Marketing Analytics: A Comprehensive Guide

Marketing analytics is the practice of collecting marketing data, analyzing that data across sources, and finding valuable insights that optimize business objectives.

Marketing analytics tools and strategies can help businesses maximize their time and budgets, better connect with customers, and ultimately grow their revenue. Digital marketing involves using analytics to measure success and optimize strategies.

So, how can you build a strong marketing analytics practice at your business? Read on to learn more about what good marketing analytics can do for you and your business, how to overcome common challenges, and how to get started building a data-driven mindset at your company.

Building and maintaining marketing analytics is not without its challenges. One significant challenge is effectively using marketing data analysis for optimal impact. Another issue is aligning analytics practices with digital marketing efforts. Now that we’ve defined marketing analytics, let’s take a closer look at some barriers you may face.

From web, to mobile, to email, to social channels, to ads on streaming services — there is no shortage of marketing data to process. New marketing channels and platforms are always emerging, so marketers have a growing number of sources to pull data from.

Email marketing continues to grow in popularity year after year, with the number of outbound emails rising 15% in the past year. Meanwhile, TV and streaming platforms saw the largest growth rates for connecting with customers.

All of these channels give marketers immense amounts of data. And this data can come in a variety of formats – different naming schemes, patterns, and granularity all make it difficult to both collect and ultimately compare performance across each of these channels.

No matter the size of the business, there will be a sea of data to ingest and organize, making it difficult to turn this data into insights.

On top of the amount of data, privacy laws surrounding what marketers can and can’t collect are also changing as people are demanding more privacy online. This shift affects digital marketing channels significantly, requiring new strategies.

In 2024, third-party cookies that track customers’ internet activity are expected to be retired by Google (among other internet giants). This means marketers won’t have access to hyper-specific data about what customers search for on other websites.

With the end of cookies and other data privacy laws taking effect, marketers will need to adapt their strategies to reach customers. Shifting to digital marketing strategies will help marketers reach their audience. 90% of marketers report that recent privacy changes impacted how they measure marketing efforts and campaigns.

Many of these marketers are investing in technology to help them keep track of customer and marketing data more efficiently. They're also investing more in first-party data they can control, including social media and other digital marketing platforms

Ninety eight percent of marketers understand the importance of having a complete, centralized view of all cross-channel marketing, but a whopping 71% of marketers still evaluate cross-channel marketing performance in silos.

These marketers are looking at disconnected pieces of data rather than one unified picture. This makes it challenging to measure the effectiveness of marketing strategies accurately.

This type of data integration is challenging because data can often span departments, teams, and technologies within an organization, which creates a variety of technical and logistical hurdles to overcome.

Gathering data is only one part of the puzzle: your team must also understand how to interpret that data and make decisions with it.

Often, retrospective or forward-looking analysis can take a backseat when marketers are faced with deadlines and other urgent work. Prioritizing regular analysis of marketing efforts ensures continued success. Providing accessible dashboards and metrics is crucial for impactful use of data.

Now that you understand the key challenges with marketing analytics, Let’s take a look at a few of the benefits of good marketing analytics.

Analytics takes the guesswork out of your marketing. Instead of assuming your customers are engaging with your messaging, marketing analytics provides proof of digital engagement.

Marketing analytics gives you a unified view of your customer by helping you understand their digital interactions, preferences, and their response to your marketing. This process involves in-depth digital marketing analysis.

Seeing this unified customer profile helps you understand the customer journey. You can then create more personalized experiences that will drive conversions and business growth.

Marketing analytics show you how your campaigns are performing as they happen. You can refine strategies using data through techniques like A/B testing during marketing campaigns. You can then use the data to pivot toward new strategies.

Real-time data collection is far better than evaluating data once a campaign is complete. Access to real-time analytics and data reporting helps boost revenue growth for the entire organization. Marketing campaigns can be swiftly adjusted for better performance.

Without marketing analytics, it isn’t easy to prove the success of your team’s efforts. Eighty percent of marketers say their ability to track ROI for their digital marketing investment could use improvement.

Marketing analytics is tangible proof of how the marketing department is helping a company grow. This can be shown in conversions, increased revenue, and customer retention.

Marketers can also show how their marketing improves the customer experience and customers’ perception of the brand. This information is critical to ensuring future funding for marketing projects.

Now that you understand the why of marketing analytics, let’s dive into the basics of how to set a foundation for success.

