---
title: "Building a marketing dashboard for the board | Cometly Academy"
description: "Most marketing dashboards have too many tiles to drive decisions. Boards want to know whether the marketing engine is working: total spend, total pipeline or new MRR, blended CAC, payback period, and channel mix. This lesson covers how to build that dashboard in Cometly so you can update it in 30 seconds before every board meeting."
source: "https://www.cometly.com/academy/marketing-dashboard-for-the-board"
---

# Building a marketing dashboard for the board

Five tiles every board deck needs. Skip the rest.

- Module 05: Strategy & Reporting
- Lesson: 5.1
- Track: Both
- Format: Dashboard
- Read time: 9 min

Most marketing dashboards have too many tiles to drive decisions. Boards want to know whether the marketing engine is working: total spend, total pipeline or new MRR, blended CAC, payback period, and channel mix. This lesson covers how to build that dashboard in Cometly so you can update it in 30 seconds before every board meeting.

## Key takeaways

- KPI Row: Spend, Pipeline (SLG) or MRR Added (PLG), CAC, LTV ROAS, Active Customers
- Channel Mix: stacked bar of revenue by source, MoM
- Funnel: Spend → Leads → MQLs → Demos → Customers (SLG) or Trials → Customers (PLG)
- Trend chart: blended CAC and CAC payback over the last 12 months
- Anomaly callouts: top three channel changes period over period

A board doesn’t want to see 17 charts. It wants to know whether the marketing engine is working, whether you’re on plan, and whether to give you more money or pull it back. The five-tile dashboard distills that into a single screen that answers the question in 30 seconds.

## Why it matters

Most marketing dashboards optimize for the analyst running them, not the executive consuming them. The result is a sprawling page with no clear narrative. The five-tile pattern works because it forces a decision: is the engine working? Yes or no?

## The five tiles

Tile 1 — KPI row: Spend, Pipeline (SLG) or New MRR (PLG), CAC, CAC Payback, Active Customers. With current value, period delta, and target.

Tile 2 — Channel mix: a stacked bar of revenue by source over the last 12 months. Tells the board whether you’re too dependent on one channel.

Tile 3 — Funnel: Spend → Leads → MQLs → Demos → Customers (SLG) or Trials → New Customers (PLG). Each stage with cost-per and conversion-rate.

Tile 4 — Trend: blended CAC and CAC payback over the last 12 months. The single most important time series for any subscription business.

Tile 5 — Anomalies: top three channel changes period over period, in plain English. 'LinkedIn spend up 30%, pipeline up 50%' is a tile.

- Tile 1: KPI row with current value, delta, and target
- Tile 2: Channel mix (revenue by source, 12-month stacked bar)
- Tile 3: Funnel with cost-per-stage labels
- Tile 4: Blended CAC + CAC payback trend
- Tile 5: Period-over-period anomaly callouts

## How to use it

The dashboard answers the question in five tiles. The deeper reports are linked from each tile for the executive who wants to dig in. Don’t put deeper reports on the dashboard itself — that defeats the purpose.

Update the deltas before every board meeting and write a 1–2 sentence narrative under each tile. The narrative is what the board actually reads; the chart is the proof.

## Common pitfalls

### Adding more than five tiles

Six is too many. The discipline is what makes the dashboard usable.

### Reporting without targets

A KPI without a target is a number. Add a target and a delta and it becomes a decision.

### Skipping the narrative

The chart is the proof; the narrative is the message. Always write 1–2 sentences per tile.