Adobe Campaign’s cross-channel engagement abilities are beyond doubt – but the tool’s reporting functionality can do more than some users realise. Here are our hints, tips and tricks for reporting using Adobe Campaign.
As I work alongside organisations to implement, integrate and use Adobe Campaign, there’s one area that I’m often asked about. Reporting.
Generally, marketers using Adobe Campaign are well aware of the tool’s data management, campaign orchestration & automation capabilities. After all, it’s the main reason they invested in the software. However, in addition to sending campaigns, they want an easy way to report on results.
More often than not, I find marketers want help in three areas:
- Advising on how to make the most of the out-of-the-box reports
- Creating custom reports and dashboards tailored to their own particular needs, data and KPIs
- Integrating data from Adobe Campaign into specialist reporting and analysis tools (e.g. Tableau, FastStats, PowerBI)
Adobe Campaign’s reporting capabilities are both powerful and flexible if you use them right. And in this short post, I’ll explore three ways to use Adobe Campaign reporting to help you get the information you need to track your KPIs and make smart decisions.
1. USING OUT-OF-THE-BOX REPORTS
For most operational uses, Adobe Campaign’s suite of out-of-the-box reports are great. The delivery reports in particular show a wide range of metrics, from reporting on non-deliverables and bounces through to providing a breakdown of opens by device and KPIs on all URLs clicked.
You can easily select a report showing the KPI you’re after, and all of the reports are easy to navigate. There’s no configuration required and they’re easily exportable – say as a PDF or XLS –providing a quick option when you need to share information with your colleagues.
Helpfully, you can also report on multiple deliveries at once through simply selecting them within the folder interface – the Delivery Summary report in particular is useful when comparing results across multiple campaigns.
TOP TIPS: Out-of-the-box reporting
- Structure your campaign folders logically to help reporting on aggregate KPIs (useful when viewing reports via the dashboard)
- Ensure opt-out and mirror page links are configured correctly so that their clicks are classified accordingly
- Use the out-of-the box reports as a starting point for any custom reports you may want to create
2. TAKE YOUR REPORTING TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH BESPOKE REPORTS
Once you’re comfortable with the out-of-the-box reports, you’ll want to take it to the next level and create bespoke reports.
The reporting interface within the platform allows you to create a range of reports and dashboards, with visualisations from tables through to pie charts, histograms, gauges and funnels. You can also add your own HTML containing commentary or explanatory information.
Importantly, the platform offers complete flexibility in terms of what data is reported on, including any custom attributes and even bespoke schemas. A useful tactic can be to build custom schemas to contain aggregated data that you wish to use within your report. You can then populate this data using scheduled workflows.
We used this exact approach with a recent client who was looking to have an aggregated month-by-month sales breakdown report, populated from the underlying transactional data already integrated into their data model.
In addition to being exportable, bespoke reports can be published and made accessible from the web, either open or behind a login.
TOP TIPS: Bespoke reports
- Create reports using schemas storing aggregate KPIs – this is a great approach when looking to report on weekly/monthly snapshots
- Schedule prompts to send alerts to users when data in reports has been updated
- Use bespoke filters to help you navigate to the right view quickly
3. INTERROGATE DATA THROUGH CUBES
If your license includes the Marketing Analytics Module, cubes are a great way of presenting and interrogating data.
Similar to bespoke reports, they can be built from any schema, and there’s complete flexibility around configuration of dimensions and measures – useful if you have a wide range of custom attributes.
Usefully, you can also save a list directly from a cube by simply clicking on the shopping cart button once you have selected the required cells. If your cube is using recipient data then it is straightforward to then use this list as a target in a marketing campaign.
TOP TIPS: Cubes
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Provide access to your analysts/business intelligence teams – they will appreciate being able to quickly interrogate and compare data sets within Adobe Campaign
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Ensure dimensions and measures are configured to cover all your key attributes (e.g. segment code, lifetime value, etc)
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As with any reporting, ensure you set up useful metadata on your campaigns
If you want no-nonsense reporting quickly, out-of-the-box reports offer a simple and intuitive way to make sense of your data. Adobe Campaign’s custom reporting abilities enable you to take things a step further, whilst cubes are great for quick interrogation of your data.
As with any reporting however, the key is to define the KPIs and structure you need considering the business decisions your organisation needs to make. We rely on our expert colleagues within our reporting and visualisation teams to make sure we get this right for our clients at CACI.
Because a report is only worthwhile if it helps you meet your business objectives.
Insights
