Note: If you'd prefer to watch a video, see [Video] TapClicks Getting Started.
Are you new to TapClicks?
Follow this step-by-step process for setting up your instance. Along the way you’ll find links to helpful resources you can share with your team. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Connect your Data
Step 2: Create a Dashboard
Step 3: Add Widgets to your Dashboard
Step 4: Generate a Quick Report
Step 5: Schedule a Report
Step 1: Connect your Data
TapClicks is going to be your system of record for all marketing data. Instead of logging in and out of each individual data source, all your marketing data will be in one place. And consider this: Once you have a data source connected, TapClicks will be a place where all the history of your data can be analyzed. Year over Year reports, here we come.
So let’s talk about terminology first. You can find a full glossary of TapClicks terms here.
- A Data Source is an application. Think: Facebook, Instagram, Choozle, etc.
- When you connect a Data Source you are authenticating TapClicks to bring in data to the TapClicks platform for you to use in analysis and reporting.
- After connecting data, you will need to assign the campaigns in that data source to their respective clients. This will allow you to set permissions and hide/ show data based on the client name.
Connecting Data Sources can be done in seconds.
How to connect a data source
- Navigate to the Data section in the left sidebar
- Click on Data Sources
- Scroll down the list until you find the data source you want to connect (or use the search window)
- Click on Connect
- Then authenticate your account
Done & Done.
Once you connect a Data Source the system will fetch historical data and then update data in the platform on a daily basis.
Here is a video that will walk you through how to connect your data:
How to Connect Your Data [Video]
Step 2: Create a Dashboard
A Dashboard is one of the primary reporting and analysis tools in TapClicks. By creating a dashboard you can share information with your clients or team members through a link, create visualizations and graphs, and send the data in your dashboards to other parts of the TapClicks platform.
Creating a Dashboard is super simple
How to create a dashboard
- Simply navigate to the Reports Section in the left sidebar
- Click on Dashboards
- Click on the Add New Dashboard button
- Choose either to make a freehand dashboard or select amongst our pre-built templates
- Give your Dashboard a name and you’re done!
You’ll find that there are a lot of other customization options when it comes to Dashboards, but for now, just get a dashboard created so you can move onto the real fun stuff: Creating widgets.
Interested in taking a class on how to create Dashboards or learning about other visualization options? Check out the TapClicks Academy course on Reporting & Visualization.
Step 3: Create Widgets
Widgets are a fun name for one of the most important activities you’ll learn in TapClicks. Visualizing your data and telling your story is a critical aspect of your differentiated value. Widgets are the graphs, tables, and explanations that help you deliver your message.
What is a Widget?
Dashboards and other reporting solutions are highly customizable and scalable. You can share or hide information based on which client is viewing the screen. You can also share or hide graphs based on your preferences. Widgets are information. They are all the graphs and tables you see in a dashboard.
Think of a Dashboard as a container and the widgets are what you put in that container. Then you set permissions for who can see each dashboard and who can see the widgets on each dashboard.
How to build widgets
There are a lot of different widget styles: Line graphs, histograms, pie charts, and more. It’s recommended that you play around with these styles to develop a full awareness of your options.
The steps to create a widget is simple:
- Open a Dashboard
- Click on the Plus sign button
- Select Data Widget
- Use the right sidebar to adjust the styles
- Turn on Sample Data to see what the graph looks like
If you want to see a shot video on creating a widget, watch this:
Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Widget [Video]
If you’d like a deeper dive on how to create widgets and Dashboards, you can send your team to this coursework:
How to Add Data to your Reports [Course]
Step 4: Generate a Quick Report
Customized, well-designed, scalable reports are the core of most client relationships. But responsiveness to client requests are a way to differentiate yourself. Without a scalable solution these kinds of ad hoc requests can be disruptive to your processes. Quick Reports are your answer to fulfilling these requests.
What is a Quick Report?
A quick report enables you to access your data directly to generate a report. It’s a simple form that you can use to choose the data source, time series, and other aspects of a quick response for your clients.
For example, if they want to know how your Facebook ads are performing month over month, rather than building the report in Facebook and configuring an export, you can just pop into Quick Reports and generate those results in seconds.
What’s the value? Often data sources have different time series options. Quick reports give you the ability to choose any date range combination.
How to build a Quick Report
- Navigate to Reports in left sidebar
- Select Quick Reports
- Fill in the options
- Click Generate Report
Save your team headaches and show your clients your lightning-fast response times with Quick Reports.
