You may have dabbled with dashboarding and Google Data Studio, but are you really using it to its full capacity? Sam’s talk will show you how you can build a suite of digital marketing dashboards to uncover hidden insights, automate reporting processes and ultimately help you become a more effective marketer. Sam will show you how you can blend data sources to reveal hidden insights, create visualisations that save you time and influence different levels of stakeholders, as well as showing you how you can leverage the latest developments in Data Studio to your benefit.

1. Sam Marsden
SEO & Content Manager
@DeepCrawl
A Digital Marketer’s Guide
to Levelling up With Data
Studio
@DeepCrawl#ThinkUnboxed

3. The dashboards and data
sources you need to level up.
What We’ll Cover
Creating dashboards that
impact and influence.
Tips and tricks for getting the
most out of Data Studio.
@DeepCrawl#ThinkUnboxed

4. How does Data Studio help
make me a better marketer?
@DeepCrawl

5. GDS HELPS ME AS A MARKETER
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Save time with reporting.
Access insights faster.
SEO Manager
Travel around the world
talking about pretty graphs.

6. Spreading the
Data Studio
love...

7. GDS HELPS ME WORK WITH MANAGEMENT
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
SEO Manager
Management
Frequent requests for site traffic data.
Last minute screenshots for
management meetings.
Disruptive, repetitive and inefficient.

8. SITE PERFORMANCE DASHBOARD (GA)
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Global filters
Top-level KPIs
Monthly
trending

9. TOP LEVEL ORGANIC TRENDS (GSC)
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Overview for relevant stakeholders
YoY comparison for
top level tracking
Monthly trending

10. BRANDED/NON-BRANDED PERFORMANCE
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Filtering Performance data to reveal
branded & non-branded search trends.

11. PERFORMANCE BY DIRECTORY
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Use directory level as a dimension to reveal organic
performance for different sections of your site

12. SURFACE GEO AND DEVICE INSIGHTS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Break down
distribution of
countries Trend device
distributions
month to month

13. Saves unnecessary conversations &
disruptions.
Removes recurring friction point.
Encourages more interest from management.
Data Studio helps me work with management
@sam_marsden measure
GDS HELPS ME WORK WITH MANAGEMENT
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

14. Data Studio helps me work with our marketing team
@sam_marsden measure
SEO Manager Content team
GDS HELPS ME WORK WITH OUR CONTENT TEAM
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

15. Content performance dashboard (GA)
@sam_marsden measure
Monthly
comparisons
Monthly
overview
CONTENT PERFORMANCE DASHBOARD
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

16. Content type breakdowns
@sam_marsden measure
Page level
stats
Overall
performance
Content type
CONTENT TYPE BREAKDOWNS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

17. Data Studio helps me work with our Content team
@sam_marsden measure
SEO Manager Content team
● Saves manual prep work.
● Guides content review meetings.
● Keeps meetings
structured and
focused on our
goals.
GDS HELPS ME WORK WITH OUR CONTENT TEAM
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

18. Combining GA and Crawl data
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
@jillquick
https://thecoloringindepartment.com/google-analytics/how-to-use-ga-to-measure-and-impro
ve-content-marketing-effectiveness/

19. Data Studio helps me work with junior SEOs
@sam_marsden measure
SEO Manager SEO Executive
GDS HELPS ME WORK WITH SEOS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

20. MONTHLY COMPARISON DASHBOARD
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Ideal for daily/weekly check-ins to quickly detect
changes and review overall monthly comparisons.

21. DETECTING CHANGES QUICKLY
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Detect changes in
traffic from different
devices, countries or
search types
at a glance.
Clicks Impressions CTR

22. LONG-TAIL VS. SHORT
TAIL
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
How is query length contributing to organic search performance?

23. TOP PERFORMING PAGES & QUERIES
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Top performing
pages in search
Top performing
queries in search

24. BIGGEST MONTHLY WINS & LOSSES
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Pre-filtered tables
to show biggest
changes in
clicks, impressions,
position and CTR.

