed in manually, needs to be exactly formatted as shown below.”

Refreshing the dashboard

In the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard, the timestamp will appear for the last time a user updated the dashboard.

1. To manually refresh the dashboard and the data displayed, click on the three dot menu (...) in the upper right and select Refresh Data. This will update all the data on the dashboard.

Adding a card

You can find additional pre-built data cards in the dashboard library. Use these cards to dive deeper into your marketing channel performance and troubleshoot potential issues.

1. Click Add Card in the upper right-hand corner. A pop-up will appear showing the data view library. This library contains many pre-built cards to serve your data visualization needs.

2. Once you have chosen a pre-built card to add to your dashboard, select it and then click Add Data View.

The newly added card will appear at the bottom of your dashboard.

Deleting a card

1. To edit or delete a card, click on the three-dot menu (...) in the upper right.
2. Select Remove data view.
   

Creating a custom card from scratch

If the pre-built options offered in the data view library do not fit your needs, you have the option to create your own custom cards.

1. To create your own card, click Add Card and choose the option Create from scratch.

2. Choose your metric from the dropdown (e.g., Checkout Started).

3. Choose how you would like this metric displayed (e.g. Average, Counts, Unique Counts, or Value). Note that Counts represent the total number of a metric (e.g., total number of opens including duplicate opens by the same subscriber), while Unique Counts are the unique number of these (e.g., number of opens per unique subscriber). 

You also have the option to group your data by choosing an option from the Group by dropdown. You can add up to 5 additional filters to narrow down your data (e.g., item or product type).

4. Choose if you would like your data displayed as a table, line graph, bar graph, or as a single number.

5. Once you finish setting up your card, click Add Card.

Editing your custom card

1. If you need to make any adjustments to your custom card, click on the 3 dot menu (...) inside your card.
2. Click Edit Card. This will bring you back to the original card setup in the data view library.

Adjusting the order of cards

1. Click on the line at the top middle of each card (-) and drop them to your desired order, as shown below.

Exporting your complete dashboard

1. Click on the 3 dot menu (...) in the upper right and select Print to PDF. A function will then appear to allow you to print or download the entire dashboard as a PDF.

Adding additional dashboards

By default, you will see a pre-populated dashboard and have the option to create up to 9 additional cards.

1. Navigate to Analytics > Dashboard.
2. Click Create Dashboard in the upper right.

Once you create a new dashboard, it will be accessible in your main dashboard section, as shown below. 

You can then add cards to your blank dashboard using the data view library, which includes both pre-built cards and a fully configurable Create your own option.

Editing the name of your dashboard

You can edit the name of your dashboard by navigating into your existing dashboard.

1. Click on the 3 dot menu (...) in the upper right.
2. Select Edit Name.

Deleting your dashboard

You can also choose to delete any individual dashboard by either two options.

Option 1

1. Navigate to Analytics > Dashboard and find the report you wish to delete.
2. Hover over the report in your list and click Delete.
   

Option 2

1. Navigate to Analytics > Dashboard and click directly into the dashboard you wish to delete.
2. Click on the 3 dot menu (...) in the upper right.
3. Select Delete Dashboard.
   

   

Additional resources

• Getting started with reporting
• Getting started with analytics dashboards
• Troubleshooting empty cards on analytics dashboards