The Role of Analytics in Digital Marketing Strategy

A successful digital marketing strategy can reach and resonate with customers through various touchpoints and channels.

But this is rarely an easy feat. According to McKinsey, 71% of customers expect brands to offer personalized experiences. So, it’s clear that consumers want and expect more from companies. 

To get a complete picture of what your target audience wants, you need data. That’s where analytics in digital marketing comes in — to help you uncover key insights into your potential customers’ behaviors, preferences, needs, wants, pain points, and motivations.

What Is Marketing Analytics in Digital Marketing?

Marketing analytics allows you to measure, manage, and analyze marketing performance to maximize campaign effectiveness and boost ROI.

Here are some of the different ways you can use analytics in digital marketing:

• Segment customers into distinct groups based on different criteria, such as demographics, psychographics, and buying behavior, to more efficiently target specific audiences.
• Track key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates, click-through rates (CTRs), and customer acquisition cost (CAC).
• Calculate your marketing efforts’ ROI to ensure you’ve allocated your resources to the most effective strategies.
• Assess your competitors’ marketing strategies and performance to identify opportunities and threats.
• Analyze the performance of marketing campaigns and make adjustments to improve results.
• Determine which marketing channels and tactics lead to the most conversions and sales.
• Use data to understand customer preferences, behaviors, and demographics.
• Use historical data to predict future trends and consumer behaviors.
• Create targeted personalization based on data-driven insights.
• Gather data from various sources.

Here’s an example of how a company uses email marketing analytics to deliver personalized recommendations. 

Meetup is an app that helps users make new friends and connect with like-minded people. In the email below, Meetup recommends events the recipient should attend based on their groups and interests. 

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Main Sources of Data for Marketing Analytics

You know how important it is to use analytics in digital marketing. 92% of marketers believe using first-party data (to continuously understand what consumers want) is critical to growth (Source: Think With Google). 

But you might be wondering, where do you get the data, especially with third-party cookies phasing out? It’s time to prepare for a cookie-less future. 

The different types of first-party data include:

• Transactional data: Purchase history, order value, frequency of purchases, payment methods, product returns
• Behavioral data: Page views, click-through rates, time spent on site, navigation paths, interaction with content
• Customer support data: Support tickets, chat logs, call recordings, resolution times, satisfaction ratings
• Engagement data: Email opens, link clicks, social media likes and shares, video views, ad interactions
• Product usage data: Frequency of use, features used, session duration, error reports, user feedback
• Loyalty program data: Points accumulated, redemption history, tier levels, loyalty program activity
• Mobile app data: App downloads, in-app purchases, session duration, app-specific interactions
• Subscription data: Subscription type, renewal dates, subscription history, payment information from your subscription management software
• Customer feedback: Surveys, reviews, ratings, feedback forms, customer service interactions
• Demographic data: Age, gender, income level, education, occupation, marital status, location
• Event data: Event registrations, attendance, session participation, post-event surveys
• Psychographic data: Goals, motivations, pain points, interests, preferences

One of the best ways to gather first-party data about your customers is to use customer feedback tools to help you create surveys. Here’s a great example of a customer survey from Clear that was sent via email. 

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Other ways to gather first-party data include:

• Web analytics tools: Google Analytics, Google Trends, Google Webmaster Tools
• Social media platforms: Insights from Facebook, X, and Twitter
• Mobile analytics tools: Glassbox, Firebase, Flurry
• Marketing automation tools: Marketo, Mailchimp
• E-commerce platforms: Shopify, Magento
• CRM systems: HubSpot, Salesforce

How To Incorporate Data Analytics Into Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Using analytics in digital marketing can help you reach and engage with your target audience, measure performance, and optimize your campaigns.

Determine the Type of Data You Need To Collect & Analyze

Determining your goals is the first step to taking a data-driven approach to digital marketing. 

• Are you trying to drive more traffic to your website?
• Do you want to increase brand awareness?  
• Are you looking to boost conversions? 
• Is customer retention a major priority?

Based on the goal you want to focus on, choose a few KPIs to track that will help you measure your progress. 

For example, suppose you want to increase customer retention because you know it’s cheaper to retain customers than to acquire them. In that case, you can look at customer retention rates and customer lifetime value (CLV). These metrics will help you track customer loyalty.

