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.

FLUFF

− Doug Kessler (10.01.2013)

46%

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

BOUNCE RATE

TIME ON SITE

TIME ON SITE

KPIs

KPIs

KPIs

Flags

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)

And

AJAX

VIDEOS

HOVERS

SCROLLING

CLICKS

TABBED 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

External

KPIs 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)

Internal

Flags 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 audit

2.Framework development

3.Ongoing reporting and

analysis

Three distinct phases

1.Data audit

2.Framework development

3.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 attribution

2. 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 attribution

2. Sales funnel definition

3. 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 attribution

2. Sales funnel definition

3. Data integration/data warehousing

4. 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

SEOPPC EMAIL DIRECT

1

2

3

7

4

10

8

9

5

10+

6

CONVERSION PATH LENGTH

SEO PPC EMAIL DIRECT

$

SEO PPC EMAIL DIRECT

$

SEO PPC EMAIL DIRECT

$

SEO PPC EMAIL DIRECT

$

SEO PPC EMAIL DIRECT

$

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 attribution

2. Sales funnel definition

3. Data integration/data warehousing

4. Conversion attribution

5. 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

A/B

AA/BB

1. Sources attribution

2. Sales funnel definition

3. Data integration/data warehousing

4. Conversion attribution

5. Conversion optimisation

6. 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 attribution

2. Sales funnel definition

3. Data integration/data warehousing

4. Conversion attribution

5. Conversion optimisation

6. Prospects segmentation

7. 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 attribution

2. Sales funnel definition

3. Data integration/data warehousing

4. Conversion attribution

5. Conversion optimisation

6. Prospects segmentation

7. Post-purchase funnel

8. 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.

Three distinct phases

1.Data audit

2.Framework development

3.Ongoing reporting and

analysis

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 term

2.Don’t overcomplicate things

3.Think of constraints:

• Budget

• Technology

• Resources

Three distinct phases

1.Data audit

2.Framework development

3.Ongoing reporting and

analysis

AND SO

WHAT?

AAAAAAlways

Add

Analysis

And

Action

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.

Outcome:

integrated, personalised,

dynamic dashboards and

reports, on which we can

easily add our analysis.

Outcome:

integrated, personalised,

dynamic dashboards and

reports, on which we can

easily add our analysis.

Outcome:

integrated, personalised,

dynamic dashboards and

reports, on which we can

easily add our analysis.

Become best friends with

these bad boys…

APIs Webhooks

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

Collection Reporting Analysis

OUR BIG CHALLENGE

MEDIUM

HIGH

LOW

Collection Reporting Analysis

OUR BIG CHALLENGE

MEDIUM

HIGH

LOW

Collection Reporting Analysis

WHAT OUR CLIENTS WILL EXPECT

MEDIUM

HIGH

LOW

Collection Reporting Analysis

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS

MEDIUM

HIGH

LOW

Collection Reporting Analysis

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

IMPROVE

Thank you.

@dSmulevich

@dSmulevich