content marketing analytics: what you should really be doing

Content Marketing Analytics

What you should really be doing…

and probably aren’t

@dSmulevich

I can’t think of any other industry where its top professionals have repeated the same thing…

OVER AND OVER...

And pretty much everyone out there listened to them…

And pretty much everyone out there listened to them…

… well, sort of.

− Doug Kessler (10.01.2013)

FAILURE

Choose the right KPIs

A KPI is a metric used to determine how well you are performing against your business objectives.

Number of new leads per month

Effective Marketing

Build a customer database

200 per month

Number of new leads per month by channel

New leads from Affiliate programs

BOUNCE RATE

TIME ON SITE

And they are also misleading: they think in terms of interactive engagement hits, do you?

If you don’t know what this means, start from here: bit.ly/1xF11QO

69% of marketers use pageviews as a key metric, forgetting about…

Contently, The State of Content Marketing Measurement (2014)

AndAJAXVIDEOSHOVERSSCROLLINGCLICKSTABBED BROWSING

and so on.

Start measuring the attention time your content receives, from mouse movements to video plays, looking at what browser tab was opened etc.

Last February, Upworthy moved from making decisions based on pageviews to using attention minutes.

Sample code: bit.ly/1F2JLUG

Last February, Upworthy moved from making decisions based on pageviews to using attention minutes.

And two months later they were able to charge brands for branded content.

Or start with free plugins for:

Screen time (bit.ly/11wn6Tm)

Active time (bit.ly/1F2KXHp)

Scroll depth (bit.ly/1eH0S1r)

By @robflaherty

ExternalKPIs Board Anything that you can correlate with revenues, conversions, cost (£)

PIs MarketersMetrics that help you get to your KPI targets (Content performance: task completion rate, attention time)

InternalFlags Marketers + Website managersTo spot issues early (Adjusted bounce rate, site speed)

The goal of our work is to understand the triggers behind new and existing customers’ content consumption and buying behaviour…

…so we can plot the best course of action to drive demonstrable improvements in revenue.

How do we get to that?

Step up your analytics game

Three distinct phases

1.Data audit2.Framework development3.Ongoing reporting and analysis

Understanding what structures you/the client has in place, and how the business is using the data at its disposal, so that we can devise a data collection and reporting strategy that supports our content marketing efforts.

1. Sources attribution

1. Sources attribution

We must attribute prospects to their acquisition source or channel. We can’t work out where our best prospects are if we don’t know the source (PPC, list purchase).

1. Sources attribution2. Sales funnel definition

2. Sales funnel definition

We need to define the sales funnel stages by establishing the demographic and behavioural measures as prospects move down the funnel.

1. Sources attribution2. Sales funnel definition3. Data integration/data warehousing

3. Data integration/data warehousing

A data warehouse is just a big database that pulls data from lots of different sources. When this data is put together, you can do an all-round user analysis, e.g. looking at online behaviour and offline conversion. Or tie long-term purchase history to online behaviour.

1. Sources attribution2. Sales funnel definition3. Data integration/data warehousing4. Conversion attribution

4. Conversion attribution

We should AT LEAST create an attribution model to determine credit for content and sales conversions. It’s a mistake to attribute conversion to a single action: the reality is usually a complex mix of sales path interactions. The attribution model should be applied to evaluate content promotion campaigns.

SEOPPC EMAIL DIRECT

1

2

3

7

4

10

8

9

5

10+

6

CONVERSION PATH LENGTH

SEO PPC EMAIL DIRECT

$

However, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Cross-channel attribution:

“The practice of using advanced statistical approaches to allocate proportional credit to marketing communications and media activity across all channels, which ultimately leads to the desired customer action.”

The Forrester Wave™: Cross-Channel Attribution Providers, Q4 2014

1. Sources attribution2. Sales funnel definition3. Data integration/data warehousing4. Conversion attribution5. Conversion optimisation

5. Conversion optimisation

If we know where opportunities fall out, we can take positive actions: messaging, copy, calls-to-action, value propositions, design, and even entire campaigns can be optimized to overcome any issues.

Don’t forget to test your assumptions

1. Sources attribution2. Sales funnel definition3. Data integration/data warehousing4. Conversion attribution5. Conversion optimisation6. Prospects segmentation

6. Prospects segmentation

You should segment your prospects, so that you can boost conversion rates with better content and increase sales interest with stronger problem focus.

1. Sources attribution2. Sales funnel definition3. Data integration/data warehousing4. Conversion attribution5. Conversion optimisation6. Prospects segmentation7. Post-purchase funnel

7. Post-purchase funnel

Can we separate online communications strategies, campaigns and messages for repeat sales to the existing customer base?

Thanks to the genial @martoozie for this!

1. Sources attribution2. Sales funnel definition3. Data integration/data warehousing4. Conversion attribution5. Conversion optimisation6. Prospects segmentation7. Post-purchase funnel8. Reporting

8. Reporting

The right level of reporting should enable different stakeholders (marketers, salespeople etc.) to receive only the information they need, in a way that’s as simple and clear as possible, to take informed decisions.

Automate reporting whenever possible.

Framework development

=

Data collection strategy

Start from the business requirements, talk to the stakeholders involved and then visualise the dimensions/metrics that you aim to get

Now you’re ready to spec it out!

1.Plan for the mid-long term2.Don’t overcomplicate things3.Think of constraints:

• Budget• Technology• Resources

AND SO WHAT?

AAAAAAlwaysAddAnalysisAndAction

In-depth analysis should be carried out on a regular basis: results should be brought into quarterly meetings with the relevant stakeholders, upon internal sharing first with the (agency) team.

Take data out of silos

Outcome: integrated, personalised, dynamic dashboards and reports, on which we can easily add our analysis.

Become best friends with these bad boys…

APIs Webhooks

Your bible: GA reference guide

bit.ly/P8msWU

Your playground: the query explorer

bit.ly/XeNbVy

Three ways to extract data using the API:

Add-ons (Supermetrics rocks!)

Custom functions

Programmatically (build a PHP app)

Easy

Hard

You can also use the management API to import data into GA!

Data on: users, campaigns, content, products, refunds, cost

bit.ly/1nTIkEl

Become best friends with these bad boys…

APIs Webhooks

Webhooks let you send data to Google Analytics when something special in another platform happens, e.g. you won that contract with the client!

GA Measurement Protocol: bit.ly/N3z7sa

WAIT, WAIT, WAIT….

How do I link GA users with CRM entries?

•Extract client id from GA cookie

•Use your CRM API to push the data through along with the CRM id

•Call webhooks as users perform set actions

Now all your data is integrated, you can visualise data the way you/your client/your board needs!

Use free visualisations APIs:•Google Analytics Embed API•Google Charts

A little reminder

Collection Reporting Analysis

OUR BIG CHALLENGE

MEDIUM

HIGH

LOW


WHAT OUR CLIENTS WILL EXPECT

MEDIUM

HIGH

LOW


MANAGING EXPECTATIONS

MEDIUM

HIGH

LOW

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

THE NEW CIRCLE OF LIFE

Iterative analytics implementations:

“As you continually improve your site and its features, your implementation must evolve as well in order to provide you with the data you need.”

@RudiShumpert

IMPROVE

Thank you.

@dSmulevich

@dSmulevich

content marketing analytics: what you should really be doing

Data & Analytics

branded content

content marketing efforts

data collection

attention minutes

sales funnel stages

sales funnel definitionwe

best prospects

monthnumber of new leads