What are the best marketing analytics tools for measuring the impact of your marketing campaigns?

If you want to use web analytics tools to analyse campaign effectiveness, make sure they have features truly relevant to measure ROMI, such as: 1- Holdout Groups for Benchmarking - True campaign incrementality can only be measured when benchmarking against (not exposed) control group, not against another campaign! 2- Clear Statistical Significance - Access to easy-to-interpret metrics confirming whether results are statistically robust or down to chance 3- Variable Time Windows for Testing. This is crucial to align with your typical product/service shopping cycle. Some platforms offer results within hours but may not capture behaviour of full customer base as only 3% to 5% of your ideal customers are "in-market" at any given time.

Les meilleurs outils d'analyse marketing incluent Google Analytics pour suivre le trafic web et les conversions. HubSpot offre des insights détaillés sur les campagnes inbound marketing. Il est important d’utiliser les bons outils pour visualiser et interpréter les données marketing complexes pour des prises de décisions éclairées.

Here's a quick rundown of top marketing analytics tools for measuring campaign impact, categorized by complexity and budget: Basic Needs (Free/Freemium): • Google Analytics: A solid starting point, offering website traffic data, basic demographics, and campaign tracking features. Advanced Measurement (Paid): • Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) Platforms: Track user journeys across channels (website visits, ad clicks) to understand how marketing efforts influence sales (e.g., Branch, CAKE). • Marketing Cloud Solutions with Sales Analytics: Analyze how marketing campaigns translate into leads, opportunities, and ultimately, sales (e.g., Salesforce Sales Cloud, HubSpot Sales Hub).

Engagement is a POOR measure of success and should NOT be used as people can be persuaded by content even if they don’t engage with it! Facebook did a research on engagement data across hundreds of companies a few years ago and found no relationship between click-through rate (CTR) and any Nielsen brand indicators, like ad recall, brand awareness, or purchase intent Put otherwise, the amount of clicks an ad receives is uncorrelated to its memorability or sales efficacy, and it shouldn't be used to gauge ist efficacy. The analysis also found no relationship between click-through rate (CTR) and ROI (return on investment), where 90% of customers who saw an ad before making a purchase did not click on it!

Conversion tracking tools are essential for measuring the impact of your marketing campaigns. They enable you to attribute conversions, such as purchases or sign-ups, to specific campaigns, offering clarity on what drives results. This insight helps you allocate your budget more effectively, focusing on strategies that deliver the best ROI. Additionally, you can identify and replicate successful tactics across different marketing initiatives. Look for tools with robust conversion tracking to optimize your campaign performance and budget allocation.

For campaigns involving social media, specialized analytics tools are essential. These tools track metrics such as shares, likes, comments, and follower growth, measuring reach and engagement. Additionally, they provide insights into audience sentiment and trends. By understanding how your content performs on social platforms, you can tailor your approach to better connect with your audience and amplify your message. Opt for social media analytics tools that offer comprehensive tracking and insights to enhance your social media strategy.

In my opinion, understanding customers journeys and behaviour flow is, in fact, one of the best application of path-to-conversion methods, the broader family of which MTA (Multi-Touth Attribution) models are a part of. In a job past we used path-to-conversion analysis as a diagnostic tool to shed light on bottlenecks along the overall conversion pathway. Thanks to the insight we got from the models, we've identified a handful of critical drop-off points on our cumbersome signup process that, once addressed, reduced drop-offs by 30%, directly increasing conversions and significantly boosting overall marketing ROI

Tools that map the customer journey offer a comprehensive view of consumer interactions with your brand across multiple touchpoints. They trace the path from initial awareness to final purchase, highlighting opportunities to improve the experience. By analyzing the customer journey, you can identify bottlenecks, optimize touchpoints, and create a seamless experience that fosters loyalty and repeat business. Select tools that provide detailed journey mapping to enhance customer satisfaction and retention.

Attribution approaches are poorly suited for measuring marketing effectiveness at campaign level. Even “algorithmically enhanced” MTAs tell you nothing about incrementality, which is key to determine true campaign effectiveness. If you cannot adopt a Marketing Mix Modelling, make sure you include a holdout in every single campaign you run. A holdout is a group of customers who are deliberately excluded from the activity. Normally, it ranges from 5% to 20% of the total audience and creates a natural test/control that ensures you can safely measure performance against your KPI of choice “But that would mean a loss of potential revenue” I hear you crying! I would rather deal with a small revenue reduction now to maximise future revenue!

Analyze day-of-week and time-of-day trends. This might seem obvious for some campaigns, but it can be a goldmine for others. For example, you might see a surge in website traffic for a B2B service on Tuesdays at 10 am, suggesting that's when decision-makers are most likely to be researching solutions. This could inform your scheduling for future webinars, blog posts, or even paid advertising campaigns. This insight can be particularly valuable for content marketing. If you see a specific blog post performs well on Wednesdays, you might consider promoting similar content on that day of the week.