In the evolving landscape of marketing analytics tools, the decision between Clarisights and Funnel.io represents a fundamental choice in approach. While these solutions may appear comparable at first glance, they serve different purposes and approaches for marketing analytics.
Funnel.io functions primarily as a data extraction tool (ETL), designed to collect marketing data from various sources and pipe it into your data warehouse. Clarisights, in contrast, offers an end-to-end marketing steering platform that goes beyond data consolidation to provide actionable insights and marketing steering.
IMAGE PLACEHOLDER - different approach
Despite these core differences, marketing and data teams frequently compare both solutions. This comparison often stems from overlapping functionality in data integration, though the ultimate purpose and capabilities differ significantly.
In this article, we'll explore precisely where Clarisights and Funnel.io diverge and why Clarisights continues to be the preferred choice for leading scale-ups and enterprises with significant marketing budgets.
Different approaches to marketing analytics
Companies using Funnel.io embrace the traditional approach to marketing analytics based on 3 steps
1) Use ETL tools like Funnel to dump all marketing data into the data warehouse
2) Transform and model the data using dbt
3) Build dashboards in BI tools like Tableau or Looker
4) Maintain and update the pipelines, data models, metrics, dimensions and dashboards as needs change
This approach works well for static high-level reporting. However, for teams operating at a large scale leads to millions of dollars wasted. Read more on why this approach is fundamentally flawed here.
On the other hand, Clarisights embraces a product-centric approach, covering everything end-to-end (from data ingestion to modeling, visualization and exploration) focused on the specific needs and use cases of marketers. This ultimately leads to faster time to insight, better data exploration and deeper insights.
IMAGE PLACEHOLDER - different approach
Functionality - Key factors to consider
Before investing in any new marketing analytics technology, make sure it's secure and performs well. But don't stop there – here are five essential questions to ask:
1 - How do these solutions compare in the overlapping functionality of data integration (ETL)? Which vendor supports my needs and will scale well?
2 - Which approach enables better self-service?
3 - How valuable are the additional use cases and functionality supported by Clarisights?
4 - Does the platform have a track record of exceeding the expectations of current companies using the software?
Let’s look at Clarisights and Funnel.io using the framework of these questions as the basis of comparison.
Data integration (ETL) capabilities
How do these solutions compare in the overlapping functionality of data integration (ETL)?
When it comes to data integration and ETL capabilities, the devil is in the details. Let's evaluate specific factors:
Number of Integrations - You should check if each vendor covers your requirements. Bear in mind that new integrations can be built in 1-2 weeks, thus being not so important. The total number of integrations is irrelevant.
Integrations quality and depth - Clarisights offers the highest quality integrations (channels and attribution sources), covering every dimension, metric and breakdown possible. As a result, Clarisights enables additional insights for marketing steering e.g., creative optimization, paid search-organic cannibalization, auction insights.
Data reliability and scalability - Clarisights has the most reliable and fastest data integrations. Its proprietary data warehouse designed for scale ensures minor loading times for dashboards.
Data sharing/exports - Both solutions offer exports to the main cloud destinations, such as Snowflake and BigQuery.
Example - public thread on Mobile Dev Memo Slack channel
Missing Reddit posts on this as well
Effective self-service for marketers
Which approach enables better self-service?
Since the inception of Clarisights, we’ve been maniacally focused on creating an analytics platform for marketers. This means enabling effective self-service - i.e., marketers can freely explore data to go from questions to insights in minutes.
We’ve continued to innovate on this front, building no-code features like custom dimensions to enable marketers to group data, pivot tables for easier exploration, new visualization possibilities, etc. All no-code possibilities for marketers to explore data, add/edit metrics and dimensions and build their reports.
With Funnel's approach, marketers are pushed to generic BI tools (Tableau, Power BI, Looker, etc) with static, inflexible dashboards that also lack granular data. Most changes around metrics, dimensions, reports and dashboards are dependent on data/BI support, leading to slow time to insight and missed optimization opportunities. Data teams get drowned in requests and struggle to keep up, taking away from critical data products, such as MMM, Incrementality and Attribution.
Example of G2 review (link)
Additional use cases for effective marketing steering
How valuable are the additional use cases and functionality supported by Clarisights?
High-level reporting is possible with any setup: Funnel + BI tool or Clarisights. Turning dashboards into better decisions requires data exploration, fast time to insight and granular exploration, which the product-centric approach is catered for.
Moreover, marketing steering requires granular insights for daily and weekly steering. These are recurring use cases only supported by Clarisights:
Keyword cannibalization (SEA - SEO)
Automatic budget pacing
Channel deep dives - e.g., auction insights, keyword analysis
The devil is in the details
Does the platform have a track record of exceeding the expectations of current companies using the software?
On the surface, everything is possible with both approaches. In practice, when teams start using the tools, they often notice significant differences:
Time to value - setting up Funnel takes months of data engineering work to join and blend all data sources. With Clarisights, the largest teams are up and running in 1-2 weeks.
Data modeling - Funnel’s data mapping process is manual and time consuming. Blending channel, attribution and backend data requires significant data engineering resources both for building and maintaining. Clarisights offers data joining and harmonization out of the box, down to the most granular level.
Data granularity - with Funnel's based traditional approach to marketing analytics, achieving asset level reporting is nearly impossible. Data modeling takes a long time and dashboards become very slow for large-scale operations.
Marketing and data teams continue to choose Clarisights over Funnel.io due to the maturity of our product and its unique design for scale. G2 reviews showcase this.
Image - G2 comparison
Customer success and partnership
When data is central to marketing, you're bound to have questions about your marketing data stack and dashboards. The Clarisights team is here to get you answers — fast.
Our Customer Success Managers are experts in performance marketing and analytics. They provide real-time support through Slack/Teams and proactively suggest tips on how to get the most value. Report templates and best practices are provided for each use case.
Example of G2 review (link)
Migration process and pilot
Migrating from one platform to another sounds scary, risky and time-consuming. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We always prioritize time to value and seamless onboarding:
Go live in one week
Minimal data/BI support required
Zero disruption and data loss
Try before you buy
Understand the full migration process to Clarisights. Spoiler: unlike Funnel, our team takes care of the heavy-lifting.
Read more on similar topics
See Clarisights in action
Curious to see how leading enterprise marketing teams go from questions to insights in minutes?
Book some time with us.