The main difference between reports and dashboards lies in their outputs, but the module performing the calculations is the same. This article highlights the differences in output.
When Should I Use Reports vs Dashboards?
Key Differences
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Dashboards: Personal, drag-and-drop overviews placed on your start view. Dynamic and best for real-time, visual insights.
Reports: Can be public (shared with others) or personal (only for you). They handle larger data sets and offer in-depth analysis. You can save reports as private or public.
Dashboards vs. Reports
- Dashboards: Great for creating an easy-to-read overview with charts and graphs. They are more visually focused and designed for quick insights. However, large tables with thousands of rows are usually better suited to reports.
- Reports: Ideal for handling large data sets, such as tables with hundreds or thousands of rows. They can be exported as CSV files for further analysis, and the export option is located at the bottom of each report.
Both dashboards and reports support different visual outputs (for example, line/bar charts and pie charts). The best option depends on the complexity of the data. For single- or dual-dimensional data, charts are effective. For more complex information, tables provide greater clarity.
Example: Pie Chart
A pie chart works well for displaying a single dimension (for example, revenue distribution across websites).
The Dashboard
Dashboards provide a real-time overview and are typically used for tracking what is happening within the system. They allow you to set up multiple dashboards tailored to your needs, often relying heavily on graphs but can also include tables.
Dashboards are dynamic, allowing for on-the-fly changes without saving, making them useful for quick adjustments. There is no right or wrong way to set them up, but here are some suggested dashboards to start with:
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Revenue graph: Displays revenue per day for the last month.
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SSP revenue graph: Breaks down daily revenue by SSP for the last month.
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Site revenue table: Shows revenue levels per site for the current month.
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AdOps users might go deeper, breaking this down by placement and focusing on the last few days to catch short-term drops.
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Advertiser trend table: Tracks top advertiser performance and trends.
These are just examples. You can customise your dashboard setup to suit your needs.
There are also some ready-made templates that you can use to get started. To access the dashboard templates, navigate to the Dashboard tab, click the + Add dashboard button in the upper-right corner, and select a template.
The Reports:
Reports are designed for in-depth analysis, handling larger data sets, or when you need to share data with others in your organisation. Just like dashboards, the ideal report setup depends on your tasks, but here are some examples:
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End-of-month report: Shows revenue per publisher or website, broken down by revenue type. If you are a programmatic network, this can be exported and shared with finance for invoicing. You can reuse the report by updating the dates each month.
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Start-to-end report: Tracks revenue per publisher since the start of your relationship, offering a full-scale development view. By using a fixed start date and a dynamic end date, the report stays up to date.
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Large advertiser reports: Tables are more suitable for complex or large reports, especially when handling detailed data such as advertiser performance. You can break these down into “pages” on the dashboard to keep things manageable.
For day-to-day investigations or optimisations, reports might not need to be saved, as they often require deep drill-downs. Experimenting with different table and graph combinations will help you find the best setup for your needs.
There are some ready-made reporting templates available. Navigate to Reports tab and locate the 'Use a template' section. The section includes a preview of 3 different templates. To view all, click 'View all templates'.
In the View all templates view, you can filter the templates by module and search for them by name.
Customising the Graph View
Both dashboard and report views can be customised to display multiple graphs side by side, making it easier to compare data. To customise, use the settings next to each report or dashboard.
