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Comparison Charts are made to compare different sets of data visually. In this article you’ll learn how to make a comparison chart in Excel to visualize the comparison.
Have you ever noticed that your mind never actually reads words?
When you read a newspaper, magazine, or you see a billboard, your mind creates a scenario to explain what you read.
What you are thinking about right now is not in words. You think in pictures and graphic images.
This human attribute is the reason why people can get bored or confused. And you have heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.
When the picture is clear to you, you can analyze the information it presents. Rather than asking what the picture is all about.
The same goes for data. So you have conducted research, a survey, an opinion vote, or run a PPC Ad. You now have a bunch of numbers and metrics all over the place and you need to make sense out of it.
You need to show and explain it to your client, boss, or just your team to analyze and take the necessary action. This will help you know what to do to save cost, improve results, and stay ahead of the competition.
How then can you convert these pieces of data into graphic images that tell the data’s story? That is where the data visualization process comes in.
In this blog you will learn:
Before we learn How to Create Comparison Chart in Excel we need to understand the definition and basics of comparison chart.
Definition: A Comparison Chart weighs up similarities, differences, and relationships between two or more items based on different parameters.
For example, a simple relationship between ‘keyword A’ and ‘keyword B’ is based on their costs per click. Other parameters in that scenario will include the number of clicks per keyword, conversions, etc. This offers a side-by-side comparison of the items. Which are keywords in this case.
The comparison is quick and will give you an immediate idea of the more efficient item and what separates it from the others. However, all the other representation forms have their roots in comparison. The data sets are analyzed together based on a particular metric.
To create comparison chart in excel with or without template you need an excel add-in which is ChartExpo. Let’s learn why you need this add-in.
These take the form of software or features embedded in the software. They produce the visuals from information already entered in the spreadsheet.
The Excel spreadsheet has embedded tools that let you create your visualizations for data. However, they often have limited capabilities for data visualization and therefore make it difficult to analyze and understand your marketing data.
For simple data sets in spreadsheets, you can rely on general and traditional charts (bar, line, and pie). However, with more complex data sets and spreadsheets, a more advanced and efficient tool is needed to delight your customers with visuals.
For example, ChartExpo for Excel add-in helps to tell your data’s story with over 50 visualization options. It also provides comparison chart templates.
It has 6 distinct categories that make the process of finding the right chart easier and faster without the need for coding abilities.
In ChartExpo, the process of creating your visual gets easier as you can create complex visualizations in clicks without any coding.
You can find exact visualization options that tell your story flawlessly and give you the desired results.
How to get started? It’s easy and only requires 7 simple steps, which you can see here.
In ChartExpo, there are various comparison charts that you can use to depict your data story in the best way.
Comparison Charts on ChartExpo include:
The next step is to know how to efficiently use and draw these comparison charts.
Let us now look at the chart types individually and see how to use them as illustrations for data sets.
It is quite similar to a regular bar chart. It is the type of visualization that uses bars to compare categories of data.
The difference between this chart and a regular bar chart is that the bars in this chart are directly stacked on top of one another.
You can use this to make comparison easier and clearer. The bars in this chart represent a whole. This Matrix chart can then break down the whole into segments and smaller parts.
Thus, you can use it to compare the whole in each category and also compare the segments of the whole.
This is an example of how Stewart; a marketer used the Matrix Chart.
Stewart runs a digital marketing agency.
And he wanted to show his client the progress report of an ongoing Ad campaign for a Mobile Phone Shop.
Instead of boring his client to death with the spreadsheet numbers, he decided to visualize the data.
So, instead of waiting for the client to decipher what the numbers were saying, he understood at first sight.
This is how he did it:
He pulled out all the data from his client’s Google Ads account and arranged them on his Excel Spreadsheet.
He created 4 columns and labeled the headings with KEYWORDS, METRIC, PERIOD, and VOLUME respectively.
Then he opened ChartExpo on his Excel Template as we did above.
He then clicked on the Matrix Chart.
Then, he went on to click Columns and then selected whole columns (keywords, metric, period, and volume).
Then he clicked on “CREATE CHART FROM SHEET DATA”.
This was his result.
Insights: The Story this chart tells.
