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In a world where you can access pretty much everything online, the line between data and insight has blurred. It’s not enough to just have the information anymore. You need people to understand your data, use it to make smarter decisions, and act upon it.
As marketers become more data-driven, there is a need for advanced reporting capabilities to vizualize and share insights. So, if you're a data-loving marketer, it's extremely important to know the basics of data vizualization.
Data vizualization is one of the most important types of marketing that gives you insights about your customer and helps you win their loyalty. So, it becomes inevitable to find tools that can use this data.
Looker studio (Formerly Google Data Studio) is one such tool that helps us shape the data in an efficient way. It is a cloud-based application with a plethora of features to leverage the data and gain insights from it.
As with any tool, however, it also has some limitations, which is why we recommend looking for alternatives that can overcome those hiccups.
Let's get to know Looker Studio better and also check out the Looker Studio alternative- Dataflo so that you can gain deeper insights into each tool and make the right choice.
Looker studio is a free data analytics tool that lets you create and share reports and dashboards on the fly. You can glean valuable insights from your data by analyzing it at different levels without having to know any coding or web development.
With Looker Studio, you can create reports and dashboards that are easy to make, easy to share, and easy to embed into other websites.
It's also completely customizable—you'll be able to change the color scheme, add charts and tables from a library of options, choose from hundreds of templates, and more!
Looker Studio is useful for marketing teams because it allows them to collaborate on projects and share reports with clients. It can also help companies keep track of sales performance and see what types of content generate the most engagement on social media.
This in turn offers a fast, flexible way for businesses and teams to analyze their data and make faster decisions.
Related: Ready to create your own Marketing Dashboard using Looker Studio? Here’s your go-to guide to creating one.
While Looker Studio has many benefits, it does have its downsides. Here are a few limitations of using the application to build dashboards
If you're planning to use Looker Studio, you can seamlessly integrate with Google-owned data sources. However, the process of integrating becomes a bit complicated when you try to use connections and data sources outside of Google premises.
If one wants integrations with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Hubspot, then one might have to use partner connectors like Supermetrics or Power Myanalytics, which can be expensive.
When you add numerous complex vizualizations in Looker Studio, they lead to lags and slow refresh rates. That’s because the additional visuals cause your computer to process a lot more information, which makes the report load slower and run slower.
It can be challenging to create complex vizualizations with Looker Studio because of this limitation.
Looker Studio has a limit on the number of charts that can be placed on a single page. The limit is determined by the number of columns on your canvas.
If you place more than 10 charts in a single column, you will see an error message that says "You cannot add this chart because there are 10 or more charts in one column."
If you are a large agency or marketing firm with multiple clients and programs, the limitation of charts in Looker Studio/Data Studio can be frustrating when trying to chart metrics.
When you're using Looker Studio, data aggregation and vizualization can take a while to load. it's difficult to keep sources and tools updated, as well as combine data from different tools that don't belong to the Google ecosystem.
This makes it more time-consuming for a report creation process overall.
There are so many great things about Looker Studio, but one of the biggest drawbacks is the lack of support. If you have any questions, you're pretty much on your own to figure out how to get them answered.
There's a lot of great stuff here, but it can be tough to know where to start.
The solution to the above challenges is the Looker Alternative- Dataflo
Dataflo is a vizualization tool that allows you to view and compare your GTM metrics across various data sources. It collects data from various sources across the technology spectrum—including CRM, marketing analytics, and sales intelligence applications—and organizes it into a single interface that allows users to perform in-depth analysis.
It gives you clear insight into how different variables affect each other in real-time—helping you make more informed decisions.
Dataflo helps you identify the most critical KPIs from your data and track them over time. It frees up time for your team by automating routine tasks like pulling data, cleaning it, and vizualizing it thereby giving users a better understanding of their business with easy-to-interpret visuals and detailed reports on customers' behavior.
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Let's dive straight into the features of Dataflo and what it does for your business.
Customizable Dashboards- Now you can easily vizualize your KPIs with customizable dashboards or choose from their preset libraries.
Alerts & Notifications- Set up advanced alerts for each KPI to proactively measure progress.
Collaboration- Everyone on your team can collaborate using one screen, comment, annotate, and tag each other.
Real-time insights- Get real-time insights from multiple data sources. Instead of relying on guesswork, and making informed decisions.
Integrations- Dataflo integrates with Google Analytics 4, Salesforce, Hubspot Marketing, Chargebee, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, Twitter, and Google Ads
Let’s check out Dataflo’s pricing plans:
Starter plan is free and includes up to 3 users and 3 data sources
Growth plan includes unlimited users + 10 data sources for $99 per month
Premium plan offers unlimited users + unlimited datasources for $199 per/month
We have a 14-day free trial with all the features.