When you're just starting with marketing analytics, it's important to grasp its complexities. Establishing goals and benchmarks early will help narrow down which metrics to focus on so it’s less overwhelming. Remember to include all relevant stakeholders across your company when planning goals so everyone’s voice is heard.

Goals are points of success your company wants to achieve. These will differ depending on the campaign, but it’s essential to establish them early so you can track your progress along the way.

On the other hand, benchmarks are numbers you’re trying to exceed. For instance, you may set a benchmark to outperform a number you hit last year. Or your benchmarks could be developed by researching competitors’ numbers or industry standards.

Tracking goals and benchmarks in real time will keep your team working toward a shared purpose and allow you to correct your course if you fall behind.

Effective management of data analytics models is crucial for success. Data analytics helps businesses turn abstract numbers into revenue-boosting insights. To do this, marketers apply three types of data analytics: descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive.

• Descriptive analytics looks at past and present data to check campaign performance, social media following, or quarterly marketing revenue.
• Predictive data analytics analyzes patterns across data points to forecast probable events. Predictive analytics analyzes patterns across data points to forecast probable events. Eighty-six percent of executives who used predictive analytics over two years reported increased ROI. Analytics tools support this predictive analytics process.
• Prescriptive analytics explore the “what ifs” of possible outcomes. This type of analytics empowers companies to explore what may happen in the future if they adopt specific marketing strategies.

Only 33% of marketers strongly agree they gain insights fast enough for impactful decision-making. Regularly updating career skills in analytics tools is beneficial. Using AI in marketing can speed up these insights and help you make decisions faster.

Predictive artificial intelligence scans your data and uses patterns to make predictions. Then prescriptive action uses those predictions to make suggestions for optimizing your marketing strategy.

Visualizations can help you tell a story with data. Use the goals and benchmarks mentioned above, along with KPIs, to create visual representations of your data. Visual reporting through user-friendly dashboards simplifies sharing results with stakeholders in your organization.

Don’t know how to code? Not a problem. A marketing analytics platform can help you create visualizations without needing coding skills. Marketing analytics platforms have drag-and-drop features that you can use to create impactful marketing data visuals. Dashboards are also collaborative, so teams can edit and update visuals as needed.

In order for marketing analytics to be effective, it needs to become part of the culture at your company. Your people, processes, and technology will all need to shift to be more data-oriented.

Here are a few ways to make marketing analytics a priority on your team.

Before you can implement a fantastic marketing analytics strategy, you need to establish who’s in charge of the data. Determine the key stakeholders and collaborators who will need access to the marketing data. Establishing who’s in charge will save you time later when it comes to tracking down different data points.

In addition to establishing stakeholders, it’s very important to make sure that marketing and sales teams are aligned on goals. When these two teams share business objectives, it’s easier for them to work in tandem to knock these goals out of the park.

Start making data a central part of more team discussions and make it a habit to start and end projects with data.

In today’s marketing departments, there are so many tools used to connect with customers. Each of these tools is gathering its own data, and that can make pulling a holistic marketing report a nightmare.

Instead of trying to pull data from all of these sources, try an integrated marketing analytics platform that acts as a single source of truth. You’ll want to choose a platform that’s designed for marketers so that it’s easy to use and understand.

With centralized, integrated data sources, marketers can get more accurate metrics and stay informed on key performance indicators.

With the demise of third-party cookies, first-party data will become even more important. First-party data comes from your digital marketing channels, including user behavior on your website.

Examples of first-party data include:

• Customer support chat transcripts
• Social media interactions
• User behavior on your website

In order to take a first-party data approach, you’ll need to set in place new ways to gather customer information. Lead generation campaigns are valuable for gathering consumer data in exchange for quality content. Survey questions are a good way to understand what customers are looking for and segment them into different groups for marketing. Asking for customer feedback through reviews aids in building expansive consumer profiles.

First-party data will also help you create personalized content for specific customers which is important because customers who see content tailored to their interests are five times more likely to engage with a brand.

A customer data platform (CDP) that stores all of your customer data in one place will be extremely helpful in navigating the move away from cookies and toward first-party data.

There are numerous tools for marketing analytics, pivotal for fostering a data-driven marketing culture. Marketing analytics software will assist your team in sifting through data to determine relevant insights.

Look for a marketing analytics platform that acts as an all-in-one tool. A quality marketing analytics platform will bring in data from disparate places so you can view it all together.

Salesforce has many marketing tools that can help you expertly manage your marketing and customer data. Keep track of customer data and make customer engagements more personal.