What is Digital Marketing Analytics?

9 min to read

Digital marketing analytics is the act of collecting and evaluating data from a business’s online marketing activities to understand their impacts and overall performance.

This information enables marketing managers to track and measure projected results and make strategic decisions and changes based on analytical data.

Key Takeaways:
  • Data analysis impacts the decision-making process related to marketing in various ways
  • Monitoring important indicators and consolidating other information systems are considered best practices within digital marketing analytics
  • Checking analytics allows evaluation of results and supplies data needed for strategic adjustments
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What are the key metrics in digital marketing analytics?

Key metrics within digital marketing analytics are values that provide a measurable result corresponding to online marketing activities. These metrics are classified as specific data elements, enabling the tracking of results against set targets as well as identifying problem areas that require a revisit. 

Organizations calculate these key metrics to monitor how their expenditures are performing concerning returns (ROI) in different marketing channels. Some of these metrics include the amount of traffic to a website, the number of conversions, and the customer acquisition cost (CAC).

Pro Tip:
Rather than measuring vanity metrics such as follower count, prioritize actionable metrics that directly correlate with attaining your company goals, like the rate of conversion and quality of leads.

How do you collect data for digital marketing analytics?

The information relative to digital marketing analytics is collected from various sources available on the internet. This collection employs various tools and platforms that capture interactions and evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and provides the basis for analyzing customer behavior.  

The following tools are most frequently cited for obtaining the required data:  

  • Information from social media networks.  

  • Information from ad services.  

The accuracy of the information provided and the precision of the analysis conducted greatly hinge on the reliability of the data compiled.

Pro Tip: 
Implement UTM tags onto your marketing links to ensure their accurate allocation and trace the origins of media traffic across various campaigns and platforms.

How can businesses use insights from digital marketing analytics?

The analysis of data generated from digital marketing activities is of great importance to companies as it can be used for operational purposes in many ways. These include: 

  • Changing specific details within a marketing campaign.

  • Changing aspects related to the user experience.

  • Shifting marketing messages and media based on data segments available. 

The results of data analysis concerning marketing strategy inform the decision-making process. Such as in the following example:

  • Data associated with conversion paths can help link certain marketing channels to actual sales conversion events.
Pro Tip: 
Build a data-infused culture and create reports from time to time to share your findings with the appropriate teams so that insights can be acted upon.

What are the different types of digital marketing analytics?

Following is the list of different types of channels and activities of marketing that an organization can track as part of digital marketing analytics:  

  • Social media analytics 

  • Email marketing analytics  

Focusing on these specific specialties in detail enables a deeper understanding of each area of digital marketing. Learning about analytics helps an organization adopt the correct course/strategy to address the particular challenges and goals they have defined. Moreover, having data on these different types provides more comprehensive insights into the business marketing activities.

Pro Tip: 
Avoid treating each channel as a separate component. Instead, look for relationships and interactions between various types of analytics to gain a clearer understanding of your marketing ecosystem as a whole.

How do you integrate data from different digital marketing channels?

Various digital marketing channels can be assimilated using unified analytics platforms, data warehouses, or an API link. This step gives a holistic perspective in regards to the customer journey and the effect marketing is having on that specific customer.

The data from different sources and platforms allow looking at the problem from several angles. For instance, the connection between social media activity and the number of visitors to the company’s website can easily be studied. All this combined data is represented through visualization tools like Tableau or Power BI.

Pro Tip: 
Consider purchasing a centralized system or platform for data management to simplify integration procedures while maintaining uniform data across all marketing channels.

Conclusion

Performing digital marketing analytics involves evaluating the performance of the company’s online marketing activities by examining actionable data. It includes defined metrics, specialized data collection tools, and methods for data synthesis. The information obtained serves as a foundation to evaluate performance and inform decisions on changes that can enhance marketing activities.

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