Cleo Rebuilt Marketing
Reporting to Eliminate
$50K in Annual Attribution Spend

WebDev

Data

About the client

Cleo's marketing team had no reliable way to bring GA4, Salesforce and BigQuery data into one reporting system the team could trust. Reports took two full working days to produce, accuracy sat at roughly 70% and the team could not defend budget decisions with numbers leadership accepted.

Darwin mapped the reporting foundation connecting those three platforms, identified where the process broke down and built the infrastructure needed to produce one automated output. Reporting logic was defined, metric ownership was established and a single source of truth replaced the manual monthly cycle.

The result? Reporting accuracy improved from roughly 70% to 90%, two full working days were recovered each month and $50K in third-party attribution spend was removed from the annual budget.

The Approach

Darwin used the Darwin Flux sequence to move the problem from disconnected systems to trusted reporting: first connecting the systems, then defining reporting logic, then automating the monthly output.

Connections

GA4, Salesforce and BigQuery connected through a custom reporting layer into a single Looker Studio reporting hub

Clarity

Reporting logic, metric definitions and ownership established across the system; dashboards built around Cleo's marketing and sales funnel metrics

Momentum

Monthly reporting automated, replacing two days of manual consolidation each month

About the Client

Mission

Cleo, a leader in ecosystem integration software, provides businesses with tools to manage complex B2B supply chains and data flows. Headquartered in Rockford, Illinois, their platform gives organizations end-to-end operational coverage across trading partner networks and is trusted by enterprises that cannot afford gaps in operational data.

Problem Overview

As Cleo's marketing operation grew, the infrastructure behind it did not keep pace. Data lived in separate systems, reports were assembled manually each month and the numbers that came out depended on who had run the process. The team needed one place where GA4, Salesforce and BigQuery data came together automatically and where the reporting logic was defined, owned and repeatable.

The Challenge

Cleo's marketing data was spread across GA4, Salesforce and BigQuery with no defined process for combining it. Monthly reporting took two full working days and the results depended on who had run the process.

Fragmented Data Sources

GA4, Salesforce and BigQuery each contained separate sets of marketing data. There was no defined process for combining them and every report started from scratch.

Manual Reporting Bottlenecks

Producing a monthly marketing report consumed two full working days. The process was manual and time-consuming, and the team had to explain data gaps in leadership reviews without confidence in the underlying numbers.

Budget Decisions Built on Questionable Data

With reporting accuracy at roughly 70%, the marketing team could not reliably defend channel spend or campaign ROI in front of leadership. Every budget conversation required explaining gaps the data could not resolve.

Costly Third-Party Attribution Tooling

Cleo relied on a third-party attribution platform to bridge the gaps in their reporting. The tool added cost without resolving the underlying data fragmentation.

The Solution

Darwin's focus was the reporting foundation: connect GA4, Salesforce and BigQuery, establish a single source of truth for marketing and sales reporting, and automate the monthly output.

Connected Reporting Infrastructure

Darwin built a custom reporting layer that linked GA4, Salesforce and BigQuery into one reporting hub. The connector established the pipeline through which all marketing and sales data flowed into Looker Studio.

Reporting Logic and Metric Ownership

Before dashboards were built, Darwin defined the reporting logic across the system: which metrics each platform owned, how attribution was calculated and what the agreed definitions were for pipeline, ROI and CAC. This gave the team one version of every number.

Automated Reporting in Looker Studio

The unified connector fed into Looker Studio dashboards built around Cleo's marketing and sales funnel. The team could track channel results, campaign ROI and customer acquisition metrics through a single reporting view. Automated dashboards replaced recurring manual preparation tasks.

Elimination of Third-Party Attribution Tooling

Cleo retired its third-party attribution platform after the new reporting system was in place. Attribution reporting became part of the existing process, removing a tool that had added cost without resolving the data fragmentation beneath it.

Customized Reporting for Marketing and Sales

Darwin built separate dashboard views for Cleo's marketing and sales teams. Each team accessed the metrics most relevant to their work: campaign ROI, customer acquisition, revenue contribution and funnel-specific results.

Key Outcomes

$50K Annual Savings

By retiring its third-party attribution platform, Cleo recovered $50K in annual spend and redirected it toward direct marketing investment.

2 Days Saved Each Month

Automated reporting freed up two full workdays previously spent on manual data consolidation and report preparation each month.

90% Reporting Accuracy

Reporting accuracy improved from roughly 70% to 90% after marketing and sales data were connected through the new reporting system.

Centralized Marketing Reporting

Looker Studio dashboards gave Cleo's marketing team access to campaign results, customer acquisition and ROI metrics through a single reporting view.

Before-and-After
Comparison

Metric

Data Integration
Reporting Logic
Third-Party Tools
Reporting Time
Reporting Accuracy

Before

Disconnected systems
No defined ownership
$50K annual spend
2 days per month
~70%

After

Unified reporting hub
Documented and agreed
$0
Automated, scheduled
~90%

Client Feedback

The Darwin team offers a wide range of expertise that we have access to - so whether we've had to get insights into our analytics or build a new custom solution for our specific business, the appropriate person was always assigned to help make the project a success.

Jenn Bigdeliazari,

Senior Marketing Director, Cleo Communications

For Cleo, the reporting problem was not a tool problem. The data existed across three platforms, but there was no defined logic connecting them, no agreed ownership of the numbers and no automated process for turning raw data into a report the team could rely on.

Darwin Flux made the work manageable because every part of the system had a defined place. Connections brought the platforms together. Clarity established what each number meant and who owned it. Momentum automated the monthly output so the team had one reporting process it could run and rely on each month.

With that foundation in place, Cleo's marketing team can defend budget decisions with numbers leadership trusts, and the reporting system continues to support that as the operation grows.