Step one is to determine the data type you need to analyze. Step two is to identify the different platforms and tools that can help you collect this data.

So, let’s say you want to boost engagement on your mobile app. Mobile analytics helps you shape digital marketing strategies by providing detailed insights into user behavior on mobile devices.

As mobile usage continues to grow, understanding how customers interact with mobile apps and websites is essential for creating targeted marketing campaigns. It tracks a variety of metrics, such as:

• App usage frequency
• User retention rates
• Navigation patterns
• In-app purchases

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With this data, you can enhance user engagement, personalize content, optimize the user experience, and drive higher conversion rates.

In some cases, you may need to track a variety of metrics. For example, maybe you want to create seamless omnichannel experiences for your customers. In that case, you’ll track various metrics, including web and app activity, social media data, email engagement, etc.

So, in addition to a mobile analytics platform, you’ll also need a web analytics tool, CRM platform, social media analytics software, email marketing software, etc.

You can also invest in a tool that provides customer experience (CX) and technical insights for web and mobile apps within a single platform. This allows you to understand cross-channel behavior and points of friction.

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Build an Integrated Marketing Tech Stack

Because you may be gathering key data from different sources, you’ll need an integrated tech stack that allows you to visualize all your data in one place,

Using a customer data platform (CDP) can help you unify and manage data from different sources and create a comprehensive customer profile.

Choose a CDP that integrates with a wide range of tools, including marketing automation platforms, analytics tools, CRMs, and more.

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You can also use customer relationship management (CRM) software to manage and analyze customer interactions throughout the customer lifecycle. For example, HubSpot offers many integrations to help you track customer data across different platforms:

• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
• Customer success platforms
• Email marketing software
• Social media platforms
• Sales platforms

HubSpot is a popular tool (used by thousands of marketers) to help you analyze marketing performance all in one dashboard.

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You can also track the complete customer lifecycle and map how marketing touchpoints work together to drive revenue.

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Furthermore, HubSpot allows you to track your website performance metrics to see how visitors are interacting with your site.

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Use Data To Track Your Customers

Using data from your marketing tech stack to identify and track all customer touchpoints from initial awareness to final purchase and beyond. Analyze customer behavior at each journey stage to understand how they interact with your brand.

• Awareness: Identify where customers first learn about your brand, whether it’s through social media, search engines, ads, word-of-mouth, or content marketing.
• Consideration: Determine the channels customers use to gather information and evaluate your products or services. Think of your website, blog, reviews, comparison sites, or social media.
• Decision: Track touchpoints related to the final decision-making process, such as product pages, pricing pages, free trials, demos, and customer service interactions.
• Purchase: Identify the touchpoints where the actual purchase occurs, including e-commerce checkout, in-store purchase, or through a sales rep.
• Post-purchase: Track interactions after the purchase, including email follow-ups, customer service inquiries, social media engagement, and loyalty programs.

To help you keep track of these activities and the data they create:

• Use tools like Google Analytics to track website interactions and monitor specific events, such as button clicks, form submissions, and downloads.
• Integrate a CRM system to track sales interactions, email communications, and customer service inquiries.
• Use marketing automation platforms to track email opens, clicks, and other engagement metrics.
• Make sure to utilize the analytics tools provided by social media platforms.
• If you sell online, use e-commerce analytics to track purchase behavior and the customer journey on your site.

Segment your audience based on the data you uncover. Use those segments to deliver personalized content, offers, and experiences to different audience groups.

Let the Data Lead Your Digital Marketing Campaigns

With ever-changing consumer preferences and rising expectations for brands, analytics in digital marketing is a must.

You can use the data you gather to: 

• Find potential opportunities to improve your strategies
• Understand the customer journey
• Identify points of friction

Without analytics, you would just be shooting in the dark when it comes to finding out what works and what doesn’t in your marketing campaigns. 

That’s why it’s so important to analyze performance data to identify successful strategies and identify potential areas for improvement.

Throughout this article, we’ve explored the many ways you can track customer data and what to do with that data to maximize success. 

If you need help developing a digital marketing strategy that gets results, contact us today to schedule a free consultation. Learn how we can help you create a custom digital marketing strategy tailored to your small business’s unique needs and goals.