This guide will lay the foundation for you to make smarter decisions faster with your data.
Marketing analytics is a broad term, and its use has implications big and small for every business out there. If you’re a novice marketer seeking to understand how to improve the quality of your analytics—whether it’s to drive better decision making or get executive buy-in for your programs—you’re not alone.
In fact, according to Capterra’s 2022 Data Visualization in Marketing survey, 92% of US marketing professionals agree that they could make better decisions if they were armed with well-presented data. This stat alone communicates the value of improving your data analysis, but there’s plenty more where that came from.
Below, we’ll share more illuminating survey data and discuss why marketing analytics is important, where marketing data comes from, and how it can best be analyzed so you can make better decisions (faster) and enjoy more successful marketing outcomes.
What is marketing analytics?
Marketing analytics is data that is used to determine the success or failure of a marketing campaign. Marketing campaigns may use a variety of metrics, including link clicks, views, clicks per impression, and more.
The process of analyzing marketing analytics serves two main purposes:
To gauge the effectiveness of your current marketing efforts against your company goals
To learn what you can do differently to improve your marketing results
These two sides of the same analytics coin come together to allow marketers to gain a better understanding of what they are accomplishing currently while also taking a critical eye to what could improve future performance.
Why is marketing analytics important?
At a fundamental level, marketing analytics is important because it offers concrete information on how various marketing activities perform. This allows businesses to optimize their marketing tactics and strategy to better serve their overall business goals.
In other words, taking a critical look at analytics and changing behaviors based on what you find leads to more marketing success which in turn leads to more sales and, ultimately, revenue. For many, this is the greatest indicator of running an effective business.
Our lists of marketing analytics companies by location can help you find the services you’re looking for.
On top of that, organizational decision-makers trust analytics. In fact, 64% of decision-makers trust analytics data and are ready to use it from the outset. A further 26% are cooperative but require some explanation.
That means a whopping 90% of decision-makers are primed to use marketing analytics data with minimal additional effort. What areas does this use of analytics impact, though? It turns out, well, nearly everything.
Based on additional data from Capterra’s 2022 Data Visualization in Marketing Survey [*], we can see that everything from customer targeting and pricing to marketing technology and product/services are overwhelmingly influenced by analytics.
The bottom line is—when you’re armed with well-presented data—you can get things done. Let’s now take a look at where (and how) you’ll be able to access this data.
How is marketing data analyzed?
Marketing data can be analyzed in a number of ways, and there’s no shortage of tools and technology to help you do so. Marketing platforms (social, email, eCommerce, etc.) often have their own built-in analytics tool which is a great place to start, and there is also dedicated marketing analytics software to give you an even more in-depth understanding of your data.
Finally, if you need outside help analyzing your data, marketing analytics services—and more generally, digital marketing services—are companies that offer their expertise and a helping hand in your marketing efforts.
For more on digital marketing agencies and how they can help your business, check out our article that answers the question What Does A Digital Marketing Agency Do?
Native marketing platform features
Business analytics included in your marketing platform is an effective starting point, and for some organizations that may be all you need. Popular social, email, and content marketing platforms usually allow you to export or integrate your data into other data management systems as well.
Take advantage of these native features as much as possible, especially when you’re first starting. Doing this allows you to make notes on your most-used features if/when you do decide on a paid solution, and you can get some good experience interpreting and acting on your data analytics.
An example of Twitter Analytics from Sprout Social (Source)
Marketing analytics software
The next step up from taking advantage of marketing platform features is to choose a piece of marketing analytics software. As a more full-featured alternative to free tools, these platforms offer features like cloud-based functionality, live support, and advanced integration options to help take better advantage of other tools in your martech stack.
While free tools allow you to export data to places like spreadsheet software, marketing analytics platforms often include data visualization tools that greatly aid in reporting. And—it turns out—this is one of the most important features to have.
According to the marketing pros we surveyed, 42% use data visualization tools daily to illustrate their marketing data with a further 37% using them a few times a week or more. This makes sense since 68% of respondents say reporting, analytics, and statistics are very important to have in their marketing software.