Let's be honest: Looker Studio has its fair share of challenges. This is why marketers would love Dataflo, a tool that takes Looker Studio by storm when it comes to usability and features.
Some of the benefits of using Dataflo over Looker studio are listed below-
Looker Studio allows users to integrate with Google-owned data sources without any difficulty.
However, as mentioned earlier in this post, one of the challenges of Looker Studio is that the integrations are confined to just Google-owned sources and if you want to use connections and sources outside of Google premises, then things can get pretty tricky.
You might have to use third-party partner connectors instead to pull out the data and that can be expensive.
Dataflo is different. It supports all the leading martech stack without paying for a data connector. Direct integrations are available with Dataflo including integrations with Google Analytics 4, Salesforce, Hubspot Marketing, Chargebee, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, Twitter, Google Ads, and many more.
Looker Studio doesn’t offer a single dashboard that summarizes all your paid marketing campaigns in one place. You may have to log in individually for each of the accounts to fetch the data.
Dataflo, on the other hand, offers a prebuilt customizable dashboard for monitoring and evaluating your paid marketing efforts all in one dashboard.
Now you can get insights on all your accounts and channels right here in a single place. No need to log into multiple accounts or switch between different tools in the tech stack.
It’s a breeze to check how your accounts are performing on different channels, or compile a comprehensive report that seems to take an eternity.
One of the biggest challenges in marketing is understanding what's working and what isn't.
Looker Studio is a great tool for looking at data in a very generalized way but cannot provide you with a high-level overview of your campaigns.
If you're looking for an in-depth analysis of your marketing campaign performance, Dataflo is the tool for you. It can help you understand what's working and what's not, as well as show you trends over time.
But if you want to do a similar level of analysis on Looker Studio, you'll be disappointed.
Related: If you're a marketer—or even just someone who wants to become a better marketer—you know that growth is the name of the game. Here are five key paid marketing campaign metrics every marketer should track so that you can make sure you're tracking the right things and making decisions based on the best information available.
If you're looking to set up Looker Studio and use it for your business, you may be worried about the set-up process. It's not easy. You may have to learn from a tutorial before you dive in.
However, Dataflo is a self-service platform, and setting it up is super easy!
The tool is intuitive and user-friendly and you won't find any confusing steps or hoops to jump through when you set up your account.
Dataflo connects directly to your existing data sources, so you don't have to muck around with complex information.
Dataflo helps you track your goals and time range to make them measurable.
The cloud-based platform enables you to capture, analyze and report business data in real-time. It helps you track the objectives and key results in order to define measurable goals and track their outcomes. All data is updated automatically on Dataflo.
With most other tools on the market including Looker Studio, you might have to manually update the time range and goals. If you've ever used Looker studio, you know how hard it can be to update the time range when you want to see the data differently.
Each organization strives to increase efficiency within its teams. Regardless of your role, Dataflo's Slack integration keeps you on top of your game.
Now you can streamline your reporting using Dataflo’s Report Cards that give you the metrics you need right inside your slack channel. Want to check on key metrics that show the health of your startup, like MRR and revenue growth?
Have them emailed to you right away. You can set up custom report cards to get the metrics that matter most, so you don't have to go digging through spreadsheets or wait for weekly email reports.
Another feature is the ‘slash command’ feature which is the fastest way to access data in your Slack channel. Whether you want to view a metric or report data, Slack has it all! Collaborate on your reporting, keep metrics close at hand, and save time, above all.
All in all, we hope this post has helped bring some clarity on Looker vs Dataflo and ultimately help you figure out which is the right option for your needs.
While Google Data Studio is great at marketing reporting, it's not the only option out there. A lot of other tools have built in the simplicity of designing reports and the flexibility to deliver, on time, a variety of reports you can fully customize.
A Looker alternative like Dataflo offers better reporting technologies that allow you to save costs and deliver faster. If you're building a dashboard for your B2B SaaS company, Dataflo is an excellent tool. They have everything you need to creating and optimizing your campaigns—as well as report on them! Signup for free today.
Ira is a writer and blogs about her love of words. She has been responsible for creating powerful and effective content that attracts and retains customers. A blend of her humble writing experience and an endeavour to inspire people with her words is on her table now. She is an avid reader and a music lover too. She loves to devote time each day to yoga and meditation in addition to going for walks.
