Is your team currently spending hours each month manually updating spreadsheets for reporting? Does your reporting apply a visual element to it to allow for better data consumption? With so much information available for organisations, whether first-party data, third party data, Google data or a combination of all three, it is important to have a unified ‘source of truth’ for key stakeholders to apply a data-driven mindset when it comes to marketing and advertising activities.
Within this article, we explore what data visualisation is, the benefits of why you should use it and how data visualisation tools like Google Data Studio can help your team scale, manage and interpret your organisation’s data at speed and in real-time.
What is data visualisation?
Data visualisation is the use of visual elements to display or represent significant data in an understandable, easy to digest format. This visual context can come in the form of charts, tables or maps depending on the requirements of the audience.
“83% of B2B marketers are going to focus more and invest in data analytics”
Data Visualisation in the Google Marketing Platform , what is Google Data Studio?
Data Studio is Google’s data visualisation and reporting solution, leveraging customisation options, live data and controls in the creation of interactive dashboards and reports that present multiple views, allowing enhanced business decision making.
7 benefits of data visualisation with Google Data Studio
1. The human brain is designed for the consumption of visual information
According to Salesforce, 65% of people are visual learners. Along with the fact that visual information is transmitted within the brain faster, data visualisation tools like Google Data Studio provide an effective mechanism to allow marketing leaders to quickly absorb marketing and business data in an efficient way, particularly in these uncertain times.
“Researchers...estimate that the human retina can transmit visual input at roughly 10 million bits per second”
2. Simplify complex data
Further to benefit #1, one of the most effective ways for extracting insight from data is having the ability to simplify complex information in a way that is easy to understand and digest for anyone who will be expected to interpret it. This means that data visualisation allows it to be significantly easier for relevant stakeholders to apply a data-driven mindset when analysing, reducing the amount of critical thinking required to interpret data which can be more effectively spent on analysing the insights to take action. This article from Wired, reinforces this, stating data visualisation “simply works because it is simple”.
“90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and this information is processed 60,000 times faster than text”
3. Save time through efficiencies and automation
The salesforce report, further goes into detail about how data visualisation and data visualisation tools can be an effective way in achieving higher productivity and time efficiencies, highlighting that “organisations that use visual data discovery tools are 28% more likely to find timely information than those who rely solely on managed reporting and dashboards”, also identifying that “48% of business intelligence users at companies with visual data discovery are able to find information they need without the help of IT staff all or most of the time.” The countless hours that are saved by automating reporting through a data visualisation tool like Google Data Studio, frees employees to focus on adding more value-adding tasks for prospects and customers.
“52% of employees...say they spend too much time updating spreadsheets”
4. Take corrective action on your Digital Media and Paid Search campaigns (where required)
With many organisations and senior stakeholders having a more focused approach to data analytics and measurement, Google Data Studio provides digital marketers and practitioners with understandable insights that can power data-driven decision making.
Importantly, from a PWC survey of 2,100 executives, data-driven organisations are 3x more likely to record substantial improvements in decision-making. By taking and making corrective action where it is needed, this will allow organisation to maximise their ad spend and achieve the cost efficiencies that organisations in the multi-moment stage of Digital Marketing Maturity are achieving.
“If you aren’t changing 60% of your ad creative, targeting, and budget based on lessons from your first 30% of spend, you’re missing the boat. In fact, you could be missing the entire ocean.”
5. Connect up to 310 connectors
Data Studio allows you to consolidate your organisation’s data from a range of different sources, including your GMP data, to allow you to analyse and interpret insights in real-time to drive your Data-driven Marketing strategy. Importantly, regardless of which maturity stage an organisation is in, Google Data Studio can be an effective tool for providing insight-driven analysis and visualisations from many different data sources.
6. Leverage pre-made data-visualisation templates
Whether you are a newbie to data visualisation or a seasoned professional, Google Data Studio provides over 30+ different pre-made data-visualisation templates to get your organisation, agency or enterprise set up for data visualisation success.
7. Google Data Studio is free
According to the latest Gartner CMO Spend Survey (2020-2021), 68% of CMOs expect their investments in marketing technology to increase. In these uncertain times, it’s important for marketers and organisations to maximise cost efficiencies when it comes to marketing technologies. While other data visualisation tools like Looker, Tableau, and Domo can incur a significant cost for an organisation, Google Data Studio is a free solution that provides an enterprise scale application of your organisation’s data visualisation, providing you control, transparency and ownership of all your data sources and how they are displayed and interpreted for key stakeholders within the organisation.
Conclusion
Whether you are a data visualisation beginner or a seasoned data specialist, data visualisation provides a number of tangible benefits for organisations looking to analyse and pull insight from their data, whether first-party data, third party data, Google data or a combination of all three. The research shows that using a data visualisation tool like Google Data Studio can improve time efficiencies for reporting as well as achieving better outcomes that arise from quicker interpretation of data through the use of visual components.
For consultation on your data visualisation strategy or for support in building a Google Data Studio dashboard for your organisation, please get in touch with the FiveStones team today.