A deck of actionable Excel tips and tricks for Marketers - Presented by Russell McAthy @therustybear at #measurefest in October 2013

1. Why do you
hate Excel?
Russell McAthy
MeasureFest Oct 2013

2. Is it?
• Most people are self taught / taught by someone
self taught
• Its made by Microsoft and its “cool to hate them”
• It’s a “work” application
• You don’t know what you don’t know
• What version do you use?
• There are 8+ ways to sum two cells together!

3. YES – 8+
• A1 + B1
• SUM(A1,B1)
• SUM(A1:B1)
• SUBTOTAL(A1:B1)
• SUMIF…
• SUMIFS…
• SUM(OFFSET…
• SUMPRODUCT
And these are the ones that I could remember..

4. Errors are no fun
DIV/0
N/A
#REF
!

5. The Issue:
Spreadsheets are only useful in context…
How do I give you takeaways that will be actionable when you
go back to your office..
So here is 32+ Tips for Excel for
Marketers!
I’ve snuck in some extra tips at the end of the deck so check it
out on slideshare – links will be tweeted out after the event!

6. My Goal: Save everyone 5
mins a week…
~800 of you
That’s 67 hours a week
That’s 3.5k hours a year
At £500 an hour…
That’s £1.7 MILLION
You’re welcome!

7. In no particular order…

8. Stop Merging Cells
Use Center Across Selection

9. Calculating Growth
Simple formula to remember growth % calculation
NEW / OLD - 1
Then format the cell as a % (percentage)
Eg.
546 Sales This year vs 410 sales last year
546 / 410 – 1 =

10. Calculating Growth
Simple formula to remember growth % calculation
NEW / OLD - 1
Then format the cell as a % (percentage)
Eg.
546 Sales This year vs 410 sales last year
546 / 410 – 1 =

11. Remove Gridlines
Don’t Select all cells and change to white!

12. Text to Columns
Great for breaking out URL’s into folders

13. Text to Columns
Great for breaking out URL’s into folders

14. Text to Columns
Great for breaking out URL’s into folders

15. Shortcut Keys
Shortcut
Action
CTRL + X
Cut
CTRL + C
Copy
CTRL + V
Paste
CTRL+arrow direction
Moves curser to end of data
Holding SHIFT
Highlights
Holding SHIFT + CTRL +
arrow direction
Highlights to end of data
CTRL + A
Highlights full section
F2
Edits current cell

16. Shortcut Keys (more)
Shortcut
Action
(hold) ALT then press E then
S…
Paste Special
(as above) then V then Enter
Paste Special - Values
(as above) then T then Enter
Paste Special - Formats
(as above) then F then Enter
Paste Special - Formulas
CTRL + 1
Format Cell
CTRL + ; (semi colon)
Inserts todays date
ALT + =
Inserts SUM for column

17. Use Tables
If you’re using basic data – use tables

18. Pivot Tables are MAGIC
If you don’t use them already – learn! Its easy and makes data
manipulative

19. Pivot Tables are MAGIC
If you don’t use them already – learn! Its easy and makes data
manipulative

20. Pivot: Calculated Fields
Don’t do averages of averages! – Perfect for CVR

21. Pivot: Calculated Fields
Don’t do averages of averages! – Perfect for CVR

22. Formula Transposing
When you want to change the direction of a formula!

23. Formula Transposing
When you want to change the direction of a formula!

24. Lets look at some
formulas that might be
useful

25. Vlookup
“I have a table of data that I want to look up a value in”
= VLOOKUP ( A10 , D1:E10 , 2
, FALSE )
“The thing I want to look up”
“the list of things I’m looking it up
against”
“in the lookup table – what column do
we want to bring back”
“I don’t want excel to give me the
closest answer – but the accurate
answer”

26. Vlookup
“I have a table of data that I want to look up a value in”
= VLOOKUP ( A10 , D1:E10 , 2 ,
FALSE )
“The thing I want to look up”
“the list of things I’m looking it up
against”
“in the lookup table – what column do
we want to bring back”
“I don’t want excel to give me the
closest answer – but the accurate
answer”

27. Vlookup
“I have a table of data that I want to look up a value in”
= VLOOKUP ( A10 , D1:E10 , 2 ,
FALSE )
“The thing I want to look up”
“the list of things I’m looking it up
against”
“in the lookup table – what column do
we want to bring back”
“I don’t want excel to give me the
closest answer – but the accurate
answer”

28. …you can also do
=HLOOKUP if the data is
formatted Horizontally
rather than Vertically

29. IF
“If something is true, then do this…otherwise do that”
= IF ( C3=“PPC” , “Paid Media” , “Other” )
“Is this true?”
“If its true – do this”
“If its false – do this”

30. IF
“If something is true, then do this…otherwise do that”
= IF ( C3=“PPC” , “Paid Media” , “Other” )
“Is this true?”
“If its true – do this”
“If its false – do this”

31. SUMIF
“Can I add up all values that match certain criteria”
= SUMIF ( A1:A40 , D4 , B1:B40 )
“The list of thinks I’m looking up against”
“the thing I’m looking up”
“the list of things to add when it
matches”

