MARKETING ANALYTICS: What it is and why it matters.
According to WordStream.com, Marketing Analytics is defined as
“…the practice of measuring, managing, and analyzing marketing performance to maximize its effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI). Understanding marketing analytics allows marketers to be more efficient at their jobs and minimize wasted web marketing dollars.” (1)
Why is marketing analytics important?
Marketing analytics is important to businesses because it allows marketers to monitor online campaigns, and the data collected helps them to make informed decisions about their marketing efforts. In turn, they are able to get a greater return on their investment.
- With long-term data, it shows trends in the market and helps you understand your clients and what they are looking for when they are looking for it.
- It helps you see where your business gets the best return on investment – allowing you to adjust your marketing efforts accordingly.
- It helps you make more informed decisions about your business and the products/services you offer.
- Helps you to predict where the market is going, and how to adjust your business and marketing accordingly.
Without collecting and analysing this data, there is no way to know which of your efforts are successful.
Analyzing The Data:
This data can help your business make decisions on matters including product updates, branding and more. Please note that it is important to take data from multiple sources to prevent a disjointed view. Do not make extreme business decisions based on the data from one platform!
Your business may use a variety of marketing channels – website, social media (multiple platforms), Google advertising, online directories, print advertising, radio, events, etc. – while some of your products/services may not be of interest to your Facebook audience, it may be to your LinkedIn audience, or those who see your Google Ads! Marketing analytics is more than just numbers – you have to know how to interpret those numbers in relation to all of your business and marketing efforts. Just because your Facebook audience isn’t interested doesn’t mean that no one else is – so do not remove that product/service altogether. This is why it is essential that you know who your target audience is for each product/service you offer, and your business as a whole.
How Organizations Use Marketing Analytics
Organizations use marketing analytics to study the data garnered through marketing campaigns in order to discern patterns between such things as how a campaign contributed to conversions, consumer behaviour, regional preferences, creative preferences and much more. The goal of marketing analytics as a practice is to use these patterns and findings to optimize future campaigns based on what was successful. (2)
The data shows what is working, what needs improvement, and various trends over time. If your product or service is seasonal, your marketing analytics will show that the engagement with your ads, your website traffic and other data will reflect this as well. If you are advertising in various areas such as the Caribbean, US, UK, Canada, etc, the data will also show which demographics are interested in which of your products/services. Some may be of interest across the board, others may only be of interest in a particular set of cities, or countries.
Here are some examples of how marketing analytics helps businesses:
- With online advertising - if a specific ad is getting significantly more engagement than other ads, the marketing team will see this in the data, and be able to analyze how that ad differs and create more ads like it – increasing the engagement with their ads and increasing sales.
- Using website analytics, marketers are able to track the number of visitors to their site, which pages they visit, how long they are on the site, how they arrived at the site, where their visitors are from, and so much more. This information will help them determine which of their products or services their visitors are more interested in, or even if there are issues with navigating through the website.
- Your data may show that while your target audience was women in their early twenties, women in their mid-thirties are spending more money on your product or service – this allows you to adjust your marketing plan and target market.
When it comes to marketing analytics – it truly is best to leave it to the professionals! For us professionals, thankfully, most online platforms have software to track, monitor, and report your analytics – social media platforms, websites, Google Advertising, and more. With these individual reports, we can compile the data into a monthly report to see how each platform compares to the others. If you are advertising through online directories and other sites, make sure that you receive your analytics reports monthly so you can determine if it is worth the investment.
How can you know how successful your marketing efforts are if we are not measuring the results? Trust is one thing, but we also provide our clients with reports - data that shows the results of their marketing campaign. We prepare reports compiling the data from all of your online advertising platforms, making it easier to see what works, and where you can make changes to improve your business. If you are interested in monthly marketing analytics reports, contact NAYA today.
(1) WordStream - Marketing Analytics – Success Through Analysis
https://www.wordstream.com/marketing-analytics
(2) Marketing Evolution - What is Marketing Analytics? Definition, Tips, and Tools
https://www.marketingevolution.com/marketing-essentials/marketing-analytics