The world of marketing analytics is always changing, making it difficult to understand the correlation between ad dollars spent and revenue. As marketers, we know there is not a one-to-one correlation between the two, and it is nearly impossible to prove to upper management that our efforts are actually worth the investment.
The tracking and analyzing of your content mix to measure return on investment (ROI) is what marketing analytics is all about. And thankfully, there is no shortage of digital marketing resources to help collect and manage these data points.
Gearing Up With the Right Marketing Analytics Tools
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free tool marketers use to track their website or app. While the interface seems daunting at first, this tool allows you to seamlessly monitor everything from the demographics and behavior of site visitors to bounce rate and what they are clicking on the most.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram
These social media platforms offer their own analytics if you have a business account. Social media insights allow you to measure post reach, follower demographics, engagement and interactions, and even what time of the day your followers are most active. Additionally, you can track ad spend, cost per click, and more through Facebook’s business settings.
Hootsuite and Buffer
While Hootsuite and Buffer offer free platforms for social media management, the paid memberships allow you the ability to track all of your social media analytics on a single dashboard. Rather than logging into each of your social accounts to schedule posts individually, these platforms also give you the ability to schedule posts across multiple platforms from a single app.
HubSpot
While there are several tools to track analytics, HubSpot and other marketing automation software allow you to wrap all of these into one. With HubSpot, you can schedule-out email campaigns, social media posts, blogs, and more as well as track the analytics for all of them.
Practicing Patience With Marketing Analytics
Just as “a watched pot never boils,” you cannot expect to see immediate results from your marketing efforts. Patience is key as you track the success of your labor.
More likely than not, you will not see significant progress within the first week, month, or even quarter. Successful marketing takes time. While you should track items daily such as Facebook ad conversions or clicks on a CTA for your weekly e-newsletter, it is more important to monitor these metrics over a more extended time to see real improvement.
For example, your Facebook Business Page may receive 60 new followers in one week but only a handful the next. The change in followers is not necessarily a reason to be concerned, but it is a trend you should track closely to discover why your followers did not increase as much as previous weeks.
Develop a spreadsheet that you can use to update crucial metrics on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis. Pay close attention to quarterly trends and use A/B testing and other strategies as needed to see where you can improve your strategy.
After all, when you spend countless hours each month planning, scheduling, managing, and tracking your content marketing, there’s no better way to enjoy the fruits of your labor (like increased ROI) than to track and improve your strategy continually. The key is to not get frustrated with your marketing analytics results. Stay patient and keep tracking.
