If you’re tired of digging through generic reports and want real answers from your B2B marketing data, you’re in the right place. This is for marketers, ops folks, and anyone who actually cares about what’s driving pipeline—not just pretty charts. We’ll walk through building custom dashboards in Demandbase, step by step, plus a few honest warnings about what trips people up.
Let’s get you insights you’ll actually use.
Why Custom Dashboards in Demandbase Matter
Out of the box, Demandbase gives you a lot of data—but most of it’s designed for broad audiences or execs who want quick wins. If you want to answer "What campaigns are actually working?" or "Which accounts should sales call this week?" you’ll need something custom.
Custom dashboards let you:
- Focus on the metrics that matter to your team
- Cut through data clutter and surface real opportunities
- Spot trends and problems before your boss does
- Save hours of manual reporting (once things are set up right)
But don’t expect magic. A dashboard is only as good as the questions you ask and the data you feed it. Let’s get into the meat.
Step 1: Clarify What You Actually Want to Track
Before you even log in, get specific about what you need to see. Avoid the trap of tracking everything—most of it won’t matter. Good dashboards answer real questions, like:
- Which target accounts engaged with our last campaign?
- What’s the pipeline by segment or region?
- Which marketing channels drive the most meetings?
Pro tip: Write down 3–5 questions you need answers to every week. If a metric doesn’t help with these, skip it.
Step 2: Map Your Data Sources (and Know Their Limits)
Demandbase pulls in data from a bunch of places: your CRM (like Salesforce), marketing automation (Marketo, HubSpot, etc), website activity, ad platforms, and sometimes third-party intent data.
Here’s what you need to check:
- CRM sync: Is your CRM data up to date? If not, your dashboard will be junk.
- Field mapping: Are you tracking key fields, like campaign source, opportunity stage, or account owner? If they’re missing, fix that first.
- Data freshness: Demandbase updates some data in real time, others daily. Know what’s lagging.
What to skip: Don’t bother with vanity metrics (page views, impressions) unless you know what they mean for your pipeline. Focus on engagement, conversions, and progression.
Step 3: Plan Your Dashboard Layout
People try to cram everything into one dashboard. Don’t. It’s better to have a few focused views than a Franken-dashboard nobody uses.
Ask yourself:
- Who’s this for? (Marketing, sales, execs, ops)
- How often will people use it?
- Do you need account-level detail, or just trends?
Best practices:
- Put the most important metric at the top left—people read left to right.
- Group related metrics together (e.g., campaign performance, account activity).
- Use filters (by region, segment, owner) so users can drill down.
Step 4: Build Your First Dashboard in Demandbase
Here’s how to actually create a custom dashboard in Demandbase:
- Log in and go to Analytics > Dashboards
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You’ll see some pre-built dashboards. Ignore these for now.
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Click “Create Dashboard”
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Give it a clear name, like “ABM Campaign Engagement – Q2.”
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Add Visualizations (“Widgets”)
- Each widget can show a chart, table, or metric.
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Click “Add Widget” and pick your visualization type.
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Choose Your Data Sources
- Select from Demandbase’s datasets: Account, Opportunity, Campaign, Website, etc.
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Set up filters (e.g., show only target accounts, or only MQLs from the last 30 days).
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Configure Metrics and Dimensions
- Pick what you want to measure (like “Meetings booked” or “Engaged accounts”).
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Break it down by things like campaign, region, or owner.
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Set Date Ranges
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Default to “last 30 days,” but let users adjust. Don’t hardcode weird timeframes.
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Save and Preview
- Look at each widget. If it’s not obvious what it shows, add a description.
Pro tip: Less is more. Start with 3–4 widgets that answer your core questions. You can always add more later.
Step 5: Share and Automate
A dashboard nobody sees is pointless.
- Share with your team: Use Demandbase’s sharing options to give access to the right folks. Set permissions so people can’t break things.
- Schedule email reports: If people won’t log in, automate a weekly dashboard email. Just don’t expect them to read a 20-widget monster.
- Get feedback: Ask users what’s useful and what’s noise. Iterate. Don’t be precious—delete what’s not working.
Step 6: Keep It Clean (and Honest)
Dashboards get messy fast. Here’s how to avoid the usual pitfalls:
- Review monthly: Kill outdated widgets and fix broken filters.
- Document what’s what: Add notes explaining where data comes from and what filters mean.
- Watch for “data drift”: If your CRM or marketing ops team changes fields or processes, your dashboards can break. Stay in touch.
Honest take: Most dashboards fail because nobody trusts the data or they’re too busy to look. Solve that first.
What Works Well (and What Doesn’t)
What Works:
- Account engagement: Demandbase is good at showing which accounts are heating up, especially when you’re running targeted ABM.
- Sales handoff: A well-built dashboard can show sales who to call and why, without them poking around six different tabs.
- Campaign comparison: You can compare campaigns or channels side-by-side. Just be careful with attribution—see below.
What’s Overhyped or Frustrating:
- Attribution modeling: Demandbase tries, but multi-touch attribution is never as clean as you want. Don’t hang your strategy on one “magic” number.
- Real-time data: Some things update fast, others don’t. When in doubt, check the sync schedule.
- Visualization options: You may hit limits with chart types or custom formulas. Sometimes you’ll need to export raw data and slice it yourself.
Bottom line: Use Demandbase dashboards for direction, not doctrine.
Pro Tips for Getting Value (Without Losing Your Mind)
- Align with sales: Build dashboards they’ll actually use. If sales can’t find hot accounts, you’ve missed the mark.
- Iterate, don’t overbuild: Start simple. Add complexity as people ask real questions.
- Document your metrics: If you leave, will anyone know what “Account Score” means? Add a glossary.
- Avoid “data theater”: Flashy charts don’t close deals. Focus on metrics tied to real actions.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Keep It Moving
Custom dashboards in Demandbase can save you hours and help your team focus—if you keep them targeted and honest. Start with the questions that matter, build only what you’ll use, and don’t be afraid to kill bad dashboards. The best dashboards evolve over time; nobody gets it perfect on the first try.
Now get in there, build something useful, and don’t let your data grow stale. If you’re stuck, ask for help before you waste another week staring at broken charts.