Marketing analytics tools promise a lot, but most dashboards end up gathering dust—either because they’re too generic or just too complicated. If you want dashboards that actually help you spot trends, report results, and make decisions, you’ll need to go custom. This guide is for busy marketers, analysts, or anyone wrangling social data who wants to set up dashboards in Brandwatch that are actually useful, not just pretty.
Let’s skip the sales pitch and get right to making dashboards that work for you, not just your execs.
Step 1: Get Clear on What You Actually Need
Before you open up Brandwatch and start clicking, stop. Ask yourself:
- Who’s this dashboard for? (You? Your boss? The whole team?)
- What decisions will it help with? (Content planning, campaign tracking, crisis management, etc.)
- Which metrics matter? (Don’t just track everything because you can.)
Pro tip: If you can’t imagine making a decision based on a metric, leave it out.
Common Use Cases
- Campaign Reporting: Track mentions, sentiment, and engagement for a specific campaign or hashtag.
- Brand Health: Monitor overall brand mentions, sentiment, and share of voice.
- Competitor Tracking: See how your brand stacks up against others.
- Customer Insights: Find themes in what people are saying, spot issues early, or track product feedback.
Write down your main questions. This will keep you focused when everything in Brandwatch starts looking “essential.”
Step 2: Set Up Your Data Sources and Queries
Brandwatch is only as good as the data you feed it. Here’s how to avoid garbage in, garbage out.
Building Useful Queries
- Be Specific: Use keywords, hashtags, and Boolean operators to capture only the conversations you care about.
- Test and Refine: Run the query, skim the results, and adjust. You’ll almost always catch junk data or miss something important on the first try.
- Exclude Noise: Add “NOT” statements for common spam, unrelated brands, or false positives.
What works: Spending time refining queries up front saves you hours later. Don’t trust the default “brand name” search—they’re usually too broad.
Organizing Data
- Labels and Categories: Tag posts (e.g., product feedback, complaint, question) to break down the data later.
- Saved Filters: Use these to quickly slice data by channel, region, or language in your dashboard.
Ignore: Overengineering your queries to cover every weird edge case out there. Go for “good enough” and iterate.
Step 3: Create a New Custom Dashboard
Now you’re ready to build. In Brandwatch, dashboards are collections of visual widgets (charts, tables, maps, etc.) that update as your data does.
How to Start
- Go to the Dashboards section. Click “Create Dashboard.”
- Pick a Template (or Not): Brandwatch offers templates for common needs. These can save time, but don’t be afraid to start with a blank one if you know what you want.
- Name Your Dashboard: Use something clear and specific, like “2024 Campaign Tracker” or “Brand Health – US Market.”
Pro tip: Don’t worry about making it perfect. You can (and should) tweak it over time.
Step 4: Add and Configure Widgets
This is where you decide what you actually see.
Types of Widgets
- Line/Bar Charts: Good for trends over time (e.g., daily mentions, sentiment shifts).
- Pie Charts: Useful for breakdowns (e.g., share of voice, sentiment split).
- Tables: For diving into specific mentions or posts.
- Maps: If location matters to your brand.
- Word Clouds: For quick theme spotting, but don’t over-rely on them—they’re more for show than substance.
Setting Up Each Widget
- Choose Your Data Source: Pick the query or filter you set up earlier.
- Pick Your Metric: Mentions, sentiment, engagement, reach, etc.
- Set Your Timeframe: Rolling 7 days, last month, custom range.
- Customize Display: Adjust labels, colors, and axis as needed.
What works: Stick to 3–6 widgets per dashboard, max. More than that and you’ll just tune out.
What to ignore: Vanity metrics (like “potential reach” or “impressions” if you don’t actually use them to make decisions).
Step 5: Make It Useful—Not Just Pretty
A dashboard is only as good as its clarity. Here’s how to keep yours actionable:
- Limit Widgets: Each widget should answer a real question.
- Use Clear Titles: “Negative Sentiment Trends—Facebook Only” beats “Widget 1.”
- Add Annotations: If something spikes, make a note (e.g., “Product launch—May 5th”).
- Group by Use Case: Put campaign widgets together, brand health widgets together, etc.
Sharing and Automation
- Scheduled Reports: Set your dashboard to send a PDF summary to your team weekly or monthly. Saves manual effort.
- Live Sharing: Brandwatch lets you share a live dashboard link—great for stakeholders who want to poke around but don’t need edit access.
What works: Scheduled emails keep everyone in the loop without more meetings.
What to ignore: Overly “interactive” dashboards unless you know your audience will use the extra bells and whistles. Most people just want the top-line numbers.
Step 6: Tweak, Iterate, and Keep It Simple
Your first dashboard won’t be perfect—and that’s fine. Plan to revisit it every month or so:
- Remove what’s not used: If you’re ignoring a widget, delete it.
- Update queries: As your campaign or brand focus shifts, so should your data.
- Ask for feedback: If others use your dashboard, check in. Is it helping them actually do their job?
Pro tip: Simpler dashboards get used more. Don’t fall for the “more data equals more insight” trap.
Honest Takes: What Works, What Doesn’t
- What works: Custom dashboards built around real business questions, not just what’s easy to track.
- What doesn’t: One-size-fits-all templates, or dashboards built to impress rather than inform.
- Ignore: “AI-powered insights” unless you’ve seen them actually change how you work. Brandwatch has some neat features here, but they’re not magic.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Actionable, Not Aspirational
Dashboards should be living tools, not digital wallpaper. Start small, focus on what you’ll actually use, and tweak as you go. The best dashboards in Brandwatch are the ones you look at every week—not the ones with the most colors or charts. Focus on what you need right now, and don’t be afraid to cut what’s not helping. Good marketing analytics isn’t about tracking everything—it’s about tracking what matters.