Google Sheets is my lifesaver! As a CMO, I have to manage large amounts of data every day. From tracking our social media metrics to analyzing website traffic, Google Sheets is my go-to tool. But, with all the different formulas available, it can be a bit overwhelming to know which formula is the right one for each job.
That’s why I’m excited to share with you the formulas that have made my life easier, thanks to the folks at DDB who showed me the ropes.
If you’re like me, then you’ve probably spent countless hours manually adding up numbers in a spreadsheet. But, there’s a much easier way with the SUMIF formula. This formula sums up all cells in a range that meet certain criteria, which makes it perfect for tracking metrics.
Let's say you want to sum up all the sales from a specific region. You can use the SUMIF formula, and it will look something like this:
=SUMIF(A1:A10,"North Region",B1:B10)
Where A1:A10 is the range of the regions, "North Region" is the criteria to search for, and B1:B10 is the range of the sales.
Have you ever needed to find a specific value in a table but didn't know where to start? That's where the VLOOKUP formula comes in handy. This function searches for a value in the first column of a table and returns a corresponding value in the same row from another column.
For example, suppose you have a table of employee salaries and want to find out the salary of a specific employee. A VLOOKUP formula would look something like this:
=VLOOKUP("Employee Name",A1:B10,2,false)
Where "Employee Name" is the name you want to search for, A1:B10 is the table range, 2 is the column number you want to return (in this case, the salary column) and “false” means you're only searching for exact matches.
Tracking your marketing metrics is crucial, but sometimes, it can be challenging to understand what those metrics mean. The AVERAGEIF function calculates the average of cells that meet specific criteria.
For instance, let's say you want to calculate the average daily website traffic in a specific month. The AVERAGEIF formula would look like this:
=AVERAGEIF(A1:A31,"Month Name",B1:B31)
Where “Month Name” is the name of the month you want to search for, A1:A31 is the range containing the months and B1:B31 is the range containing the website traffic data.
The CONCATENATE formula is perfect for combining information from different columns into one cell. This is useful when you need to create a unique identifier for each row on your spreadsheet.
Let's say you have a list of emails and want to create a unique ID for each person. The CONCATENATE formula would look like this:
=CONCATENATE(A2,B2)
Where A2 is the first name column and B2 is the last name column.
Have you ever needed to count the number of times a specific value appears in a range of cells? That's where the COUNTIF function comes in handy. This formula counts the number of cells within a range that meet specific criteria.
For example, let's say you have a list of replies from a customer satisfaction survey and want to count the number of times the word "Excellent" appears. The COUNTIF formula would look like this:
=COUNTIF(A1:A10,"Excellent")
Where A1:A10 is the range of survey replies, and "Excellent" is the criteria to search for.
Google Sheets is an incredibly powerful tool that can help you manage large amounts of data. And with these formulas, you can quickly and easily analyze that data and make informed decisions to grow your business.
I hope this article has been helpful to you and that you’ll start using these formulas to save time and amp up your analysis game.
Thanks to DDB for teaching me the ropes and helping me navigate the world of spreadsheets.