25. Dashboarding speed metrics
@DeepCrawl

26. Back in 2004
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Myspace was up
and coming
Friends ended :’-( Kanye was
actually alright

27. Tolerable website loading time in 2004
@sam_marsden
How long would people wait
for web pages in 2004?
#ThinkUnboxed
23 seconds
(with progress bar)
9 seconds
(without progress bar)
Source: Nah (2004) - bit.ly/speed-2004

28. Our expectations
were low and we
were satisfied with
ssslllooowww
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

29. In 2019...
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
“A one second delay in
mobile load times can
impact mobile conversions
by up to 20%.”
Source: Think with Google

30. Load time is something everyone can see the
benefit of improving.
Speed impacts many business functions
Clear link to conversions and bounce rate.
Why should we dashboard speed metrics
@sam_marsden measure
WHY FOCUS ON SPEED?
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

31. Accessing CrUX data
@sam_marsden 2
ACCESSING GOOGLE SPEED METRICS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

32. Getting to the CrUX of the matter
@sam_marsden
PAGESPEED INSIGHTS IN GDS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

33. Getting to the CrUX of the matter
@sam_marsden
CUSTOM CRUX DASHBOARDS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

34. Getting to the CrUX of the matter
@sam_marsden
CUSTOM CRUX DASHBOARDS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Performance for each performance metric with
clearly understandable definitions.

35. Getting to the CrUX of the matter
@sam_marsden
CUSTOM SPEED DASHBOARDS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
bit.ly/
sej-speed

36. Getting buy-in from management & clients
@sam_marsden
Competitor comparison
Revenue impact calculator
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
CUSTOM CRUX DASHBOARDS

37. Communicating the impact of optimisation
@sam_marsden
Overlaying performance and business metrics e.g.
% fast FCP with conversion and bounce rates.
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

38. Getting to the CrUX of the matter
@sam_marsden
ACCESSING CRUX IN BIGQUERY
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

39. ESSENTIAL READING
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
● Paul Calvano - CrUX query tutorials
● Rick Viscomi - CrUX cookbook
● Oliver Mason - Misusing the Chrome User
Experience Report

40. WATCH MY WHITEBOARD FRIDAY
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Howdy
Moz fans!

41. @sam_marsden ThinkUnboxed
Tips for Data Studio
Success

42. This will allow you to:
@sam_marsden
Know your audience
Who is this dashboard for and what do
they care about?
What questions do your graphs answer?
TIPS FOR DATA STUDIO SUCCESS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

43. This will allow you to:
@sam_marsden
Know your data viz
Purposefully choose graph types to
expose insights effectively.
Balance of comprehension, truthful
representation and persuasiveness.
TIPS FOR DATA STUDIO SUCCESS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

44. This will allow you to:
@sam_marsden
DATA VIZ CATALOGUE
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed
Dataviz
catalogue.com

45. This will allow you to:
@sam_marsden
Testing and organisation
Consistent naming conventions are a
lifesaver.
Bugs and broken parts harm trust as
source of truth.
TIPS FOR DATA STUDIO SUCCESS
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

46. @sam_marsden ThinkUnboxed
Notable Data Studio
resources

47. @sam_marsden
Ensuring HTTPS migrations go to plan, blending
Analytics and GSC data.
https://simoncox.com/article/using-google-data
-studio-to-review-your-http-to-https-migration
MIGRATION MONITORING - SIMON COX
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

48. JavaScript error tracking - Tom Bennet
@sam_marsden
https://builtvisible.com/data-studio-template-
track-javascript-errors-in-google-analytics/
Track real-world
JavaScript errors
through GTM and GA.
JS ERROR TRACKING - TOM BENNET
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

49. Comparing rendering differences - Rory Truesdale
@sam_marsden
Comparing
differences in
important
crawl metrics across
rendered and
non-rendered crawls.
https://twitter.com/RoryT11
RENDERING DIFFERENCES - RORY TRUESDALE
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

50. Internal linking opportunities - Rory Truesdale
@sam_marsden
https://twitter.com/RoryT11/status/1106179743181873152
Surface opportunities for improving internal
linking within site architecture using crawl data
and GSC.
INTERNAL LINKING OPPS - RORY TRUESDALE
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

51. The Dashboard of dashboards - Lee Hurst
@sam_marsden
A MONSTER dashboard cataloguing all of the
dashboards and resources worth knowing about.
bit.ly/2SIUz7S
GDS RESOURCE CATALOGUE - LEE HURST
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

52. Wrapping it
all up...

53. Identify your
reporting time sucks

54. ...focus on getting
you to the insights
as quickly as
possible

55. ...and communicate data in impactful
ways to influence the people that
matter.

56. This will allow you to:
@sam_marsden
Improve time management and cost
effectiveness.
Get insights across many digital
properties.
Free yourself up to devote time to
other areas/learning new skills.
THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO:
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed

57. Sam Marsden
SEO & Content Manager
@sam_marsden
THANK YOU
@sam_marsden#ThinkUnboxed