Reporting vs Business Intelligence in Google Ads

Both reporting and business intelligence are valuable methods for any ecommerce that wants to achieve great results in Google Ads. Read on to find out their main differences, and how you can use them in your business.

The ever-changing world of technology

Technology and the World around it are changing more rapidly than ever. Businesses that can adapt to leverage today’s technologies will have an edge tomorrow. Technology is moving fast, and consumers with it, but brands need to catch up, and data-driven marketing has become the key in delivering quick, relevant messages at scale. Technology can empower brands to become more helpful by letting them be there for their users, with useful answers provided timely and seamlessly, regardless of location.

The ability to predict consumer's needs using data insights and technology will define a brand’s ability to grow. We’re seeing it already. Through automation, businesses use machine learning to help customers quicker – responding with relevant, real-time, messages – and at scale.

Done right, using personalization to deliver messages tuned to what customers want – or are about to want – is proven to drive engagement and loyalty. And of course, if customers benefit, companies benefit. But like many businesses have found – putting all this into practice isn’t easy.

Research shows that only 2% of brands are realizing the full potential of data-driven marketing.

Reporting

People using reports are used to a format that usually looks the same way. Modifying your report may be strategical, however, they can be difficult to remodel. This means you might need to ask your IT department to help you out, which can turn out to be quite expensive. Your frontline operational staff should use your reporting tools so any delay between business needs and operational action is minimized. 

Business intelligence

Business intelligence tools are instead usually designed with flexibility in mind. Although some BI software still requires your IT department to get involved, a BI application should be easy for non-technical users to employ. Business people should use BI tools so they can produce insights and translate them into a business opportunity.

The difference between reporting and business intelligence

Reporting and business intelligence are not the same thing even if they often are used to refer to the same thing. With reports, you can view, organize and analyze your data. It shows you the current status and what has happened so far. They can be given daily, weekly or monthly and you can choose to focus on one specific set of data, like how many orders are being shipped out each day.  

Business intelligence allows you to improve how your business performs in the future and shows you why certain things have happened, often using multiple sources of data that helps you understand trends and allows you to derive insights from your data.

You can analyze how your shipping has performed over time by reviewing customer satisfaction surveys and examine seasonal variations in demand. This can provide you with insights on how you could strengthen the performance of your shipping and thereby increase profits and customer loyalty.

The difference between reporting and business intelligence tools is less apparent today, technology-wise. You have a wider choice of reports today with a greater amount of flexibility. BI systems are becoming more interactive as well. And with the right BI system, you could get specialized reports. You can also use BI to make data-driven business decisions in terms of priorities and trade-offs.

So, which one should I use?

If your company only uses a reporting tool you might feel a bit restrained in your ability to develop your business. Instead of adding random business intelligence tools, a full stack BI tool with end-to-end capabilities is the cheapest and most effective way to go.

Fortunately, today there are available solutions that help you use both business intelligence and reporting to enhance how your ecommerce operates.

See all insights you could extract from Google Ads with our INSIGHT report.