Making marketing magic means mastering digital marketing analytics.
It’s no secret that marketing is a science and art; by that, we mean you need to use science to make the art. That’s where digital marketing analytics gives you the upper hand.
What are analytics in the first place? What data should I be tracking? How can I use data to improve my marketing? We’ve answered all these questions and more below.
Always in the News: Much Ado About Analytics
It is because digital marketing analytics is such a big deal that you’ll always see news about it.
Google launching Google Analytics 4(GA4) and sunsetting Universal Analytics (UA) has long dominated our inboxes! Note that GA4 properties will fully replace UA by July 1st, 2024. (Read Introducing Google Analytics 4 and Understanding GA4 to get up to speed).
Each platform offers analytics tools, some under creative names like Instagram Insights. But most platforms stick to straight-forward conventions, namely: LinkedIn Page Analytics, YouTube Analytics and X Analytics.
Facebook discontinued its official Facebook Analytics in 2021, and now its native tool is Meta Business Suite. You’ll find your FB analytics under an “insights” tab.
Before we get into how time-consuming and confusing it can be to toggle between these tools—let’s explore the importance of understanding digital marketing analytics.
Why Analytics Matter (In Under 25-Seconds)
Analytics aims to understand how people interact with your content and draw conclusions about how well your digital marketing campaigns are performing.
You’ll gain insights into user behaviour by investigating the details (metrics) of click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, traffic sources, and engagement rate. This enables you to tweak your content or campaigns for optimised performance. Yup, optimising isn’t only about search engines.
The Key Benefits Of Using Digital Marketing Analytics
Squeeze the ROI out of campaigns:
Analytics lets you see if you’re hitting your targets or not. If not, you can see what’s bringing your campaigns down and what to improve. Likewise, you can see what’s working and do more of that!
Perfect your personalisation:
The more you observe, the more you’ll learn about your audience so you can tailor messages that hit the mark every time.
Become a customer experience guru:
With on-point messaging, analytics will also reveal how to optimise your customer journey for more conversions. The frictionless experience creates a positive affinity with your brand. Better CX creates stronger loyalty—THE ULTIMATE GOAL.
Leave your competition behind:
Intimate knowledge of your audience will also inspire you with new ideas that will set you apart from your competition.
Keep breaking ground and growing:
You’ll not only find ways to optimise your current digital marketing efforts with analytics. You’ll also find new ways to reach and engage your audience to grow your business.
Don’t Over-Analyse—Focus On The Metrics That Matter
There’s plenty of work to be done; don’t get distracted by going down the rabbit hole of endless analytics.
The good and bad thing about digital marketing analytics is that everything is measurable. But just because you can measure everything doesn’t mean you should!
Giving an exact number of metrics in digital marketing analytics is impossible because the field constantly evolves with new platforms, features, and campaign types. It could be in the thousands!
These are what we think are the top metrics you should measure:
Conversion Rate: This metric measures the percentage of website visitors who complete desired actions, like purchases or sign-ups. It gauges the effectiveness of your website and marketing strategies in turning visitors into customers or leads.
Website Traffic: Measures the number of visitors to your site, helping you understand your digital reach. Tracking traffic sources and channels allows for data-driven decisions to optimise online marketing efforts.
Engagement Metrics: These indicators evaluate audience interaction with your content across platforms, such as website visits, social media activity, and click-through rates. High engagement levels signal that your marketing efforts resonate with your audience and encourage interaction while providing insights for enhancing messaging, design, and user experience.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR measures the percentage of users who click on your calls-to-action (CTAs) in email marketing and pay-per-click advertising. High CTR reflects effective and persuasive CTAs, indicating successful engagement with your audience.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA): CPA calculates the average expense of acquiring a new customer through marketing campaigns. Comparing CPA to customer lifetime value helps assess marketing efficiency and sustainability.
New vs. Returning Visitors: Differentiating between first-time and recurring website visitors provides valuable insights into audience loyalty and behaviour. This distinction enables marketers to devise effective strategies for attracting new customers and retaining existing ones.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Estimates the cumulative revenue a customer will bring throughout their brand relationship. Understanding CLV enables marketers to prioritise high-value customers and allocate marketing resources effectively.
Which brings us to the metric every board member cares about…
Return on Investment (ROI): This is a pivotal metric that assesses marketing profitability by comparing revenue generated to campaign costs. Analysing ROI identifies high-performing channels and tactics, enabling data-driven decisions to optimise marketing budgets.
You Need the Full Picture—Siloed Analytics Do No Good
As mentioned, each platform offers different analytics tools—but you can’t view each in isolation.
To start, it takes up enormous amounts of time you simply don’t have. Then, it will only give you a distorted view of your overall marketing performance.
Cue Google Analytics.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is central to digital marketing analytics. It essentially provides the data underpinning the key digital marketing metrics we discussed earlier. You can—and should—use it to corroborate social media analytics, too!
GA4 tracks everything you need and then some! You can set up customised reports to help you get to the heart of your unique data insight needs in a flash.
Good online marketing practice is to make your website the centre of your digital strategy. GA4 gives you deep insight into your website visitors. It tracks their behaviour with insight into how they navigate your site.
Everything about your campaigns is under one roof. It helps you track the effectiveness of paid ads, email marketing campaigns, or social media promotions. Because GA4 lets you define specific goals like purchases, newsletter sign-ups, or form submissions, you can tell which channels and tactics drive the most conversions.
All of this boils down to empowering data-driven decisions. Armed with the impressive intelligence from GA4, nothing can stop you!
Making Sense Of All Your Data To Make Better Decisions
The key to unlocking the vast value of your digital marketing analytics is knowing how to extrapolate what you see!
It’s one thing to see that 18 people landed on your contact page, but what does it mean? What’s the reason behind those 18 people averaging a full minute on the page but only one completing the contact form?
While Facebook, Instagram and Google Analytics can give you loads of numbers and stats, deriving real value comes from knowing how to draw the correct conclusions. It’s about knowing where to drill deeper to find the answer you seek. And once those questions are answered, it’s knowing what you will do about it!
Reporting is a highly undervalued skill that equips you with recommendations tailored to helping you achieve your goals. Monthly analytics and digital marketing reports are a roadmap for your digital marketing efforts. By continuously monitoring and adjusting strategies based on data-driven insights, B2B marketers can stay ahead of the curve, maximise their marketing investments, and drive sustained business growth in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
For B2B marketers looking to outsource their digital marketing analytics needs, consider our team of professionals at Famous Digital Media. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