32. SUMIF
“Can I add up all values that match certain criteria”
= SUMIF ( A1:A40 , D4 , B1:B40 )
“The list of thinks I’m looking up against”
“the thing I’m looking up”
“the list of things to add when it
matches”

33. SUMIF
“Can I add up all values that match certain criteria”
= SUMIF ( A1:A40 , D4 , B1:B40 )
“The list of thinks I’m looking up against”
“the thing I’m looking up”
“the list of things to add when it
matches”

34. …you can also do a
COUNTIF – which
counts the number of
values that match a
criteria

35. SUMIFS
“Can I add up all values that match certain MULTIPLE criteria”
= SUMIFS ( A1:A40 , B1:B40 , D1, C1:C40
, E1 )
“The things I want to add up”
“the ranges of data to look up
against”
“the things I’m looking up”

36. Yes… that’s right it’s the
other fubbing way round
from SUMIF…

37. Ok…there might be a
few occasions that excel
is annoying…

38. SUMIFS
“Can I add up all values that match certain MULTIPLE criteria”
= SUMIFS ( A1:A40 , B1:B40 , D1, C1:C40
, E1 )
“The list of thinks I’m looking up against”
“the ranges of data to look up
against”
“the things I’m looking up”

39. SUMIFS
“Can I add up all values that match certain MULTIPLE criteria”
= SUMIFS ( A1:A40 , B1:B40 , D1, C1:C40
, E1 )
“The list of thinks I’m looking up against”
“the ranges of data to look up
against”
“the things I’m looking up”

40. MATCH
“How far down my data can I find this..”
= MATCH ( “A1005” , B3:38 , 0)
“The thing I’m looking for”
“the range of data to look up in”
“I want it to be an exact match”

41. MATCH
“How far down my data can I find this..”
= MATCH ( “A1005” , B3:38 , 0)
1
2
3
4
5
“The thing I’m looking for”
“the range of data to look up in”
“I want it to be an exact match”

42. OFFSET
“I want the value that is 30 rows down, 40 columns across”
= OFFSET ( A1 , 30 , 40 )
“Where do I want to start”
“how many rows”
“how many columns”

43. So…. how do we use
this?

44. …you combine a
MATCH and an OFFSET

45. MATCH + OFFSET
“I want to see the number of sales when sales code is A1005”
= OFFSET ( Reference , MATCH() , MATCH() )

46. MATCH + OFFSET
“I want to see the number of sales when sales code is A1005”
= OFFSET ( Reference , MATCH() , MATCH() )

47. …its flexible too…

48. Thanks for
listening
If you have any questions please contact
me below
@therustybear
@stream20
www.russellmcathy.com
www.stream20.com

49. …the stuff I probably
didn’t have time to go
through

50. Conditional Formatting
Visually represent trends / Highlight variances

51. Conditional Formatting
Visually represent trends / Highlight variances

52. Calculation Options
When working in a complex excel document – control when it
calculates!

53. Calculation Options
When working in a complex excel document – control when it
calculates!

54. Addons to Excel
Sometimes Excel is not enough!
• Powerpivot (if you’re using not using excel 2013)
• SEO Tools
• Excellent Analytics
• Adobe Report Builder
• Geoflow – looks exciting
• ExTweets – pulls tweets in
• SEOGadget for Excel

55. AND or/and OR
“I want both things to match” , “I want one of these things to match”
= AND ( C3=“PPC” , c4=“PPC” )
= OR ( C3=“Social” , c4=“PPC” )

56. Using AND or OR in a IF
allows you to match
multiple criteria…

57. String Functions
Function
What it looks like
What it does
LEFT
=LEFT(A1,3)
Returns the first 3
characters
RIGHT
=RIGHT(A1,3)
Returns the last 3
characters
=MID(A1,3,3)
Returns 3 characters
starting at 3 characters
in
TRIM
=TRIM(A1)
Removes blank
characters (spaces) from
cell values
LEN
=LEN(A1)
How long is the string
CONCAT or &
=CONCAT(“fish”,”cake”) or
“fish”&”cake”
Joins two things
together
MID

58. Handy Date Functions
If A1 is todays date….
What you want
Formula
Show the day of the week in 3
characters eg. Mon/Tue
=TEXT(A1,”ddd”)
First date of the week
=A1-WEEKDAY(A1)+1
First date of the year
=DATE(1,MONTH(A1),YEAR(A1))
Taking into consideration
working days
=WORKDAY(A1,7,0)
Translates date value into week
day number
=WEEKDAY(A1,2)
*be careful with weekdays – the number after the comma refers to the day the week
starts with (2 is Monday to Sunday)

59. Other Functions
Function
What it looks like
What it does
IFERROR
=IFERROR(A1/B1,0)
Instead of error message
returns a 0
UPPER
=UPPER(A1)
Changes the text value in
A1 to uppercase
LOWER
=LOWER(A1)
Changes the text value in
A1 to lowercase
PROPER
=PROPER(A1)
Changes the text value in
A1 to capitalisation at
the start of each word.
MAX
=MAX(A1:A10)
Provides the maximum
value in the range
=AVERAGE(A1:A10)
Calculates the mean
average of the range of
cells
AVERAGE

60. Excel does a
lot more…
If you have any questions please contact
me below
@therustybear
@stream20
www.russellmcathy.com
www.stream20.com