How to create influencer activity report with Excel and PowerPoint?

Influencer marketing is a viable marketing channel for many businesses. As with any other marketing channel, you need to track the activity of your influencers and report on it. This is where Excel and PowerPoint come in handy. Assuming you have your influencer data in a single Excel file with multiple sheets, which contain the account data (like the number of followers, total number of account engagements, total number of reels/ posts / stories / etc., maybe their profile picture and link to the account / accounts in multiple platforms), you can use PPTXMailMerge to create a report on their activity.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to create an influencer activity report with Excel and PowerPoint.

Step 1: Prepare your Excel data

As we assumed above, you have your influencer data in a single Excel file with multiple sheets, which contain the account data. You can prepare your data in Excel in the following way:

Important: Make sure that when you upload this Excel file to PPTXMailMerge that the active sheet (the one you have open) is the one with the influencer data. By default the actrive sheet is used as the main data source that drives slide creation.

Posts & Reels Sheet

The "Posts & Reels" sheet should contain detailed information about each post and reel created by your influencers. Each row represents a single post or reel. The sheet should include:

Important: Format this data as an Excel table and name it "PostsReelsTable". The "Influencer ID" column is crucial as it links each content item to the corresponding influencer in the main sheet.

Stories Sheet

Similarly, the "Stories" sheet should contain information about each story posted by influencers:

Important: Format this data as an Excel table and name it "StoriesTable". Again, the "Influencer ID" column links stories to their respective influencers.

Step 2: Create Your PowerPoint Template

Now that your Excel data is prepared, you need to create a PowerPoint template that will serve as the blueprint for each influencer slide. Here's what you need to do:

1. Create a single slide template with placeholders for influencer data:

   • Influencer name: {{Account Name}}
   • Followers: {{Followers}}
   • Total engagements: {{Engagements}}
   • Profile picture: Insert an image placeholder and set its Alt-text to {{Profile Picture}}
   • Account link: {{Account Link}}

2. Add tables for Posts & Reels and Stories:

   • Insert a table for Posts & Reels (with header row only)
   • Insert a table for Stories (with header row only)
   • These tables will be automatically populated with filtered data from the helper sheets

3. Configure the tables with data filtering expressions:

   • Select the Posts & Reels table
   • Right-click the table and select "Format Shape" (or "Format Object")
   • Go to the "Alt Text" section
   • In the "Description" field, enter:

     {{type=table data=xlsx.Posts_Reels!PostsReelsTable dataFilter="Influencer ID eq {{Influencer ID}}" columns="Content Type,Content URL,Engagements,Post Date"}}
     

   • Similarly, for the Stories table, right-click it, go to Alt Text, and in the Description field enter:

     {{type=table data=xlsx.Stories!StoriesTable dataFilter="Influencer ID eq {{Influencer ID}}" columns="Story URL,Story Date,Views,Link Clicks"}}
     

Understanding the Data Filter Expression

The data filter expression allows you to pull related data from helper sheets based on the current influencer being processed. Here's how it works:

• type=table - Tells PPTXMailMerge to populate a table
• data=xlsx.Posts_Reels!PostsReelsTable - References the Excel table (note: if your sheet name has spaces, use quotes: data=xlsx.Posts_Reels!PostsReelsTable)
• dataFilter="Influencer ID eq {{Influencer ID}}" - Filters rows where the "Influencer ID" column matches the current influencer's ID
• columns="Content Type,Content URL,Engagements,Post Date" - Specifies which columns to include in the table (if you ant to include all columns just drop this element of the expression, but remember that the enging will render columns as they are in the source table, with at most this many columns you have specififed in the template)

Step 3: Merge Your Data with PPTXMailMerge

Once your Excel file and PowerPoint template are ready, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the XLSX to PowerPoint tool: Go to https://pptxmailmerge.com/tools/xlsx2pptx

2. Upload your files:

   • Upload your PowerPoint template (the one with placeholders and table configurations)
   • Upload your Excel file (with all three sheets: Influencers, Posts & Reels, and Stories)

3. Configure the merge settings:

   • Data source: Select "InfluencersTable" (or the name of your main table)
   • Repeat slide for each row: Enable this option - this will create one slide per influencer
   • Leave other settings at their defaults

4. Click "Merge" and wait for the processing to complete

5. Download your presentation: The tool will generate a PowerPoint file with one slide per influencer, each containing:

   • The influencer's profile information
   • A table of all their posts and reels (filtered automatically)
   • A table of all their stories (filtered automatically)

How It Works: No Code Required

The beauty of using PPTXMailMerge is that you don't need to write any VBA scripts or code. The service handles all the complexity:

• Automatic slide generation: For each row in your "Influencers" table, a new slide is created
• Data filtering: The data filter expressions automatically pull only the relevant content (posts, reels, stories) for each influencer
• Table population: Tables are automatically populated with the filtered data from helper sheets
• Image insertion: Profile pictures are automatically downloaded and inserted from URLs

Benefits of This Approach

• Time-saving: Generate reports for dozens of influencers in seconds
• Accuracy: No manual copy-paste errors - data comes directly from your Excel file
• Consistency: All slides follow the same template design
• Easy updates: When your Excel data changes, simply re-run the merge to get updated presentations
• No coding required: Business users can create professional reports without technical skills

Tips for Best Results

1. Consistent IDs: Ensure the "Influencer ID" values match exactly between the main sheet and helper sheets
2. Table formatting: Always format your Excel data as tables (Ctrl+T) and give them meaningful names
3. Sheet names: Be careful with sheet names that contain spaces or special characters - you may need to use quotes in the data filter expression
4. Test with sample data: Start with a small dataset (2-3 influencers) to verify your template works correctly before processing large files
5. Template design: Design your template slide once, and it will be replicated for all influencers automatically

Conclusion

Creating influencer activity reports doesn't have to be a tedious, manual process. By organizing your data in Excel with a main sheet and helper sheets, and using PPTXMailMerge's powerful data filtering capabilities, you can automate the entire report generation process. This no-code solution allows marketing teams to focus on analysis and strategy rather than spending hours copying data into PowerPoint slides.

The next time you need to create an influencer report, simply update your Excel file and let PPTXMailMerge do the heavy lifting. Your professional, data-rich presentations will be ready in minutes, not hours.