From Raw Data To Real Results

If you have been a loyal reader of my weekly POWER plays, you’ve probably picked up by now that I like to talk about data… A LOT! 

Analyzing performance metrics is the backbone of every single service line that we offer at POWER. We leverage data for all strategic decisions and make sure even our most creative activities are backed with analytics. 

So for this week I want to provide another peek behind the curtain to show exactly what our analytical operations look like throughout our agency.

Here is a breakdown of three key tactics and tools that our team of specialists utilize to dive deeper into the data:

Zoho Analytics Dynamic Dashboards 

The reporting tool that we lean on the most across our operations is Zoho Analytics. Zoho is a multifunctional system for various marketing and business tasks, but we predominantly use Zoho Analytics to build custom, real-time reporting dashboards. More specifically, this is our go-to resource for every single one of our advertising clients.

Every advertising client at POWER is provided a customized dashboard that updates all active campaign metrics on a daily basis. So if our clients can’t sleep on a Tuesday night and want to see how their campaign is performing at midnight, they can check their respective Zoho link that we supply them with and get an up-to-date look of how their advertising efforts are performing.

Our dashboards prioritize digestibility and transparency. The KPIs that are conveyed are hyper-specific to each client's campaign objectives, and the format allows for even just a cursory glance at the dashboard to paint a solid picture of overall performance and how things are trending.

Google Analytics (GA4)

GA4 is obviously a staple in the marketing community, and every marketer and their mother should already be using the platform. For us at POWER, our main use case for GA4 is tracking the consumer journey from start to finish.

As I alluded to above, our Zoho dashboards already do a great job at conveying campaign KPIs such as clicks, leads generated, and overall cost efficiencies. We then turn to GA4 to depict a transparent story towards how our consumer targets are interacting and engaging with our clients' website and touchpoints. When we run traffic campaigns or anything driving in engagement on a website or landing page, we will live within GA4 to see how long our targets are spending on site, and what the click flow looks like to ensure that the actual consumer activity aligns with our desired and intended funnel.

Now, for those that may not be privy, GA4 is robust and offers a ton of value across every analytical element of a marketing funnel, but we have found it most productive when we pair it with native reporting like I’ll describe to you in the next bullet, or with our Zoho efforts to be able to completely track the consumer journey from A to Z. 

Native Platform Reporting Paired with Digestible Decks

The last analytical platform that we engage with would be the actual native reporting capabilities that the platforms we distribute our campaigns or marketing efforts on provide. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, YouTube, etc. they all have their own reporting dashboards that give you an extensive spectrum of performance data. What we have found most productive is to take the raw data from this native reporting and place it in digestible decks to provide to our clients.

So I stole this idea after reading how McKinsey operates. The initial McKinsey mindset was that PowerPoint was the key to basically everything! I don’t know if I would personally go that far, but I will tell you that we have received positive feedback from our clients that they like seeing the standard reporting from platforms like Facebook and Instagram presented in branded decks that are easier to flip through and understand. Our clients may not know exactly how to navigate within these social or search networks to pinpoint the worthwhile metrics, so we extrapolate the most productive data points and place them in a branded deck, so it’s quick and easy for them to digest and analyze.

Those three elements productively summarize how to take your raw data and turn it into strategies that can drive real results. There are so many worthwhile tools out there that you can play around with and use to find the most productive for your efforts. The three solutions I highlight here all cohesively gel with one another to make life easier for our clients to completely understand what we are working on, how it’s performing, and where opportunities may lie for us to continuously improve on.

If you have any questions about your own reporting efforts or where your current performance metrics may be lacking, feel free to shoot me a message as the POWER team is always happy to help!