The pivot table is one of Microsoft Excel’s most powerful — and intimidating — functions. Pivot tables can help you summarize and make sense of large data sets. However, they also have a reputation for being complicated. The good news is that learning how to create a pivot table in Excel is much easier than you may believe. We’re going to walk you through the process of creating a pivot table and show you just how simple it is. First, though, let’s take a step back and make sure you understand exactly what a pivot table is, and why you […]

Building charts and graphs are one of the best ways to visualize data in a clear and comprehensible way. However, it’s no surprise that some people get a little intimidated by the prospect of poking around in Microsoft Excel. I thought I’d share a helpful video tutorial as well as some step-by-step instructions for anyone out there who cringes at the thought of organizing a spreadsheet full of data into a chart that actually, you know, means something. But before diving in, we should go over the different types of charts you can create in the software. Types of Charts […]

Goal-seeking helps you calculate backwards from an end goal. It’s a powerful way to understand how you should best allocate resources. If you use Excel to evaluate data, here’s how to plan ahead with the Goal Seek Excel function. To use the Goal Seek function in Excel: Let’s run through that with a simple example. I want to bring in 130 new customers. But I don’t know how many visits I’ll need to reach my goal. Before doing the Goal Seek analysis, I organize my data to find the average MoM visit-to-customer percentage. Step 1: Select the cell with the […]

Many marketers use Microsoft Excel every day, whether it’s to create a chart, analyze data, or run a report to present at the next team meeting. Creating reports like these in Excel is time-consuming enough. How can we spend a little less time navigating, formatting, selecting, and entering formulas for our data? Wouldn’t it be great if there were keyboard shortcuts that could help us get our work done faster? So glad you asked. We’ve put together a list of 43 keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Excel. Although you can do all of these maneuvers manually, knowing these tricks will help […]

Duplicate data is costly, it skews reports and leads to wasted marketing resources. Here’s how to remove duplicates in Excel spreadsheets: Let’s run through it with an example! Note: If you want to see duplicate data before removing them, scroll down to learn how to find and highlight duplicates in Excel. Also, make a copy of your worksheet so you still have your original data if you delete something important. How to Remove Duplicates in Excel 1. Select the cells you wish to remove duplicates from. Click on a cell and hold down the left mouse button. Then drag the […]

For most marketers, trying to organize and analyze spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel can feel like walking into a brick wall repeatedly if you’e unfamiliar with Excel formulas. You’re manually replicating columns and scribbling down long-form math on a scrap of paper, all while thinking to yourself, “There has to be a better way to do this.” Truth be told, there is — you just don’t know it yet. Excel can be tricky that way. On the one hand, it’s an exceptionally powerful tool for reporting and analyzing marketing data. It can even help you visualize data with charts and pivot […]

Microsoft Excel lets you do more than simply create spreadsheets — you can also use the software to calculate key functions, such as the relationship between two variables. Known as the correlation coefficient, this metric is useful for measuring the impact of one operation on another to inform business operations. Not confident in your Excel skills? No problem. Here’s how to calculate — and understand — the correlation coefficient in Excel. A correlation coefficient of +1 indicates a “perfect positive correlation”, which means that as variable X increases, variable Y increases at the same rate. A correlation value of -1, […]

Many of us can recall a time in high school when we were sitting in math class and thinking, “When am I ever going to use this stuff in the real world?” And then we suddenly find ourselves in the real world, only to realize that numbers do play a pivotal role in what we do — especially in digital marketing. The trouble is, many Excel templates and spreadsheets are riddled with numbers and formulas that aren’t all that inviting. Making them from scratch can be especially intimidating. While we won’t argue with that, we will say that the advantages […]

When you’re calculating the average for a set of values, you’re generally working with values that have the same weight and importance.   But what happens if some values weigh more than others? This is where the weighted average formula comes in. In this article, we will break down how to use this formula in Excel, plus provide some examples. How to Calculate Weighted Average in Excel To calculate the weighted average in Excel, you must use the SUMPRODUCT and SUM functions using the following formula: =SUMPRODUCT(X:X,X:X)/SUM(X:X) This formula works by multiplying each value by its weight and combining the […]

Compound Annual Growth Rate, CAGR, is your rate of return for an investment over a specific period. Calculating CAGR by hand is a rather involved process, so below we’ll go over how you can quickly calculate CAGR in Excel. CAGR Excel Formula The formula for calculating CAGR in Excel is: =(End Value/Beginning Value) ^ (1/Number of Years) – 1 The equation uses three different values: End value, which is the amount of money you’ll have after the period has passed. Beginning value, which is the amount of money you began with. Number of years, which is the total number of […]