5 of the Best Digital Marketing Analytics to Know

Digital Marketing Analytics March 19, 2021

Mary Kate Morrow

Writer

5 Digital Marketing Analytics that Matter

Digital marketing analytics is defined differently depending on who you ask. Some define digital marketing analytics as customer behavior translated into actionable business data. Others defined digital marketing analytics as the tools utilized to analyze marketing data obtained from a brand's digital channels. Digital marketing analytics also may incorporate data from Google ads or affiliate marketing sites. Although the definitions vary, they paint a clear picture of what digital marketing analytics is and why it is important.

Small business and large corporation owners are increasingly recognizing the benefits digital marketing analytics offer marketing strategy and overall performance. Unsurprisingly, both small business and large corporation owners are also increasingly investing in digital marketing analytics. However, in order to correctly utilize various digital marketing analytics, they must be defined. 5 significant digital marketing analytics that all businesses should pay attention to include-

1. Site Traffic

Site traffic is a crucial digital marketing analytic that requires additional nuance. Digital marketing professionals must be wary of vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are misleading numbers that initially appear extremely good or bad but lack the same real world implication.

For example, a social media post could receive a huge number of likes. At first glance, the social media post may be interpreted as a massive success. However, if social media likes did not result in site traffic or conversion rate increases they are not so useful. In this situation, the social media likes would be classified as a vanity metric.

Digital marketing professionals often choose to segment traffic by sources in order to analyze marketing channels individually. 5 marketing channel types include paid, social, referral, direct, and organic. Many digital marketing departments pay attention to using search engine optimization to increase organic traffic. However, segmentation can reveal other channels that marketers should pay attention to. For example, segmentation could indicate email marketing or social media campaigns necessitate more attention.

Traffic reveals information crucial for understanding digital marketing success and areas for improvement. Content marketing can pay attention to content pieces that generate site traffic or have a bounce rate that is low. Alternatively, social media marketing may make user experience or web design changes in response to site traffic data.

2. Click Rate

The click rate of Google ads and other paid ads is important to analyze. A low click rate can indicate a multitude of different issues. For example, the target audience for Google ads may not be sufficiently specific.

Alternatively, a landing page may not supply an optimal user experience due to web design problems. A/B testing is a great method to better identify specific click through issues. A simple change like adding case studies to a landing page can make a significant difference.

3. Load Speed

Case studies demonstrate that load times for websites greatly matter. In fact, 40% of users will abandon a site that requires more than 3 seconds to load. Abandoned sites directly lead to a higher bounce rate and lower organic search traffic. Additionally, low load speeds can influence important key performance indicators. Lower key performance indicators can damper marketing efforts significantly.

There are various ways that load times for websites can be decreased that digital marketing professionals should pay attention to. For example, image sizes can be adjusted and HTTP requests minimized. Content distribution networks are also useful for decreasing load times. Fast load times will likely result in lower bounce rates and various key performance indicators improved.

4. Engagement

Engagement is a hot topic in the digital marketing analytics world and for a good reason. Engagement reflects the real time shares, likes, or comments of a social media post. Unfortunately, engagement is especially prone to vanity metrics. For example, a social media campaign liked by many people may not accurately reflect real world value.

While social media analytics are easy to pay attention to they must produce real world financial profit. Case studies demonstrate that social media marketing is an increasingly popular field. The success of social media analytics is associated with the advances in conversion rate and site traffic it generates. As such, social media is increasingly focal in marketing strategy and decision making initiatives.

Engagement can also help businesses identify customer brand ambassadors or evangelists. Customers that take the time to connect with business social media accounts are more likely to make real world purchases. If social media marketing campaigns are generating qualified leads it may indicate an opportunity to increase social media investments.

5. Conversion

Conversion rate is an important digital marketing analytic for digital marketing professionals to pay attention to. The conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by visitors, 10% or higher is generally considered good. There are also both macro and micro conversions. A macro conversion could be a customer supplying their contact information. A micro conversion could be a subscription to a business blog. Both micro and macro conversions are important for digital marketing professionals to pay attention to.

Micro and macro conversions are important to pay attention to because both get a person into a business contact system. From there, potential customers can become existing customers and ideally eventually become evangelists. Through tracking conversions, businesses can learn a lot about the user experience and customer journey. For example, if a social media or email marketing campaign increases conversions a business may further boost it. Consistently high conversion rate marketing efforts indicate excellent marketing strategy success.

Key Takeaways for Digital Marketing Analytics

Digital marketing analytics are useful for everything from data driven decision making to customer service improvements.
Significant digital marketing analytics include site traffic, engagement, click rate, load speed, and conversion rate.