Analytics In Marketing: Why Is It So Important?

Analytics in marketing is as important a part of launching an advertising campaign as choosing a format, channel, rate distribution, etc. Without configured analytics, it is impossible to understand whether an advertising campaign is working effectively or whether it is time to change something.

Sometimes it is difficult to understand analytics, so in this article we will explain in simple terms what it is and why it is needed.

What is analytics in marketing?

Analytics in marketing is one of the essential parts of marketing. It helps to measure the effectiveness of marketing activities and develop a plan to improve their effectiveness. Marketing analytics provides clear answers to specific questions of brands and helps to find solutions to problems, and does not just state facts, like a report.

Using different data sources, it helps to look at the results that advertising has brought to the brand as a whole, evaluate the return on investment in advertising, find gaps in the strategy and optimize future and current advertising campaigns.

The importance of analytics in marketing

Imagine that you are locked in a dark room and you need to find a way out. How quickly can you do this? Most likely, it will take some time to search — the room is large, there is a lot of furniture, and there is no light — and you will stumble into corners and bumps several times. Just like in a dark room without light, without analytics, brands risk bumping into bumps for years and investing in channels and tools that do not bring results.

Based on data, analytics “highlights” problem areas and helps make informed decisions. For example, it will help you understand:

• which users to target advertising to;
• which advertising channels bring customers and which do not;
• how much does it cost to attract customers;
• what is the real return on investment in advertising;
• user behavior on different channels;
• how to adjust the advertising strategy to achieve maximum results, and more.

Marketing analytics stages

The marketing analytics process can be divided into several stages. Let’s look at each of them. But it is important to remember that any analysis begins with the formation of KPIs — measurable and understandable indicators by which the success of an advertising campaign will be assessed.

Stage 1 — setting up and collecting data

At this stage, sources from which data can be obtained for processing and analytics are connected and configured. Analytics systems help with this. For example, Google Analytics. These are free web analytics systems, for which it is enough to create a counter and install a code on all pages of the site.

It will help to obtain data on traffic from different devices, find out the characteristics of the target audience, get more information about conversions (from which device, which audience segment has a higher percentage of conversions, etc.), analyze traffic on the site and much more.

Stage 2 — data processing and analysis

After all the data has been collected, the most interesting part begins: data analysis and processing. It is at this stage that the effectiveness of offline and online campaigns is assessed: the main indicators are calculated, compared with the predicted ones, qualitative and quantitative indicators are assessed and much more.

Google Analytics provides standard reports that you can use to study the basic data. Sometimes these reports may not be enough to conduct a more in-depth analysis and solve your own analytical problems. In this case, you can download “raw” non-aggregated data.

Stage 3 — visualize and develop recommendations

You can visualize and present data using reports, dashboards, infographics, tables and more. The main task here is to convey key indicators in an understandable form so that they can be easily studied, compared and conclusions drawn.

Also at this stage, recommendations are developed based on the results obtained — steps are outlined on what needs to be done to increase the indicators, how to optimize campaigns in the future and in which direction it is better to move. After this, the recommendations are implemented and a retrospective is held — it is measured how the hypotheses worked out, what and how has changed and what has remained the same, etc.

It is important to remember that analytics should be consulted not only after the completion of advertising activities, but also during the launch. This will help you understand in time that something is going wrong and adjust the advertising campaign settings.

What tools can be useful for brands in analytics?

CRM systems. They help not only sales managers keep track of leads and clients, but also analysts. If you link CRM with an analytical service, you can get data on the source from which the brand received the lead (for example, the user who called or wrote an offline message). In addition, you can download ClientID from the CRM system, which will help in conducting a more detailed analysis.

Call tracking. Not all users who click on advertising leave online applications; some of them find it more convenient to call. Call tracking systems will help you understand from which advertising channel the call “came”. The call tracking system can be integrated into Google Analytics and track calls there.

End-to-end analytics tools. If all systems are connected and configured, then end-to-end analytics should be connected. It helps to link all data at different stages of the sales funnel into one report — from synthetic indicators from different traffic sources to performance indicators such as ROI and ROMI.

Key principles of analytics in marketing and advertising

Not everyone understands analytics. In order to make analytics and figures from reports “closer” and more understandable, you should adhere to certain principles. For example:

• Flexibility. In analytics, it is important not only to find the necessary data that directly affects the problem, but to look at the indicators from different angles, understand how much the KPI needs to be increased to achieve the goal and find several ways to implement the task.
• Relevance and objectivity. Good analytics is guided by brand problems and requests, relevant data and is based on facts, not on abstract “luck” and “intuition”.
• Clear goals and objectives. The more specific the task, the more useful the analytics will be. A vague request “we need all KPIs to increase at once” will result in a fiasco. An analyst will be able to identify ineffective channels, irrelevant audience segments and find growth areas when the task is clear and not vague.
• Clarity. An analytical report should not be written in ancient runes. It is important that even a non-technical person can easily understand the results of the analysis: the numbers, conclusions and recommendations.

Marketing analytics. What is important to remember?

Analytics in marketing starts with high-quality data. Not only the metrics in the reports depend on their completeness and accuracy, but also the management decisions that are made based on them.

Poor-quality data is one of the reasons for erroneous actions, wasted advertising budgets and ineffective campaigns. What problems can you encounter:

• 10-20% of conversions can be lost in analytics systems, since the data in the API is aggregated, and in the reports it is sampled.
• If the data is combined and stored in Google Sheets or Excel, this can lead to constant failures and non-obvious errors.
• Many advertising services collect data in different formats, which can lead to discrepancies in reports and retrospectives.

Therefore, the first thing you need to do before starting is to make sure the data is of high quality and automate its collection, this will help eliminate the human factor. If you are not confident in the data and analytics, then you should enlist the support of a reliable partner. Octoix will not only help you understand the intricacies, but also comprehensively assess the effectiveness of advertising.

Conclusion

Marketing analytics is a tool without which it is impossible to achieve good results in the modern digital world. In the process of analytics, brands receive the data that is necessary to make informed and effective decisions. And it does not matter whether the brand is small or large, one of the tasks of marketing is to clearly understand which activities are effective and which are not. Analytics helps with this.