Choosing Power BI tool often comes with a question, how it can be used practically, in order to maximize the added value.
Leaving mechanisms of automatic data refresh in reports within requested timeframes aside, as well as possibility of sharing it with other users in real time regarding security policy used in the company, we may focus on specific cases of Power BI usage.
Power BI for digital marketing
Presently we live in time of major popularity of social media and websites, when leading digital marketing activities became a necessity and transformed the overall shape of modern marketing. Social media campaigns are gradually more widely used, while their results are sometimes stunning even for their creators. Traditional commercial formats are substituted by blogs, discussion forums or social platforms such as Facebook, Instragram or Twitter. Opposed to the oldschool commercial channels, they are totally realized online, generating great amounts of data, which may bring key insights only when appropriately processed. Data projection with usage of dedicated dashboards, which allow to gather, interpret and visualize the crucial information, has come to be a standard nowadays.
Data generated by digital sources are solely one side of campaigns effectivity. What happens, when a company performs marketing activities using e.g. Facebook or Twitter, but direct sales is done in an online store? Data about sales is subsequently transferred to a system of ERP class (such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV) thanks to integration with e-commerce channel, where it is then realized, accounted for and booked. How to connect all the information within one dashboard in such a situation, in order to not only specify effectiveness of reach in the target group, but also the height of income generated by it as well as cost of marketing campaigns?
The optimum solution for that are data connectors, which are available in standard solutions of Business Intelligence class. In the case of Power BI we are able to easily download data from multiple sources, e.g. Google Analytics or Facebook Analytics.
and then connect them with data derived from different source, such as Dynamics systems working as online services:
or classical database and calculation sheets existing on customer’s infrastructure:
Creating connections between different data sources enables holistic and comprehensive view on campaign effectiveness – only if the proper data portions are processed. Analysis of such reports provides the user with information about specific incomes and costs, allowing unit or summary juxtapositions with campaign elements.
Exemplary REPORT 1*:
Exemplary REPORT 2*:
*Reports from the official Microsoft website.