A guide to digital marketing analytics
The word ‘data’ strikes fear into the heart of most digital marketers, amirite? Us creative sorts aren’t ones for analytics, stats, and figures – but sadly, they’re vitally important for the life or death of digital marketing campaigns.
Worth noting is that web analytics and digital marketing analytics aren’t the same things! Digital marketing analytics refer directly to web traffic and engagement as a result of targeted digital campaigns.
To break this down, let’s split it into the online giants: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Google Analytics
Hook your site up to Google Analytics and a whole world of data (breath in, breathe out) will become available – but it’s not as daunting as it might sound.
- Traffic: It’s not just how much traffic, but where it’s coming from. By knowing how potential customers are finding you, you know where to dedicate more marketing effort.
- New vs Returners: Both of these stats are very important. Whilst it’s obvious that you’d be looking to increase new visitors, having a loyal band of returning customers means that your customer service is producing high levels of customer retention – remember, supporters can be your best advertising campaign.
- Time tells: Average session duration and the amount of time spent on any particular page indicates how engaging your site is. If you’re only seeing people on pages for a few seconds, you might want to consider re-optimising your site or improving the user experience.
Get started with Analytics here.
So, you’ve got a Facebook page for your business – but what the book do you do with it now?
No likey, no lighty: If you’re using digital marketing to increase page likes, you’re going to want to keep an eye on your follower amount.
- Engagement party: Engagement rate details the number of likes, comments, and reactions to your posts. The higher the engagement, the more engaging your posts are. This can be increased by sharing entertaining and taggable content.
- Reach for the stars: How many people are viewing your posts, and where in the world are they? Reach quite literally refers to how far reaching your posts are. Low reach rates might mean you’re not targeting the right audience, or it might be time to re-think your content.
- Business Manager: Create a Business Manager account with your shiny new Facebook page and delve into all the analytics, ads and support you need.
Similar to Facebook, you know you need it – but what can it do for you?
- Tweet far and wide: As with other social platforms, reach is a very telling metric. Looking at tweets that get the best stats in terms of ‘reach’ could help point you in the right direction.
- Get engaged: Retweets, likes and replies all count as engagement. The better your engagement, the better your reach will be. As people engage on Twitter, it leaves a trail – allowing more potential customers to pick up on your posts.
- Impressions count: Treat impressions as ‘views’ and they’ll make a lot more sense when you’re delving into the world of Twitter.
Worried about nose-diving Twitter stats? Check out our blog post on improving your follower rate.
Instagram for Business
Probably one of the best tools out there, Instagram for Business gives you detailed and targeted follower information – right down to gender and age bracket. If you know the exact customer types that most commonly engage with you through Instagram, you can use these stats to build buyer personas. All marketers know that by centring campaigns around successful buyer personas, you’ll make a real difference to the popularity of your marketing campaigns.
Final thoughts
It’s worth mentioning (before we let you take a breather and wipe the sweat from your furrowed brow) that e-marketing data is also incredibly useful. Low open rates or regular unsubscribes suggest that something about your targeting isn’t resonating with your potential customers.
Instead of viewing metrics and data as yucky terms that are used to create stress-inducing KPIs and targets, use them as a weapon on your social and digital arsenal. Knowledge is power and knowing how savvy your digital marketing campaigns are will ensure you continuously improve them.
Still feeling a bit lost? Why not look into educating yourself about metrics. There are plenty of excellent resources online, or check out our blog on Digital Marketing Institute courses.
Go on then, you’ve earned a cuppa now.
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