You will see that the chart has the x-axis (horizontal) and the y-axis (vertical). The horizontal axis has the 4 metrics used. (Cost, Impressions, Clicks, and Conversions).
The vertical axis shows the keyword categories. And the blue-colored bars show how the various keywords performed with the metrics.
All the data was from a current campaign and that is why all the bars are blue. If there was a previous campaign, another color would have been used to depict the previous performance. So, from the chart, you would observe that the keywords ‘Phone’ and ‘Mobile Price’ got the highest conversions.
The clicks for ‘Phone’ was at the cost of $2,160. And it got 112 clicks. However, ‘Mobile Price’ got just 28 clicks and cost $585.4. That means Mobile Price performed better in terms of ideal clients, cost incurred and the profit made.
Then for the lowest conversions, you would observe keywords like ‘Free Phones’ and ‘Mobile Shop’. ‘Free Phones’ got 38 clicks, cost $377.6, and made no money back. Then ‘Mobile Shop’ got 58 clicks, cost $1560, and made no money back.
The story explains that the latter should either be used as negative keywords or paused. The client can then spend more money on the keywords that have proven to convert.
You may also call it the Sentiment Comparison Chart. It compares products or services to show differences. The differences can include categories like quality, cost, customer satisfaction, etc.
The data comparison is represented in the form of columns. Whole columns show all the features of the product or service at a particular time. The whole columns are then divided into subcategories to show their percentages in the whole.
The subcategories can be linked to show their progress over time. These subcategories are marked with various colors for visual upgrade and easy understanding.
Let’s see someone else who used this chart.
Kierra got a call from her friend who is a manager at a private hospital. The hospital just surveyed the different sections of their organization. They gave the survey forms to both patients and visitors who come into the hospital.
The aim was to find out the quality of their teams, services, and the changes they may have to make within the system. Kierra was told to help analyze the data and give the report back to the hospital. So she collected the data forms, sorted, and arranged the data in her Excel template.
She created 4 columns with the headings: YEAR, METRICS, SENTIMENT, and MEASURE.
The survey was conducted per year for three years. The metrics included the different sections to be rated. The Sentiments included Negative and Positive ratings. Then the measure contained the ratings in figures.
Then she opened her ChartExpo and clicked on Comparison Sentiment Chart.
She clicked on Columns and selected whole columns.
Then she clicked CREATE CHART FROM SHEET DATA.
Here’s the chart she got:
Insights: The Story this chart tells.
You probably already know it. The numbers have been oversimplified.
We have the three best sections ranking at the top of the chart for 3 years straight.
Customer experience and Staff were at their highest points in the second year.
The Services topped the charts in the first and third years but dropped in the second year.
Other sections of the hospital also have their ratings shown on the chart.
Some reflect negative ratings in their sub-columns.
Now the hospital can take the necessary action.
Comparison Bar Chart is quite similar to the Comparison Sentiment Chart. Instead of showing ratings or sentiments, it compares products, services, or campaigns to show real-time differences. Links are also drawn to show the relationships between the product performance over time.
An example of how Amari; an online marketer used this chart.
Amari sells black jeans online.
To promote her product, she ran ads on different social media platforms and targeted different locations (USA, UK, and India).
After running the ad, she gathered the data to see how well the ad helped her business.
After doing a bit of research, she knew how to understand her data well.
She arranged the data in 3 categories reflecting the targeted locations.
Then she divided each category into subcategories.
The subcategories indicated the different social media platforms she had used.
On her Excel Spreadsheet, She labeled the 3 column headings with LOCATION, SM PLATFORM, and USAGE.
She then opened ChartExpo and clicked Comparison Bar Chart.
Afterward, she clicked Columns and selected whole columns.
Then, she clicked CREATE CHART FROM SHEET DATA.
This was her result:
Facebook got the highest reach and impressions in all three countries and had the best performance across the board.
LinkedIn came in second in the U.S. and the U.K. But performed very poorly in India.
Twitter ranked the lowest and did not yield as much as the others.
Numbers that can ordinarily confuse you, bore you, and frustrate you have now become easy to interpret in 4 simple sentences.
Amazing.
This chart includes the Sentiment Matrix Chart and Non-Sentiment Matrix Chart.
