The question on many people’s minds when it comes to big data analytics is, “How can this make me money?” And that was the same question on many audience members’ minds at the Digital Analytics Association (DAA) Los Angeles Symposium earlier this month. I spoke on a panel titled “From Data to Dollars” at the Symposium addressing this question, along with
DAA President John Lovett and
HauteLook Chief Technology Officer Kevin Diamond. The panel, moderated by
Fractal Sciences President Richard Sussman, discussed the challenging topic of how to utilize raw digital analytics to increase ROI and provide actionable insights. Although the process can seem quite daunting to a marketer, it doesn’t have to be. I saw many audience members’ eyes light up as I explained how they can turn their data into dollars by putting their data to work.
Sussman asked two questions in particular that stood out to me. The first was about the chicken-or-the-egg conundrum of whether advertisers should base their creative efforts on existing analytics data, or execute a campaign and then determine what worked and what didn’t. It’s not an easy question to answer. Even analytics can’t predict the future 100 percent of the time when it comes to deciding a creative strategy and what worked well once might not work again. On the flip side, though, basing a campaign’s strategy on cold, hard data instead of a gut feeling helps to prevent wasted time and money on a dud advertising effort.
For example, prior to turning to Convertro,
Wine Enthusiast viewed coupon affiliate networks as a vital part of its marketing efforts, but after using Convertro, it learned that certain coupon affiliates were not actually delivering value that was worth the investment. In fact, Convertro learned that many customers were leaving their shopping carts to search for Wine Enthusiast coupons, visiting the coupon affiliates, and returning to their shopping carts to insert the same promotions that the company was already running on the Wine Enthusiast site. Basically, Wine Enthusiast was paying the affiliates for customers that it had already acquired. This insight propelled the company to remove coupon sites from its affiliates program. As a result, Wine Enthusiast cut costs paid to affiliates by 33 percent and increased ROI by 49 percent.
The second question was about how fast data needs to be turned around after media has appeared in order for a company to see results. Quick data offers a number of benefits – too much lag time can make data irrelevant, whereas a fast turnaround means advertisers can put changes into effect quickly enough to preserve the always-precious budget. That’s why Convertro had Super Bowl data ready for our clients the morning after the game. Plus, having analytics right away allows a company to make tweaks to its creative without necessarily having to scrap an entire campaign. That being said, businesses need to consider the long-term effects beyond the initial impact of a campaign. While it’s true that businesses benefit from seeing the immediate data, they can’t discount the more drawn-out campaigns with longer periods of implementation that don’t show rapid results.
At the end of the day, companies can and should still be creative with their advertising and marketing efforts. But backing that creativity up with strategic analytics accurately delivered throughout a campaign can only improve a campaign’s efficacy and ROI. And that’s how big data turns into dollars.
Jeff Zwelling is co-founder and CEO of Convertro, which provides marketers and agencies with cross-channel analytics, insights, and recommendations to monitor and optimize marketing strategies.