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Custom fields are the spine of Asana reporting. Done right, you get instant campaign health, channel mix, and content velocity. Done wrong, your data is noise.
Who this is forMarketing teams running 5+ campaigns at a time. Agencies tracking work across multiple clients. Anyone who has tried to build a Dashboard and realized the underlying data was inconsistent.
What you'll need
Step 1
List the 5-8 dimensions you actually need to filter and report on. Avoid fields you cannot articulate a use for.
Standard marketing taxonomy: Priority, Status, Content Type, Channel, Campaign, Stage.
For each: define values (dropdown options). Limit to 5-8 values per field. Past that, scanning becomes hard.
Avoid duplicate fields. Two "Status" fields with different values is a guaranteed reporting disaster.
Document the taxonomy before opening Asana. 30 minutes of design saves hours of cleanup.
Step 2
Custom fields are Org-level or Project-level. Org-level fields are reusable; per-project fields are siloed.
Settings → Customizations → Custom Fields → Create field.
Set scope: Organization (shared across all projects) for standard marketing fields.
Per-project fields are fine for one-off project needs but they do not roll up into Portfolios or Dashboards.
Standardize the dropdown values. "High/Medium/Low" everywhere, not "High" in one project and "P1/P2/P3" in another.
Step 3
Most marketing teams need the same 6 fields. Build these as Org-level first.
1. Priority: Urgent, High, Medium, Low.
2. Status: Not Started, In Progress, Blocked, In Review, Done.
3. Content Type: Blog, Email, Ad, Landing Page, Social, Video, Webinar.
4. Channel: Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Email, Organic, Direct, Other.
5. Campaign: text or dropdown of active campaigns (refresh quarterly).
6. Stage: Ideation, In Development, Launched, Measuring, Complete.
Apply all 6 to every marketing project via templates so consistency is automatic.
Step 4
Custom fields applied at template level ensure every new project starts consistent.
Open each marketing project template.
Add the 6 standard custom fields to the template at the project level.
When a new project is created from the template, fields are present and ready.
Default values for some fields: Status = "Not Started," Priority = "Medium." Pre-filled defaults reduce friction.
Step 5
Custom fields are useless if the team fills them inconsistently. A 30-minute training session pays off for years.
30-minute training: explain each field, the values, when to use each value.
Provide examples for ambiguous ones. "Urgent = stops revenue today. High = blocks Q goal. Medium = important but not blocking. Low = nice to have."
Document in your team wiki so new hires onboard against the same definitions.
Audit field usage monthly for 3 months. Coach anyone systematically using fields wrong.
Step 6
Build Dashboards filtered by the new fields. The value of custom fields lives in the reporting they enable.
Portfolio view: group by Channel to see channel mix.
Dashboard widget: count of tasks by Status across all active marketing projects.
Dashboard widget: bar chart of tasks by Content Type per Campaign.
Filter views: "Show me all Urgent priority tasks across all projects."
The reporting is what justifies the field discipline. Without reporting, fields rot.
Common mistakes
Adding fields ad hoc without design
What goes wrong: Workspace ends up with 30 custom fields. Half are duplicates. Reporting is impossible because field semantics drift across projects.
How to avoid: 6-8 well-designed Org-level fields. Document semantics. Audit quarterly.
Per-project fields for things that should be Org-level
What goes wrong: Priority field exists in each project but is project-scoped. Cannot roll up. Portfolio shows no Priority distribution. Cross-project reporting fails.
How to avoid: Org-level fields for anything you want to filter across multiple projects.
Too many dropdown values
What goes wrong: Channel field has 25 values including "Meta — Reels" and "Meta — Stories" separately. Team picks inconsistently. Reporting is noise.
How to avoid: 5-8 values per field. Granular variants go into Tags or a separate field if truly needed.
No training on field semantics
What goes wrong: Each person fills Priority differently. "Urgent" means anything from "stops revenue" to "I want this done today." Reporting is misleading.
How to avoid: 30-minute training on field semantics. Document. Audit usage monthly for first 3 months.
Fields without reporting
What goes wrong: Team maintains 6 custom fields religiously. Nobody builds Dashboards or filtered views. Discipline rots.
How to avoid: Build 3-5 Dashboards filtered by the custom fields. Show the team that their discipline produces visibility.
Recap
Done — what's next
How to set up Asana Dashboards and reporting for marketing
Read the next tutorial
Hand it off
Custom field architecture is exactly where ops thinking meets marketing. EverestX growth-marketing strategists design + roll out the structure in 1-2 weeks, then own ongoing reporting for $400-1,200/mo.
See specialist rates
Yes — Org-level fields are available to all teams, but each team can also have its own Team-level fields. Best practice: shared marketing fields at Org level, team-specific (e.g., paid media metrics) at Team level.
Custom Fields are structured (dropdowns, text, numbers). Tags are flat labels. Use Custom Fields for anything you want to report on. Use Tags for loose categorization that does not need reporting.
Bulk edit: filter tasks → select all → Edit Field. Asana lets you set values across hundreds of tasks at once. Plan to spend 2-4 hours on initial migration for a workspace with 500+ tasks.
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