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Using BigQuery and Windsor.ai for Advanced Marketing Dashboards in Looker Studio

21 Feb 2025

In today’s data-driven marketing landscape, businesses need more than just basic analytics to stay competitive. They need scalable, real-time, and actionable insights to optimise campaigns, understand customer behaviour, and maximise ROI. However, with data scattered across multiple platforms—Google Ads, Facebook Ads, CRMs, and more—consolidating and analysing this information can be a daunting task.

 

Enter the powerful trio: BigQuery, Windsor.ai, and Looker Studio. Together, these tools can help you build advanced marketing dashboards that transform raw data into actionable insights. In this blog, we’ll explore how to leverage these tools to create a seamless data pipeline and stunning visualisations for your marketing team.

1. Why BigQuery, Windsor.ai, and Looker Studio?

Before diving into the technical details, let’s understand why this combination is a game-changer for marketing analytics:

  1. BigQuery: A fully managed, serverless data warehouse by Google Cloud. It’s designed to handle massive datasets and perform lightning-fast SQL queries, making it ideal for storing and processing marketing data.
  2. Windsor.ai: A marketing data integration platform that connects all your data sources (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn, etc.) and centralises them into one place. It automates data pipelines, ensuring your data is always clean and up-to-date.
  3. Looker Studio: A free, powerful data visualisation tool that turns your data into interactive dashboards and reports. Its drag-and-drop interface and real-time collaboration features make it a favourite among marketers.

When combined, these tools create a seamless workflow: Windsor.ai collects and integrates data, BigQuery stores and processes it, and Looker Studio visualises it in an easy-to-understand format.

2. Step-by-Step Guide to Building Advanced Marketing Dashboards

2.1 Step 1: Set Up Windsor.ai

Windsor.ai acts as the bridge between your marketing platforms and BigQuery. Here’s how to get started:

  1. Connect Your Data Sources: Log in to Windsor.ai and connect your marketing platforms (e.g., Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn, etc.). Windsor.ai supports over 50 integrations, so you can bring all your data into one place.
  2. Automate Data Pipelines: Set up automated data transfers to BigQuery. Windsor.ai ensures your data is cleaned, transformed, and ready for analysis.
  3. Verify Data Sync: Check that your data is flowing correctly into BigQuery. This step ensures that your dashboards will always reflect the latest information.

2.2 Step 2: Configure BigQuery

BigQuery is where your data will be stored and processed. Follow these steps to set it up:

  1. Create a Dataset: In BigQuery, create a new dataset to store your marketing data. Organise your tables by source (e.g., `google_ads`, `facebook_ads`) for easier querying.
  2. Optimise Data Structure: Ensure your data is structured in a way that makes querying efficient. For example, use consistent naming conventions and avoid unnecessary nested fields.
  3. Write SQL Queries: Use SQL to extract insights from your data. For example, you can calculate metrics like ROI, CTR, and CPC directly in BigQuery.

2.3 Step 3: Connect BigQuery to Looker Studio

Once your data is in BigQuery, it’s time to visualise it in Looker Studio:

  1. Add BigQuery as a Data Source: In Looker Studio, click on “Create” and select “Data Source.” Choose BigQuery and connect it to your dataset.
  2. Build Your Dashboard: Use Looker Studio’s drag-and-drop interface to create charts, tables, and graphs. Some key metrics to include are:
  •    – Campaign Performance: ROI, CTR, CPC, and conversions.
  •    – Customer Journey: Acquisition, engagement, and conversion rates.
  •    – Budget Allocation: Spend vs. performance across channels.
  1. Add Interactive Elements: Make your dashboard more user-friendly by adding filters, date range selectors, and drill-downs.

2.4 Step 4: Design and share your dashboard

A well-designed dashboard is key to driving actionable insights. Here are some tips:

– Keep It Simple: Focus on the most important metrics and avoid clutter.

– Use Visual Hierarchy: Highlight key insights with larger fonts or contrasting colors.

– Share with Stakeholders: Use Looker Studio’s sharing features to collaborate with your team in real-time.

3. Real World Use Cases

Here are a few examples of how businesses can use this setup:

  1. Cross-Channel Performance Tracking: Monitor the performance of campaigns across Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn in a single dashboard.
  2. Customer Journey Analysis: Visualise the entire customer journey, from the first touchpoint to conversion, to identify bottlenecks and opportunities.
  3. ROI Optimisation: Compare the ROI of different campaigns and allocate budgets to the best-performing ones.

4. Best Practices for Advanced Marketing Dashboards

  1. Ensure Data Quality: Use Windsor.ai to automate data cleaning and transformation, ensuring your data is always accurate.
  2. Optimise Query Performance: Write efficient SQL queries in BigQuery to reduce processing time and costs.
  3. Focus on Usability: Design dashboards that are easy to understand and navigate, even for non-technical users.
  4. Automate Data Refreshes: Set up Windsor.ai to automatically update your data in BigQuery so your dashboards always reflect the latest information.

5. Overcoming Challenges

While this setup is powerful, it’s not without its challenges:

  1. Data Integration: Ensure all your data sources are properly connected to Windsor.ai. Test the integration thoroughly to avoid missing data.
  2. Query Optimisation: Large datasets can slow down queries. Use partitioning and clustering in BigQuery to improve performance.
  3. Dashboard Complexity: Avoid overwhelming users with too much information. Focus on the most critical metrics and use filters to allow for deeper exploration

6. Conclusion

In today’s fast-paced marketing world, data is your most valuable asset. Combining BigQuery, Windsor.ai, and Looker Studio allows you to create a centralised, scalable, and actionable data ecosystem that drives smarter decisions and better results.

This powerful trio solves common challenges:

  • Data Fragmentation: Windsor.ai integrates data from multiple platforms into one place.
  • Scalability: BigQuery handles massive datasets with ease.
  • Visualisation: Looker Studio turns complex data into intuitive, interactive dashboards.

With these tools, you can:

  • Track campaign performance in real time.
  • Analyse customer journeys across touchpoints.
  • Share live dashboards with stakeholders.

Ready to transform your marketing analytics? Contact us today for a free consultation or demo. Let’s turn your data into actionable insights together!

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