About a year ago, Tyler and I were in the midst of preparing for a marketing analytics course we were teaching, and knew that a common challenge in the marketing world was just how to convey their performance and analytics in a way that was digestible. What we landed on creating was a sort of framework that could be used almost in all situations, that could give a hint on just how to overcome this obstacle. Despite all that has changed in the past year, the ability to effectively communicate marketing analytics remains as relevant as ever. And besides, who doesn’t love a good framework?

Stay Curious and Ask Questions About Your Data

The intent of this framework was to give marketers some structure around their communications. It can be difficult to convey marketing performance, especially to those in the organization who don’t necessarily use/understand the jargon or don’t participate in marketing activities regularly. Just because this may sound difficult, it does not mean you can simply avoid it; in fact, it’s critical you don’t.

Below are some of things that our team regularly thinks about when measuring marketing performance. By remaining curious and asking questions, it helps us to cover our bases, check our assumptions, and get the message to the right people.

Lastly, don't stress about trying to doing everything mentioned below. Take time to consider what might be right for a current campaign or what is a goal for your organization, and simply start there!

A Marketing Analytics Framework

Some key terms to go over before you move on:

• Micro conversions allow you to test and measure small steps along the user journey.

• Macro conversions are the larger business goals; they’re what those small steps result in.

Business Priorities

• Start with a conversation with the CEO and CFO about business goals and challenges, as it relates to customers.

• Ask them what is most important to them; what numbers they need to make better business decisions.

• What questions do you need to find answers to on a regular basis?

• How often do they need these numbers for referencing or decision making?

  
  

Customer Journey

• Consider specific goals and metrics along each stage of the customer journey. This means involving people from across the organization. What is your service department measuring? What does success from the sales team look like?

• Consider the length of your sales cycle to determine how often it makes sense to report on trends or outcomes. If your sales cycle is typically 12 months, then reporting on tactics every month may not give you helpful insights, except at the micro level.

  
  

Collecting the data

• What tracking tools do you have currently implemented? Are you able to easily get historical data for the metrics mentioned above?

• For micro conversions, especially on the website, are you tracking important behaviors that signal interest from potential customers?

• Do you have data privacy policies in place, and do you know how those policies may impact your reporting?
  
  

your expectations

• As a professional, you have knowledge of and experience with various channels and marketing tactics. What would you expect to happen? 

• Is it realistic? Do you have the tools in place to measure and report on it?

• Use caution in making promises about what numbers you can show if you're uncertain about how you're collecting and reporting it.

• Use averages to forecast results and justify spend.

• Be aware of your bias; don't try to find data to support your point of view. Be consistent in reporting timeframes and define metrics specifically.

• Push yourself to justify the numbers.

• Once you know the answers or see the data, will you do anything with it? Will it cause you to change something? If the answer is no, why are you tracking/reporting it?
  

Analysis of Your Reports

When you review and analyze the data...

• What patterns do you see?

• If you sort the data differently, does it tell a different story?

• If you combine the data with another piece of data, does that give you any unique insights?

• Reflect on your expectations and goals; were you right or wrong? 

• Does any data surprise you?

This process builds depth of knowledge and contributes to the overall 'feel' of what's happening in your marketing. Do your best to document the vibe you're getting. Frequently write down a 'here's what I know' based on all of my analysis and review of the data.

Reporting

• What would the report look like that you'd want to show your boss? Sketch it out!

• Who needs to see the data? Craft your data story for their needs specifically: Novice, Generalist, Managerial, Expert, Executive

• Share data across the organization, especially for other content creators. People like to see that something they worked on with you has contributed to the company’s success!

• Use consistent time frames or scale. Be consistent in your report design. Consider GA4's changes to only seeing one year back. (Universal Analytics is sunsetting in July 2023…time to get GA4 implemented now to start collecting behavior data from your website!)

• Include all relevant data, even if it doesn't support your position or means something didn't work. That knowledge is very valuable and being accountable builds credibility!

• Make sure your reporting process is realistic to maintain.