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Aggregate Marketing Spend Data with Custom Pivots & VLOOKUPs in Google Sheets

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Created by: Robert Breen || rbreen

Robert Breen

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Last update a month ago

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This workflow transforms raw marketing data from Google Sheets into a pivot-like summary table. It merges lookup data, groups spend by name, and appends the results into a clean reporting tab — all automatically, without needing to manually build pivot tables in Sheets.


🧑‍💻 Who’s it for

  • Marketing analysts who track channel spend across campaigns
  • Small businesses that rely on Google Sheets for reporting
  • Teams that need automated daily rollups without rebuilding pivot tables manually

⚙️ How it works

  1. Get Marketing Data (Google Sheets) – Pulls raw spend data.
  2. Vlookup Data (Google Sheets) – Brings in reference/lookup fields (e.g., channel labels).
  3. Merge Tables – Joins marketing data and lookup data on the Channel column.
  4. Summarize – Groups data by Name and sums up Spend ($).
  5. Clear Sheet – Wipes the reporting tab to avoid duplicates.
  6. Append to Pivot Sheet – Writes the aggregated results into the "render pivot" sheet.

The result: a pivot-style summary table inside Google Sheets, automatically refreshed by n8n.


🔑 Setup Instructions

1) Connect Google Sheets (OAuth2)

  1. In n8n → Credentials → New → Google Sheets (OAuth2)
  2. Sign in with your Google account and grant access
  3. In each Google Sheets node, select your Spreadsheet and the appropriate Worksheet:
    • data (raw spend)
    • Lookup (channel reference table)
    • render pivot (output tab)

2) Configure Summarize Node

  • Group by: Name
  • Summarize: Spend ($)sum

3) Test the Workflow

  1. Execute the workflow manually
  2. Check your "render pivot" tab — it should display aggregated spend by Name

🛠️ How to customize

  • Change grouping fields (e.g., by Channel, Campaign, or Region)
  • Add more aggregations (e.g., average CPC, max impressions)
  • Use the Merge node to join extra data sources before summarizing
  • Schedule execution to run daily for fresh rollups

📋 Requirements

  • n8n (Cloud or self-hosted)
  • Google Sheets account with structured data in data and Lookup tabs

📬 Contact

Need help customizing this (e.g., filtering by campaign, sending reports by email, or formatting your pivot)?