CMO’s Perspective – Dashboard Affairs: Looker Studio vs. Power BI | Part 3

Confessions from a marketer casually dating two dashboards — with equal parts curiosity and caffeine...

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Dear Diary,

Today was SLA day — the day we pretend everyone reads the lead response time policy. Spoiler: they don’t. But I decided to monitor it anyway through Looker Studio and Power BI.

Marketing ROI shows efficiency of spend — pipeline velocity reveals the speed-to-impact: how quickly MQLs move through sales qualification and into closed deals.

Visualising both SLA compliance and velocity uncovers those sneaky bottlenecks that slow the revenue flow — and, honestly, it paints a much truer (and sometimes harsher) picture of marketing’s real business contribution. 💅

So… how do Looker Studio and Power BI actually help me keep tabs on all this velocity drama? 

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Note to self 1: Looker Studio Pros & Cons

✅ Direct HubSpot connector. Instant MQL-to-SQL conversion visibility.
✅ Great for tracking lead response times and pipeline stage velocity.
✅ Super shareable dashboards — even sales will open them (if there are pretty colors).

Risks

⚠️ To consider: SLA logic (“respond within <24h”) can be tricky to model — sometimes feels like explaining TikTok to Finance.
⚠️ Custom properties don’t always sync perfectly without setup help.
⚠️ Descriptive dashboards only — no native forecasting magic.

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Note to self 2: Power BI Pros & Cons

✅ Deep CRM integration (Dynamics, HubSpot, Salesforce — take your pick).
✅ Advanced SLA modeling — can calculate lag times, stage bottlenecks, and even predict deal probability.
✅ AI-enabled time-to-close forecasting = your new favorite KPI cocktail. 🍸

Risks
⚠️ You’ll need BI support to set it up (no drag-and-drop fairy dust here).
⚠️ Refresh slower unless you’re on premium capacity.
⚠️ Sharing dashboards cross-functionally? Not without a few extra licenses.

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📒 Sticky Note 📒

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Pipeline velocity is the average deal value multiplied by the number of qualified opportunities and win rate,
divided by the average sales cycle length — showing how much revenue your pipeline generates per day.

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Wizard, tell me honestly — if Looker Studio is the quick fling that gives me a fast view into campaign performance, and Power BI is the long-term partner who insists on data modeling and governance, can I really balance both? Or am I just inviting double the connectors, double the costs, and twice the dashboard drama? 😅

See far? I’d settle for getting Sales to respond within 24 hours, Wizard. Maybe add that to your next predictive model? 😇

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Note to self 3: My Takeaway

Maybe the trick isn’t choosing one dashboard soulmate but knowing which one to call for which occasion.

When I need instant clarity before the next leadership meeting — it’s Looker. When the CFO starts asking “but what’s the ROI?” — I dial up Power BI.

Balance, caffeine, and connector hygiene: that’s the real secret to a stable dashboard relationship. ☕📊

(Dashboard images: Microsoft Power BI, Google Looker Studio)

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Data visualisation empowers marketing to boost performance, and the lack of it leaves teams literally in the dark. I created this three-post quick assessment to understand how Looker Studio and Power BI can help connect marketing insights and pipeline value.