Marketing analytics services
The final—and perhaps most involved—option is to hire a marketing analytics service to help with your data management. These types of services range from general digital marketing agencies to specialized services that deal with everything from daily task management and customer support to campaign oversight and long-term strategy.
The benefits of hiring a dedicated marketing analytics service are numerous, some of which include:
Campaign optimization: Analytics companies track key metrics and leverage tech such as artificial intelligence (AI) to derive actionable insights from available data, understand customer behavior, and identify opportunities to boost marketing performance.
Access to high-end marketing technology: Without the need to invest in the tech yourself, analytics agencies leverage automation, predictive analytics, and AI to ensure your business is serving the right information to the right customer at the right time.
Outside expertise: An agency brings with it years of expertise and credibility to ensure your marketing and advertising efforts are in good hands. They also provide an objective perspective when analyzing your business.
Time and money savings: Having an agency to help complete daily tasks frees your full-time employees up for bigger picture endeavors. They also help formulate optimized strategies to better take advantage of your available budget.
The benefits of hiring a marketing analytics agency don’t end here, though. For more info on how hiring one can help your business, visit our Marketing Analytics Company Hiring Guide.
Capterra Tools & Tips: What are the different types of marketing analytics?
Marketing analytics consists of three major types of analytics techniques, all with their own differences and use cases. Engaging in a combination of all three of these models will produce the most successful results.
Descriptive analytics
This process uses current and historical data to identify patterns, trends, and relationships between variables. Marketing analytics agencies use the descriptive analytics technique to prepare traffic and engagement reports and demand trends.
Since descriptive analytics offers insights into historical business performance, it can be used for return on investment (ROI) analytics to identify marketing channels or campaigns that have delivered the best returns over a given period.
/ Should I be using descriptive analytics?
Yes. Descriptive analytics are the most basic type of data to collect and comprise most of what your marketing team will be doing on a regular basis, including marketing campaign performance, campaign ROI, and reporting on organic and paid content.
Predictive analytics
As the name suggests, this technique focuses on predicting future marketing trends and scenarios. It leverages machine learning and large data volumes to make accurate predictions. Marketing analytics agencies use predictive analytics for lead scoring and audience segmentation.
Since this technique uses artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for forecasting, it can be used to calculate customer lifetime value (CLTV), which is the average revenue a customer brings to your business across their lifetime.
/ Should I be using predictive analytics?
Yes, if available. While predictive analytics are an excellent thing to have, the process is more advanced and requires technology you may not have access to. When choosing an agency or new technology, deciding if you want access to this capability is an important consideration.
Prescriptive analytics
While predictive analytics interprets the future using historical data, prescriptive analytics recommends actions that you should take to affect the outcomes. Simply put, predictive analytics is all about what may happen in the future, whereas prescriptive analytics suggests actions to make it happen.
Marketing analytics agencies use prescriptive analytics to optimize campaigns based on the results of marketing strategies. They also use it to provide content and product recommendations.
/ Should I be using prescriptive analytics?
Yes. As you conduct marketing campaigns and collect data, you’ll be able to make smarter decisions about future initiatives. Use this to your advantage to hone in on successful tactics, channels, and content strategies as your business scales.
Using data to craft a smarter marketing engine for your small business
It’s no secret that using data to drive decision making will help your marketing efforts be more successful. The key for small businesses is to collect and analyze data thoughtfully from the get go. Doing so will help scale your marketing strategy (and your business) more effectively and more responsibly.
Start today by familiarizing yourself with the data you have available to see where you can improve your marketing strategy or meet your audience where they spend their time online.
For a specific example, look at your social media engagement for the last month (you can easily do this on the social platform itself), see where you’re getting the most traffic, then devise an engagement-based post to connect with your audience.
It could be a question, a giveaway, or a heartfelt thank you. Whatever the idea may be, now you’re armed with the knowledge that it will reach your most active and loyal customers, so give it a try!
For more information on how to make the most of your marketing, visit the Capterra blog:
2023 State of Marketing Software Adoption Report: Emerging Tech Trends to Watch in 2023
Online Marketing for Small Business: Strategy Tips From Successful SMBs
Third-Party Cookies Are Ending—It’s Time for Retailers to Embrace First-Party Data
Note: The screenshots of applications included in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations.