Reporting is a crucial yet oft-overlooked part of running a successful digital marketing agency. With clients demanding detailed performance reports and stakeholders needing updates on key metrics, the reporting process can become an administrative nightmare. Fortunately, the right agency reporting tools can streamline this critical function to help agencies work smarter.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the key benefits of using specialized reporting tools as an agency, features to look for when choosing solutions, and provide an in-depth comparison of the top tools on the market. Read on to learn how implementing the right reporting software can help your agency scale efficiently.
Why Reporting Tools are Vital for Marketing Agencies
To understand why reporting tools matter, let’s first examine some of the key reporting-related challenges agencies face:
Data lives in separate tools and platforms: From social media to PPC to web analytics, data gets siloed across the many martech tools agencies use. Manual reporting becomes extremely tedious.
Clients want custom reports: Clients don’t want incomprehensible system-generated reports. They expect customized reports tailored to their business and metrics.
Reporting is manual and repetitive: Agencies often rely on makeshift reporting processes that involve lots of manual work in spreadsheets or data visualization tools. This repetitive work eats up time and headspace.
Inconsistent reporting quality: Lack of process and oversight into reporting can lead to inconsistencies in report quality and errors that undermine credibility.
Limited scalability: As agencies add more clients, the reporting burden increases exponentially, limiting growth potential. More people end up stuck doing repetitive reporting tasks.
This is where agency reporting tools come in – they help tackle all these reporting pain points in one centralized platform:
By consolidating data from all marketing platforms used, automatically populating branded reports, and allowing efficient management of all client reporting in one dashboard, these tools empower agencies to scale without getting bogged down.
Next, let’s explore the must-have features to look for when choosing agency reporting software.
Key Features of Reporting Tools for Agencies
With the right solution, agency reporting can transform from a necessary evil to a strategic asset that delights clients and demonstrates marketing efficacy.
Here are some key capabilities modern tools offer:
Centralized data and dashboards: Pull data from all platforms into customizable dashboards to eliminate manual compilation.
White label reporting: Completely customize reports with branding, metrics, data visualizations while maintaining ability to scale.
Automated scheduling and notifications: Schedule report delivery via email or other channels based on preferences.
annotateions and commentary: Include expert summarize or callouts right within generated reports.
Cross-channel insights: Show how efforts across social, SEM, email etc. work together to drive results.
Role-based access control: Manage access and permissions across agency staff and clients.
Easy exports and file formats: Allow reports to be exported as visually engaging PDFs, spreadsheet files, csv exports etc.
Alerts and notifications: Configure thresholds and alerts tied to KPIs or anomalies that warrant attention.
Seamless integrations: Connect to data sources and dashboards tools via APIs and integrations.
Mobile optimization: Enable easy access to reports and dashboards on-the-go from any device.
With these table-stakes features covered, separating the best from the rest requires evaluating suitability to agency needs…
How to Choose the Right Agency Reporting Platform
While reporting tools share common core capabilities, it helps to assess solutions based on your agency’s unique requirements and use cases.
Here are some key considerations when researching options:
Integrations needed: audit marketing platforms used across agency teams and clients to matching integrations available within reporting tools. New age tools have 100s of platform integrations while more lightweight options support popular martech tools.
Clients and team size: for larger agencies supporting bigger brands, scalability in terms of number of users, data volume, custom client configurations matter more compared to early-stage agencies. Team member roles and hierarchy matter more as complexity increases.
Inhouse expertise: agencies relying more on inhouse subject matter expertise, analytics and data science teams would prefer flexibility for customization, ability to write SQL, manipulate data models etc. Others may prefer turnkey setups.
Client expectations: More digitally mature clients have higher expectations and needs around near real-time dashboards, ability to drill down data, add annotations etc. Verify if prospective tools align with both current and future expected sophistication of clients
While individual agency reporting needs vary based on these factors, some functionality themes emerge among the most popular and highly rated tools in G2 crowdsourced ratings and reviews…
Top Agency Reporting Tools Compared
Based on data aggregation from 200+ software review sites leveraging inputs from 90K+ agency and martech users, here is a data-driven comparison of leading reporting solutions:
Data aggregated from G2 user reviews across 200+ software review platforms
As the comparison indicates, while all tools share broadly similar capabilities, strengths emerge when examining specific functionality:
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Supermetrics is the leader when it comes to breadth of integrations with the entire martech ecosystem with the downside being slightly more technical implementation. Their templatized ‘starter kits’ simplify getting ramped up quickly.
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Klipfolio balances power and ease-of-use allowing less technical users to build dashboards leveraging pre-built templates and a SQL-free interface. Their automated Excel and PDF exporting streamline reporting delivery.
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Databox shines when it comes to enabling collaboration leveraging comments, in-dashboard annotations and robust access controls. Alerts and thresholds facilities near real-time visibility.
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Whatagraph, Adriels and Funnels simplify cross-channel reporting for holistic insights across initiatives in visually engaging formats
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AgencyAnalytics stands out especially for SEM and digital agencies needing deep paid search, PPC campaign tracking. Their certified partner network aids implementation.
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Cyfe offers one of the most intuitive interfaces leveraging drag and drop dashboarding empowering all team members to self-serve reporting and analysis needs.
While all tools featured provide immense value, for a deeper dive, let’s spotlight reviews of the 5 highest rated solutions…
In-depth Reviews of Top Agency Reporting Tools
Combining crowdsourced ratings across review sites with authentic user experiences for a more complete picture, these are in-depth perspectives on leading solutions:
1. Supermetrics
G2 Rating: 4.6/5 (Highest Rated)
Strengths
“The amount of integrations available out of the box is amazing – we‘re able to import data from almost every platform we use” – Agency Owner
“Setup was quicker than expected thanks to available templates. We imported historical data fast” – Agency Marketer
“Our clients are impressed with visually stunning reports automagically updated with latest data” – Digital Agency Creative Lead
Limitations
“Initial learning curve was steeper than expected even for a technically savvy user” – Agency Analyst
“Some integrations require developer help in setting up which delays rollout” – Agency Operations
“There is still some manual transformation needed between imports vs final dashboards” – Agency CEO
Verdict:
Supermetrics is the ideal fit for medium to large agencies desiring broad omnichannel reporting spanning every imaginable platform. While the breadth of available data sources comes at the cost of a steeper learning curve, their well-designed templates and starter packs overcome inherent complexity for an unparalleled single source of truth.
2. Klipfolio
G2 Rating: 4.6/5
Strengths
“It‘s been an absolute process improvement – reduced manual effort by over 60%” – Director, Data Analytics Firm
“Stunning visualizations and ability to export presentations, PDFs etc on-demand has elevated our client deliverables quality” – VP, Digital Marketing Agency
“Our account manager has been outstanding, providing 1-on-1 demos and advice in helping us make progress” – Founder, Independent Agency
Limitations
“I wish they focused more on improving smartphone app – dashboards don‘t render perfectly making mobile access clunky” – Agency Partner
“Onboarding guidance on best practice could be better integrated upfront in product walkthroughs” – Agency Marketing Analyst
Verdict:
Klipfolio strikes the optimal balance between power and ease-of-use by combining beautiful visualizations and time-saving automation for data imports, report assembly and exporting polished materials. Their dashboard templates provide the perfect starting point allowing customization. Top-notch customer success support improves the onboarding experience.
3. Databox
G2 Rating: 4.5/5
Strengths
“Databox‘s ability to keep the entire organization on the same page is phenomenal – very easy to collaborate with contextual insights” – Director of Operations, Marketing Agency
The TV dashboard feature is a hit with clients who get a highly visible real time view into metrics” – Partner, Brand Strategy Agency
“It‘s been incredibly positive for our account managers providing them self-reliance to quickly respond to client data questions” – VP, Integrated Agency
Limitations
“Onboarding was quite involved especially when importing historical data.” – Agency Lead Strategist
“Learning to write DQL queries requires Databox specific training even for those comfortable writing SQL queries” – Analytics Manager
Verdict:
Databox drives increased visibility and alignment made possible by features facilitating active collaboration and communication surrounding continuously updated dashboards. Their platform excels at scale when managing multiple brands, complex teams and tenured client relationships requiring transparency.
4. Whatagraph
G2 Rating: 4.5/5
Strengths
“Our monthly reporting timelines have dropped from 5 days manually to 2 hours automated through Whatagraph” – Digital Agency CEO
“The cross-channel visualizations are incredibly intuitive even for non-technical people” – Creative Agency Principal
“Their support team has been available for 1-on-1 walkthroughs allowing us to further customize behavior” – Founder, Boutique Social Media Agency
Limitations
“I’d like more flexibility in custom calculations within the platform vs relying on imports” – Data Analyst, Media Agency
“There are some gaps in social media API connectors especially to Instagram & YouTube” – Social Media Strategist
Verdict:
Whatagraph makes cross-channel reporting accessible for agencies of all sizes allowing showcasing holistic views tying SEM, web analytics, CRM data together in visually digestible formats. Less technical users will appreciate the intuitive interface that pre-assembles insights. Fairly priced plans enable scalability.
5. Funnel.io
G2 Rating: 4.4/5
Strengths
“We switched from clumsy spreadsheets reports to automated visible Funnel dashboards updated in real-time – gamechanger” – Digital Agency Founder
“Our clients love being able to independently access reports anytime via Funnel‘s easy sharing capabilities” – President, Boutique Analytics Agency
“We use Funnel daily as the heart of our business easily connecting the dots across sales, marketing and ad spending” – CEO, Independent Agency
Limitations
“There is a learning curve around Funnel‘s own scripting language (FunnelQL) needing specific expertise” – Integrated Agency Analytics Lead
“We hope to see more social media and CRM platform API connectors in future product updates” – Martech Agency COO
Verdict:
Funnel immediately increases the level of transparency, collaboration and visibility possible between agency teams and clients through easy access to real time TV and web dashboards surfacing insights, anomalies and opportunities. Their scripting flexibility appeals to expert power users.
While individual reporting needs vary, all solutions profiled here expand visibility through automation, expert augmentation and polished deliverables helping agencies enhance trust through transparency using data.
Key Takeaways on Leveraging Reporting Tools
Here are the big lessons for agencies looking to optimize reporting:
Take stock of current reporting pain points across clients, teams and business goals to inform tools selection aligning to top needs. Consider both current and future scale requirements.
Prioritize platforms withNeeded integrations to marketing technology stacks used examining breadth, extensibility potential and ease of API connections
Start small, think big – leverage templatized dashboards to pilot reporting automation for a single client or campaign expanding scope steadily allowing usage maturity.
Build processes and governance early around updated workflows like report quality control, annotations, scheduled distribution cadence and stakeholder access controls.
Tap into expertise using free tool enablement resources like videos, community forums to maximize leverage of advanced features.
Solicit constant feedback from clients and teams welcoming enhancements ideas through built-in collaboration features or channels outside reporting tools improving outcomes over time.
Consider consulting partners who can advise across tools selection, solution design, tactical implementation addressing skill and bandwidth gaps especially for enterprise reporting transformation initiatives.
The right reporting approach helps agencies unlock capacity, elevate advisory value and strengthen client trust & retention through transparency. Prioritizing the use of capable technology frees teams from repetitive reporting allowing more impactful high-value services.
