Digital Analytics 101 – When Was The Last Time You Looked At The Data?

The beauty of digital marketing is its complete measurability. Unlike traditional marketing using e.g. flyers or newspaper ads or radio spots, you can actually definitively know how many people saw your message and took action on it. But when was the last time you looked at the data to track your marketing activity? Here is my Digital Analytics 101, with my tips on using some of the basic digital analytics tools you have available, and the good news is they are all free and straightforward to access and use:

#1. Google Analytics

The first port of call for any marketer using digital is Google Analytics. With a host of information about your website, its visitors, their behaviour, you can answer some key questions really quickly and easily:

• What marketing activity is working? Look at your Referrers report to see where your website visits are coming from.
• Am we reaching the right prospects? The data about users visiting your website tells you where they are located, when they visit, what devices they use and more.
• Are we creating the content they want to read? Looking at the Behaviour section and drilling into the Content and Pages your users view will tell you what content is working.
• Are our social media channels delivering? Using goals on social media referral traffic will show you which social channels are delivering sales or lead magnet requests.

Tip: set up goals on Google Analytics to track key conversion metrics

Tip: set up goals on Google Analytics to track key conversion metrics

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#2. Your Website

Aside from what Google Analytics tells you about your website, the software platform usually also offers some stats that you will want to know, in particular, how your contact and data capture forms are working.

If you’re on WordPress your forms plugin should give you stats on form views as well as submissions and a conversion rate. We use forms on Mykidstime.com for parents to enter competitions and we can see the views, entries and a conversion rate on our Gravity Forms section.

#3. Facebook Page Insights

There’s almost too much information available in your Facebook page insights, but you should at least be familiar with your dashboard and be able to answer these questions:

1. Who are our facebook page fans?
2. When do they engage with the page?
3. What type of content do they like best?
4. Are they taking any action (e.g. on a Sign up or Freebie call to action button)?

For more in-depth tips on understanding your Facebook Page Insights, read my Advanced Facebook Page Insights: An Analysis Guide for Marketers article for Social Media Examiner

#4. Facebook Ad Manager Stats

As Facebook is now effectively “pay to play”, if you’re running Facebook ads you’re probably looking at the cost per click and results of a typical ad campaign. But if you switch the drop down toggle from Performance to e.g. Engagement you can get even more stats on ads.

#5. Twitter Analytics

Access your Twitter Analytics at https://analytics.twitter.com (sign into your Twitter account if not already signed in) for analytics on your Tweets, your Twitter fans (Audience) and what people are engaging with on Twitter generally (Events).

The analytics let you answer key questions like

• Who are our Twitter fans?
• When do they engage with us on Twitter?
• What type of content do they like best?
• Are they taking any action (e.g. on a Sign up or Freebie call to action button)?

#6. Instagram Insights

I covered 5 free Instagram analytic tools on my Social Media Examiner article here but for starters look at the Insights on the Instagram app itself. Although they are a bit basic and you can’t download anything yet, it is a good place to start as you can see some good information about your followers like age, gender, when your followers are active on Instagram and more.

#7. Email Stats

When was the last time you analysed your email stats? Do you know what your average open and click rate are? Most mailing software providers offer stats such as open rates, click rates, clicks by link on your email and number of unsubscribes. Keeping abreast of how people are interacting with your emails helps you plan your next emails and potentially improve the results you get from them.

I hope this has inspired you to at least start looking at the basic digital analytics option that you have available for your business marketing.

Taking some time every month to log into your various digital analytics tools and checking results will inform not only your next campaign, but also feed into your content and social media plans.

In a nutshell, you’ll see what is working (and what isn’t), and where you can potentially get better results.

Using your digital analytics, in a nutshell, you’ll see what is working (and what isn’t)

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Do you need help with your digital analytics for your marketing? I can help. Contact me now for a chat!

Over to you now. When was the last time you looked at the data and checked your digital analytics? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.