How to automate your marketing metrics into a weekly scorecard

A marketing scorecard only works if the numbers are there on Monday morning. When updating it means logging into five tools and copying figures into a table, it slips — first by a day, then by a week, then the meeting is spent asking “does anyone have last week’s MQLs?”

Automating the scorecard removes that. This guide covers the ways to get marketing numbers into Clarion without anyone typing them, and how to choose between them.

Be clear about what’s connected

Clarion doesn’t have built-in connectors for ad platforms, web analytics, email tools or CRMs. Numbers get in through three generic routes, which work with almost anything:

1. Push URLs — your automation tool sends a number to Clarion.
2. Pull from a URL — Clarion fetches a number from a JSON API on a schedule.
3. The REST API — for developers writing their own scripts.

If a tool can feed an automation platform like Zapier, Make or n8n, or can put a number in a Google Sheet, you can get its numbers onto your scorecard.

Route 1: push URLs (most marketing teams start here)

Every metric in Clarion can have its own private push URL. Anything that can send an HTTP POST to it — a Zapier or Make step, an n8n node, a Google Sheets script — records a value for that metric.

To get one, open Metrics, expand the metric, click Edit Metric, and under Push URL click Create push URL. Copy it straight away: it’s shown once. Step-by-step clicks are in metric push URLs.

The request is simple: POST {"value": 1234} as JSON or a form field. You can also send date to record a past period and notes to store a comment with the value.

One important rule: a push sets the period’s value; it doesn’t add to it. Each push replaces whatever was recorded for the current day, week or month (depending on the metric’s frequency). That makes scheduled pushes safe to re-run — but it means you shouldn’t push “1” every time a lead arrives. Instead, have your automation calculate the total for the period and push that.

Good patterns:

• Scheduled total. A Zap, scenario or workflow that runs every day — weekends included — asks the source tool for “leads created this week so far”, and pushes that number. By Monday’s meeting, last week’s figure is final.
• Spreadsheet as a hub. Many marketing teams already have a reporting sheet that other tools feed. Push from the sheet rather than from each tool.

Pushing from Google Sheets

If your numbers land in a spreadsheet, a few lines of Apps Script (Extensions → Apps Script) send them on a schedule:

function pushWeeklyLeads() {
  const value = SpreadsheetApp.getActive()
    .getSheetByName("Scorecard")
    .getRange("B2")
    .getValue();
  UrlFetchApp.fetch("https://api.onclarion.com/v1/metrics/push/mpu_YOUR_TOKEN", {
    method: "post",
    contentType: "application/json",
    payload: JSON.stringify({ value: value }),
  });
}

Add a time-driven trigger to run it daily. Repeat with one function per metric, each with its own push URL. More detail in the Google Sheets integration guide.

Treat push URLs like passwords. Anyone with the URL can record values for that metric. If one leaks — say it was pasted into a shared doc — click Generate new URL and the old one stops working immediately.

Route 2: pull from a URL

The reverse: Clarion goes and gets the number. This works when a tool (or something your team runs) exposes the figure at an HTTPS address that returns JSON — for example an analytics or reporting API.

An owner or admin sets it up on the metric under Fetch from URL: the URL, the path to the number in the JSON (such as data.totals.leads), an optional auth header (stored encrypted), and how often — hourly, every six hours or daily. Test shows the number Clarion found before you save. See pull metrics from a URL and the JSON API page.

Limits worth knowing: it reads JSON only — not web pages, CSV files or dashboards. It doesn’t follow redirects. And if a source fails ten times in a row it pauses and shows why on the metric; saving it again resumes it.

Route 3: the API

If you have a developer or marketing-ops engineer, Clarion’s REST API can write many metrics’ values in one call with an API key. It’s the right choice when one script already gathers all your numbers. See ingest metric values via the API and push metrics from your systems.

Which route for which metric

Ratios like cost per lead and conversion rate are easiest to calculate in a spreadsheet first, then push the result.

Keep a human in the loop

Automation doesn’t remove ownership. Each metric still has an owner who glances at it before the sync and can explain it. If an automated number looks wrong, the owner can correct it on the metrics page; a manual value and an automated one for the same period simply replace each other.

When values arrive by push or pull, Clarion also fires a metric.ingested webhook, if your developers want to react to new numbers elsewhere.

Common mistakes

• Pushing per event. Pushing “1” per lead leaves the week’s value at 1. Push totals.
• Automating a number nobody defined. Write the metric’s definition before you build the Zap.
• One giant workflow. One small, scheduled automation per source is easier to fix when something changes.
• Forgetting the URL is a credential. Don’t paste push URLs into shared channels.

Next: if you haven’t picked your numbers yet, start with build a marketing scorecard.