Reports are so 2000 and lame! Everything in our world — from software to phones, cars and TVs — is getting smarter, faster and sleeker. Isn’t it time for client reports to become smarter, faster and sleeker, too? If I can automate my pizza order, why can’t I automate a better client report?
Compelling client presentations that tell the proper story are the future, and NinjaCat is the platform of choice for agencies who want to differentiate themselves and take their business to the next level.
Allow me to set up the back story and introduce myself, I am Scott Guttenberger, marketing ninja. I have been in the shoes of modern digital advertising agencies. I know the struggles! Client requests, optimizing campaigns, monitoring budgets and manually creating client reports. I know the selling points when trying to win new customers and the efforts required to retain clients. Clients want to know the results of marketing campaigns they are spending thousands of dollars on and are constantly forcing you to answer the question, “What have you done for me lately?”
Every agency touts how amazing their reporting is: “We report on everything.” This is often a tactic used to win clients. At my last agency job, we reported on… everything. We spent about two weeks every month compiling data from Facebook, AdWords, GA, Bing, AdRoll, Twitter, Call Tracking providers and more for over 30 clients. It consumed an overwhelming amount of time each month and robbed time from optimizing campaigns. For what? The output was an uninspiring report that didn’t empower our client services team to speak intelligently and grow the relationship. It looked messy and thrown together. I often wondered if the clients even knew what they were looking at or if it inspired faith in our agency. It seemed like our clients were uninspired because of underwhelming reports, not the data behind the report.
I finally searched for a reporting solution, came across NinjaCat and met the CEO, Paul Deraval. Paul was well-versed in the problem: agencies pouring untold hours into building useless dashboards that clients would never log into, or sending sleepy, uninspiring reports. He also had a radical vision of how this problem could be solved, diverting time to more impactful activities.
In short, NinjaCat created a way to seamlessly connect over 750 data sources and build the world’s first agency-specific drag-and-drop marketing data presentation tool. Think Powerpoint, but with limitless cross-channel data aggregation, data mixing and design capabilities combined with automated workflows for adding notes and analysis. What did this mean for me? We saved an incredible number of hours on client reporting each month, allowing us to better focus on results and client communications. The end result was dramatically improved win rates, client loyalty and retention rates. I was so enamoured with their platform, vision and culture that I asked to join their company. I am happy to say I am now part of this incredible team.
NinjaCat set the bar and earned the trust of the world’s leading agencies, including Hanapin Marketing, White Shark Media, AdTaxi and hundreds of others, and became the top-rated platform on G2 Crowd by a long shot. But they didn’t get complacent. They took their product to a whole new level with the “Shinobi” release, which was introduced in May.
Shinobi means “Ninja” in Japanese. So does this new release live up to the hype? Does it include all the must-haves for an agency? Is it really a game-changer? Check out some of the key features below, and then request a demo to see it in action yourself.
1. Data. Data! Data!! The best part of NinjaCat is that whatever platform you are managing for your clients, NinjaCat has an integration. If they don’t, they move on development quickly to add it to the roster. Over 750 data sources can all be linked up to report across PPC, SEO, DSPs, Call Tracking, Social, Reputation and CRMs. You can even achieve true closed-loop reporting by bringing in actual leads or closed deals from popular CRMs or shopping systems to show true ROAS instead of just vanity metrics. This provides amazing flexibility that any digital agency can use for clients of any size, ranging from SMBs to the largest national brands.
2. Say goodbye to boring old dashboards and reports, and say hello to fully automated, compelling presentations. Limitless data mixing and aggregation capabilities allow you to tell a truly immersive story about all the marketing campaigns you run for your clients. If you want to overwhelm your clients with a 50-page report showing details down to the tactical level, or provide a simplified one-page aggregate executive summary across all channels, then NinjaCat is your platform of choice. Additionally, you can create a dashboard for your clients. I found this extremely useful as a way to earn trust and show complete transparency, not to mention a great way to close a deal with a new prospect.
3. Overspending on a client’s paid campaigns is the stuff nightmares are made of! I should know. As a greenhorn, I overspent thousands on an important client by accident. A few months later, we lost that client. Had I been using the budget pacing and alerting features of NinjaCat, I would have received a warning notification that the client was on pace to overspend days before the budget target was hit. In short, NinjaCat could have literally saved me a client. NinjaCat also allows you to set cross-channel targets on key metrics such as spend, CPL and conversions and will send a notification if you are off-pace, so you can take corrective action before corrective action takes you. If you’re a large agency, this equates to a bird’s-eye view of hundreds to thousands of accounts.
4. Need to offer your franchise clients or dealership groups roll-up reports or dashboards across multiple accounts? No problem. NinjaCat has you covered.
5. Another helpful feature is NinjaCat’s built-in call tracking solution, allowing you to get all the credit you deserve. It works across any channel (online or offline), and even provides keyword-level tracking for AdWords and Bing. Because it is baked right into the platform, it is super easy to set up. Pick your sources, deploy a single line of Javascript to your client’s website and BOOM — instant detailed reports of calls by source, campaign and keyword. You can even list the actual calls with a link to download a recording of the call. However, if you’re already working with a call tracking provider, NinjaCat integrates with most third-party call tracking companies as well.
6. Soon to be released, the new agency command center is one aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s obvious that when creating Shinobi, the developers had organization and ease of use in mind. The new command center will be your go-to place every morning, informing you what you need to do and who you need to do it to! Coffee, bagel, NinjaCat agency command center, GO! See leaderboard information, neglected accounts, KPI metrics and more, all in one organized, easy-to-understand dashboard. If knowing is half the battle, consider the battle half won.
Considering the time-saving potential of NinjaCat, the platform is a life-saver, as well as a differentiator. Agencies can be grouped into two different clubs: NinjaCat agencies and non-NinjaCat agencies. Agencies with NinjaCat keep clients, create stunning presentations and have the time to focus on the more important aspects of the client-agency relationship. Agencies without NinjaCat still suffer from stressful, time-consuming manual reports that struggle to impress. If you are interested in some of the features we didn’t cover, stop by and request a demo. You will immediately fall in love. After the demo, we will even send you a sweet pair of the famous NinjaCat socks.
If you would like more information on how NinjaCat can help grow your business, take a gander at our in-depth Whitepaper:How NinjaCat Helps To Scale Your Business And Spend Less Time Generating Reports.
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