Step 5: Schedule a Report
Once you create a dashboard and have explored Quick Reports, it’s important to explore how scheduling reports will help you scale your team’s impact. Two big differences between scheduling reports in TapClicks compared to scheduling reports directly from each application are that you can blend data from multiple sources with TapClicks and you have much more flexibility on the scheduling options. Pick the day of the week, day of the month, recurring schedule, and more.
These are easy to setup and manage, and should only take a few minutes to try out.
We recommend the first scheduled report be internal. Create a Dashboard and send it to your team.
How to schedule a report
- Navigate to Reports on Left Sidebar
- Click on Report Scheduler
- Click on the plus sign to generate a new schedule
- Define who will receive the report
- Select the desired schedule
- Choose the report you want to send
For more information about scheduling reports or white labeling options, please consider taking the following coursework at TapClicks Academy: Sharing and White Labeling Reports [Course]
More resources
We hope you found this Getting Started Guide helpful. If you would like to dig in further, we recommend the following resources.
TapClicks Academy
Coursework for you and your team. You’ll learn all the basics of the TapClicks platform as well as troubleshooting best practices.
Data Source Guides
TapClicks has hundreds of data sources to choose from. If you want more information on how to connect a particular Data Source, you can read about them here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Looking to get help troubleshooting? Find articles to help you troubleshoot data connections, common FAQs, and other helpful information.
What is a Data Source?
A Data Source in TapClicks is any application or database used for analysis, insight, or reporting. By connecting Data Sources to TapClicks, you are able to blend them together and run analysis across all of them together, rather than in each individual application. In this way, TapClicks can be your database of record for all marketing and operational insights. Once connected, TapClicks will automatically fetch new data from your Data Source locations, update reports, and make the data available insight development.
Most users start by connecting applications using Instant-On Connectors. These are Data Sources that have a native integration with TapClicks and connecting them only takes a few seconds. Examples of common Instant-On Data Sources include:
- Google Analytics
- Google Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Amazon Ads
- MailChimp
If you have data stored in Excel spreadsheets or other databases, no problem. You can bring that data into TapClicks too. You'll use Smart Connectors to do that.
TapClicks Architecture
The TapClicks architecture can be seen in the graphic below.
It may seem a little overwhelming, but as you develop familiarity with the platform, use this graphic as a reference for the relationships between major architecture components. For new users, it is best to focus on three main concepts:
- Connect your marketing applications (Data Sources). We recommend connecting at least 4 Data Sources to begin with to develop familiarity with the process and make the most of TapClicks data transformation tools.
- Once Data Sources are connected, you will need to assign clients and campaigns from those Data Sources for use in reporting.
- Then create Dashboards and Reports for these clients.
How to Connect Your Data Sources
To connect your Data Sources to TapClicks, you'll use use a connector. There are two kinds of connectors in TapClicks:
- Instant-On Connectors
- Smart Connectors
TapClicks has partnerships with hundreds of the most popular data providers. If you need to bring in data from one of these data providers, you can take advantage of that by using an Instant-On Connector.
Data from Instant-On Connectors are already organized for your use in TapClicks reporting. You just authenticate with the data provider and that's it. There's nothing more to do. So, when you want to connect data from a third-party data provider to TapClicks, the first thing you should do is check to see if an Instant-On Connector already exists for that data provider.
What if an Instant-On Connector doesn't exist in TapClicks for your Data Source, or you want to use some of your own data residing in a spreadsheet? That's where Smart Connectors come in.
Smart Connectors provide a way to connect data using csv, tsv, xlsx or odf file formats. But be aware, Smart Connectors are only available for certain tiers of TapClicks service.
Quick Start Checklist
The five steps to get TapClicks up and running are shown in the table below.
| Task | Description |
|---|---|
|
The core of TapClicks is the ability to connect multiple data sources together and develop insights based on all that data. The first level of data is at the Data Source level. Begin connecting the data sources you use to TapClicks so you'll have one place to see all their metrics in one place. |
|
This is the next level deeper in your data: data for specific clients or groups. To turn Data Sources like Google Analytics or Facebook Ads into actions, you need to tell TapClicks which clients you want us to fetch data for. We call this "mapping a client." Tell us which clients you want, and we'll enable you to run reports on their data. |
|
Once you have data for your clients mapped, you'll plot their data on a Dashboard. If your data isn't available, you can build a Dashboard using sample data. Be sure to take advantage of Dashboard templates for the Data Sources you're using in the Library. |
|
After you've created a Dashboard, you'll populate it with graphs and tables to tell your data story. These graphs and tables in the Dashboard are called Widgets. |
|
After creating a Dashboard and populating it with Widgets, you'll schedule a Report. You an also export and share your Dashboards with internal and external audiences. |