Datorama, now called Marketing Cloud Intelligence is a widely used marketing analytics tool that can be used to extract, harmonize, and visualize data from numerous data sources. However, what sets it apart from similar market incumbents and how is it particularly beneficial to agencies? Read on and I’ll provide six (6) reasons why Marketing Cloud Intelligence can really work for the Agency.
What is Marketing Cloud Intelligence?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Intelligence is a SaaS-based data management platform dedicated to onboarding, integrating, visualizing and acting on Marketing Performance data. The roots of this platform began as “Datorama”, pronounced “Day-tah-rah-mah”. Originally created by a fast-growing, Israeli based tech company servicing media holding companies and the need for delivering weekly performance reports. The company was acquired by Salesforce in July of 2018, according to Reuters.
Marketing Cloud Intelligence may not have been originally created for Agencies, but the use cases were strengthened by them, including data mapping, visualization, custom media calculations, IO management, and end of month reporting and billing reconciliation.
MCI remains at the intersection of the buyers, sellers and the platforms that serve digital media. Wherever there are impressions to be counted and reports to be delivered, you will likely see this platform.
#1 Readily available connectors to different data providers
Most agencies run marketing activity across multiple channels and platforms for a single client. Marketing cloud intelligence’s readily available APIs (Application Programming Interface) for different platforms make it almost effortless to ingest data from each of these platforms. A one-time connection to each API is sufficient to automatically pull the data you need daily with no manual intervention required. This eliminates the need to have a dedicated analyst spend hours pulling data out of different platforms manually. These platforms include major sources such as Apple, Facebook, and Google.
Below are a few examples of the platforms that can be directly connected using APIs:
Alternatively, building these APIs from scratch to automate data retrieval requires in-house programming knowledge for API building and a host of other technical capabilities to build and host them. This can be an exhausting process for agencies considering the number of clients that need reporting, each with its own tech stack.
#2 Total Connect, the Solution for Ingesting Imperfect Data
Is site-served data a problem? TV data integration challenges? Need to amass information for a media mixed model? Need compelling visuals to help win an important pitch? Mired in manual reporting? MCI provides credible solutions. Here’s the truth. When APIs have every metric, dimension, and frequency of data refresh interval you require, they can be ideal, but this is the exception, rather than the rule. Critical data to help you run your organization isn’t always neatly aggregated. For this reason, Marketing Cloud Intelligence has Total Connect. Think of this as having API functionality without significant engineering and development cycles needed to deliver. This feature is one of the platform’s strongest and custom data connectors can be built through Python if you are willing to take on something more sustainable.
#3 Enriching raw data at scale
Once we have a pool of all the data tracked on various platforms, the next big task is ETL (Extract, Transform and Load). Cleaning data, harmonizing it with other data sets and adding layers of information on top of it to create a rich database is possibly the most challenging step as an analyst. Marketing Cloud Intelligence is designed to solve this step with ease. With sections and features on the platform dedicated to data harmonisation, the platform allows you to create a custom data model, at scale.
For instance, different clients have different marketing objectives which means that the reporting requirements may vary between clients, although they all use the same data sources to track performance. Intelligence allows you to enrich your raw data with custom metrics and custom dimensions without changing the underlying raw data, which means that you can create as many custom KPIs as needed. These can be used exclusively for the clients that they were created for. This also facilitates the option to create reports in different data breakdowns with KPIs and calculations that are not present in source data platforms. See our Agency, Marketing Cloud Intelligence case study.
#4 Media Requires Transparency
Additionally, Marketing Cloud Intelligence has a premium feature, the Media Transparency Center, which is exclusively built to process booking data. Regardless of the tool used to create the media plans, the platform has the capability to ingest booking data and blend it with performance data to automatically generate ‘booked vs. actuals’ campaign views.
#5 Visual Communication, Matters
Finally, Intelligence has “best-in-class” dashboard capabilities with prebuilt widgets and ready to use themes, colour palettes and other graphics tools to help create brand-specific interactive dashboards. See our many Marketing Cloud Intelligence dashboard examples.
#6 Build technical solutions with little to no programming knowledge
Most of the steps mentioned above require technical knowledge to build, maintain and develop. Building any data-centric solution involves working with complex technical concepts, from API creation for data fetch to correct storage of harmonized data in any database. The kind of tech requirements varies depending on which part of the reporting framework you are building.
Marketing Cloud Intelligence provides each piece of this journey in an easy-to-use form. Any admin certified, platform user can use the features offered by the platform to build the entire backend for their reporting solution. Each of these features is offered in a plug and play form that allows a user to choose the components they want to work with and easily apply it based on their requirements. This reduces the dependency on a dedicated tech team to build a reporting solution. It also allows for a single certified user to design and control all aspects of the reporting journey.
The ideal tool for agencies
Unfortunately, there can never be a ‘perfect’ solution for Agencies. In the advertising world where the only constant is change, there is no one tool that answers every problem. Instead, it is about choosing a tool that has the capacity to accommodate growing demands and ever-changing requirements while building scalable solutions. Marketing Cloud Intelligence is one such platform.
About Decision Foundry
Decision Foundry is a Salesforce, independent software vendor, managed services provider, and a certified award-winning Salesforce Marketing Cloud integration partner. Decision Foundry closes the gap between data accessibility, platform adoption and business impact. Our consulting services include the integration of Data Cloud, Account, Engagement, Personalization, Tableau, and Intelligence.
