Report automation: automation of report generation

Although it is a rather self-explanatory concept, it is worth a minimal explanation.  It is an autonomous procedure, whereby preconfigured reports are generated.

 

Logically, an automation tool is used, software that extracts the data from the different channels, processes it, creates a visualization of it and publishes or sends it for consultation.

What is more, we never tire of saying that online marketing has the enormous advantage of making everything measurable. But, let's be objective, the fact that it can be done does not mean that it is done; and what is more, not all measurable makes sense if it is not in a specific context and in relation to other aspects.

 

The result, on too many occasions, is a pile of disaggregated and unconnected information, dozens of business KPIs that require many hours of work to somehow form a structure that gives us the vision we need.

 

The worst thing is that, if we do not automate the generation of reports, much of this work has to be repeated recurrently once or more times a month. If it is done manually, moreover, the probability of human error is high and this undoubtedly detracts from the results.

 

Another alternative is to pay a specialized consultant, but this is not sustainable over time, nor is it profitable, especially if you are a small business. It may make sense on an occasional basis, but not indefinitely.

 

Summarizing, therefore, we have the following advantages if we adopt report automation in our business:

 

In a nutshell, therefore, we have the following advantages if we adopt reporting automation in our business:

Anything that generates data can be passed through report automation tools. At the promotional level, as we are talking about marketing, a dashboard is usually used that involves several channels:

 And we can make everything even more sophisticated if we input data on sales and orders by logistics channels and include physical commerce.

Perhaps this heading was missing a tagline: "without ruining my budget". Because there are many tools, some of them spectacular, but as is often the case: they are expensive.

 

Of course you can automate reports from many platforms such as Google Ads, Analytics, your email marketing platform... but this only solves part of the problem. You will have all the data in your email on a regular basis, but they will still be isolated from each other and will require some manual process such as dumping to a spreadsheet, so it is a partial automation.

The solution is in Google, bof course I am not sending you to search for  there. I am referring to one of the tools it has available to all its users. It's called Google Data Studio and, basically, it allows you to connect multiple data sources to generate reports in a single dashboard.

 

Data Studio is fully configurable, although to connect data from external platforms to Google you may have to pay for it. You can take a look at Supermetrics or Datadoo, for example, and look for some alternatives that fit your budget and needs.