They display information of dimensions in columns and details in rows.
The insights are conveyed in the cross-sectional bars.
The SM chart shows positive and negative sentiments.
While the Non-SM chart depicts details that are not sentiments.
Let’s see an example.
Sean had an amazing experience using ChartExpo to wow his team and his boss.
Now that he needs to analyze another data set for the team, he does not think twice.
This time, he needs to show the status of a previous and ongoing campaign.
So, he pulls out the data from the ad account and gets to work.
After labeling his spreadsheet headings with KEYWORD, DIMENSIONS, PERIOD, and MEASURE respectively, he opens up his favorite visualization tool.
He then clicks SM comparison chart.
Afterward, he selects whole columns and clicks on the magic button.
‘CREATE CHART FROM SHEET DATA’.
And voila! He gets his result.
The green bars represent the current status and the red represents the previous status.
For example, a keyword like Smart Mobile previously generated lower results.
However, in the current campaign, it has generated 1,040 impressions, 983 clicks, and 305 conversions.
Therefore, choose colors and properties that correctly send your message.
This shows that the keyword ‘Smart Mobile’ is performing better.
The ‘New Phones’ keyword, however, has yielded no conversion in both campaigns.
An inference is that it should be made a negative keyword or paused.
Sean’s client can then spend money on more profitable keywords.
To get started with the ChartExpo add-in, follow these simple steps:
We already discussed converting your numbers into pictures that are easy to understand.
That process of converting these numbers and representing your data graphically is called data visualization.
And due to our very visual nature and culture, when we see a chart, we can easily spot patterns and trends.
With graphic data, we can immediately decipher the message that the chart passes.
The visualizations help to draw inferences, conclusions and propose subsequent actions.
However, not all visualizations get the required results due to tiny misinterpretations that digital marketers and data analysts can make.
Good visuals have to highlight useful information and remove any noise from the data.
The visuals and the data have to come together to create and convey the right message.
It cannot be too plain and boring to catch attention.
Neither can it be so loud that it misses the point.
They are used mostly on the Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets templates after the data values have been imputed.
Now that you are all set to start creating your amazing data visuals, let us delve into choosing the perfect chart.
As someone who wants to create the perfect chart for the data you have, you need to know what type of representation would work for you.
There different presentation types that you can use for your data.
There are certain graph categories you should which sometimes doesn’t give you good idea about data or either make your visualization less expressive.
Types of graphs or charts:
1. Bar Chart/Graph.
2. Pie Chart.
3. Line Graph or Chart.
4. Area Chart.
5. Dot Graph or Plot.
6. Scatter Plot.
If you see the ChartExpo Library you will find wonderful visualizations according to your requirements. You can have comparison charts, trend charts, sentiment charts, specialized charts for showing marketing data or survey results. It is up to you which chart best suites your audience understanding you should go for that.
Line charts (also known as trend lines) are best for illustrating trends and volatility in the data. To draw a line chart, plot the data points and connect them with a line. In ChartExpo library you can find line chart, multi axis line chart, multi series line chart, dot chart, sentiment trend chart and much more visualizations which best suit to show trends.
Use a line chart if you have to show the relationship between dataset values. If you want to have precise comparison of values use bar charts. If you want to compare multiple metrics individually use matrix chart.
Bar charts are best if you want to compare two sets of data. But if you want to show trend use line charts. If you have want to show relationship and distribution use Scatter plot.
For comparing independent values use bar chart. For comparing the compositions if multiple values use a stack bar chart. For comparing independent values with clear outliers use a scatter plot.
When you have no more than three categories of data use a pie chart but if you have more than three categories of data Bar charts are ideal for such visualization.
Trying to understand data in its raw form or the spreadsheet format will frustrate you.
The solution is to always visualize your data.
Data visuals help to perfectly explain the information contained in the collected data.
Also, the process of your data visualization is only as easy as the tool you use.
While the Excel interface has some chart drawing abilities, this will only work mostly for simple data sets.
Therefore, other data visualization tools should be used to speed up data analysis and representation.
The best tool for your data visualization is ChartExpo for Excel Template.
You can easily add it to your Excel interface, choose the right chart, and efficiently draw charts with the information in this article.
All our ChartExpo users now know what to do.
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