Posted 2 hours ago2 hr comment_12192 Marketers love a good line graph that goes up and to the right, but with overwhelming data, graphs alone can’t communicate complex data effectively. A good data display should do more than convey information – it should reveal insights, guide decisions, and prioritize actions. In 2025, marketing data must evolve from reporting to storytelling, because effective charts don’t just show data; they help us understand what it means and what to do next. Why traditional reporting is no longer good enough One of the most common formats for SEO and PPC reporting is the classic, tried-and-true line graph. Even Google – in Search Console and Google Ads – defaults to using this format because it’s easy to understand at a glance. But as any digital marketer knows, a drop in traffic simply isn’t useful unless we know: Which keyword or campaign dropped off. Why it happened. How we can fix it. This kind of helpful information can’t be conveyed through a line. Similarly, long spreadsheets and tables of keyword-level data have been ubiquitous in the last decade, but to what extent do they help you decide your strategy? And how often do they confuse or mislead clients and stakeholders with too much information? 3-point data visualization checklist As you put together your deck or dashboard for internal or external use, here’s a checklist to help you determine whether the visuals you include are worth the pixels they take up. 1. What question is this visual answering? It’s easy to display data just because it’s available. But effective marketers choose visuals based on the question they’re answering. Some questions I often use data visualization to explore: From what source/medium is traffic dropping, and when did it start? Which content drives conversions versus just clicks? What keywords or topics are we overinvesting in without sufficient ROI? Where are the gaps in our sales funnel or content coverage? 2. What story are these visuals telling? Stories show cause and effect. If they only listed events, they’d read like a history book. Your data shouldn’t just show what happened – it should explain why. One chart rarely tells the full story. Say I start with a line graph showing a drop in paid traffic from a non-branded campaign. That highlights a potential issue but doesn’t explain what caused it, when it started, or how it affected results. Without that context, your audience is left guessing or misinterpreting. Like a good story, your data should follow a structure: Setup. Conflict. Climax. Resolution. Each visualization should contribute by providing context, introducing the problem, and leading to insight or a solution. 3. What decision or hypothesis is this data visualization story leading me toward? If you’re unsure of the next step after looking at your data, your audience will be, too. You may not always land on a conclusive next step like “invest in this market segment.” Still, your next step should be clear – whether that’s digging deeper to test a theory or gathering more data to add context. Dig deeper: Looker Studio reporting: 6 do’s and don’ts for search marketers Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. Better marketing data visualizations to use Word clouds Word clouds help you group and rank like terms and keywords to identify: Gaps for your brand or your competitors. Cannibalization risks. Even themes for future campaigns. This specific word cloud ranks keywords by frequency, making it easy to spot dominant themes (like “email,” “automation,” and “CRM”) and supporting terms for content ideation, SEO audits, or campaign planning. It’s also a great way to visualize keyword overlap or gaps between your site and a competitor’s. Heatmap formatting A simple way to make your data tables showcasing multiple metrics more effective in communicating a conclusion. In the example below, we plotted the click-through rate against the average position to help identify underperforming creatives. Heatmaps that visualize click-through rate by average ad position for multiple creatives like this one make it easy for A/B testers to identify which creatives are underperforming despite high placement. In a calendar setting, you can also use heat mapping to help show fluctuations around seasonality or events. These can be especially helpful when presenting month-over-month data. A calendar-style heatmap showing traffic fluctuations by day and/or week can help quickly highlight blips or trends related to seasonality, campaign launches, or day-of-week performance shifts. Time decay waterfalls Some assets lose efficacy over time, and a visual that shows how much engagement declines makes it easier to know when to refresh or retire them. You can break down assets by category, channel, or campaign. In this example, the big red bars quickly highlight which content pieces are experiencing major traffic loss compared to pieces that show minimal loss year over year. The clearly stacked traffic loss visuals of the Time Decay Waterfall chart help you quickly interpret which content should be prioritized for updates, rewrites, or removals. Scatterplots Another great way to show the takeaways between multiple metric comparisons at a glance. Consider showing the relationship between a keyword’s search volume and estimated difficulty, with your current rank for said keyword, to help identify low-difficulty, high-volume keywords that could be lucrative opportunities for new content. Quickly identify high-potential opportunities and low ROI time-sinks with a Scatter Plot comparing volume, competition, and current rankings. Funnel charts Most often used in sales, a funnel chart is useful anytime you have a sequence of events where data decreases after each stage. This can apply to: Email series. Customer paths across your sit. Customer onboarding. Paid campaigns across platforms. User journeys across touchpoints. Funnel charts are perfect for showing conversion drop-offs at each stage of a journey, identifying quickly where optimization efforts could have the greatest impact. Great for campaign performance, CRO audits, and stakeholder presentations. Fewer figures, more insight It’s important to report, analyze, and communicate what your data really means. A great data chart can help your team win additional budget, shift to a more successful strategy, or save a cross-channel campaign. A poor one can lead your clients and stakeholders to reach false conclusions and walk away confused and anxious. Next time you’re tasked with presenting data, don’t simply default to the line graph. Instead, dive into the “why”, design your charts to answer specific questions, and tell the story behind the numbers, so people walk away saying, “Oh, now I get it.” Dig deeper: 7 reports SEO and PPC can use to help each other succeed View the full article
