How to Create a Marketing Analytics Strategy

Last week, a CMO sent me their 'daily executive dashboard.' It had 37 metrics. No wonder nobody was making decisions. Measurement strategies (and reporting) should differ across teams/roles. DAILY DECISIONS (Performance Teams): - ROAS by channel - Traffic & CVR - Inventory & promo plans Measurement: - Platform metrics - Basic measurement - Last-click attribution is ok here - Incremental coefficients are nice to have Why: Speed over perfection. Daily optimization needs quick data. Tip: DO NOT send these to your execs unless you want your inbox roasted. WEEKLY OPTIMIZATIONS (Marketing Managers): - Campaign performance - Segment/audience behavior - Creative performance - Funnel analytics Measurement - Multi-touch attribution (MTA) - A/B testing (campaign/adset/ad) - Site/Landing Page CRO Why: Balance between speed and accuracy. Enough data to spot real patterns. MONTHLY STRATEGY (Department Heads): - Channel effectiveness - CAC by segment - LTV & RFM trends - Market share Measurement: - Incrementality testing - cohort analysis Why: Time to validate true business impact. QUARTERLY PLANNING (C-Suite): - Growth trajectory & Forecasting - Unit economics - Marketing efficiency (MER) Measurement - Marketing mix modeling - Scenario planning Why: Long-term strategic decisions need comprehensive data. The goal is to measure and report based on: - The speed of the decision - The team making it - The right measurement approach Performance teams need daily data for tactical optimization. Executives need quarterly trends for strategy. Sending both teams the same daily dashboard? - That's why your media team is drowning in "tweaks and signoffs". - That's why your managers don't have time to review trends. - That's why your executives are lost in the noise. Different teams, different decisions, different data needs. Match your measurement & reporting to your audience. ♻️ Share this with a marketer who needs it 🔔 Follow me for more rants on data + marketing

You’re tracking everything. Bounce rates, time on page, CTR, scroll depth, conversions, impressions. But here’s the catch: If every metric is a priority, none of them are driving the business forward. I’ve worked with companies spending $50K+ per month on marketing, while drowning in data that doesn’t serve a strategy. The problem isn’t the tools. GA4, GTM, and Looker Studio can deliver incredible insight. The problem is this: The wrong KPIs get celebrated, while the right ones get ignored. ➞ Here’s how I help clients shift focus: 1. Define what actually drives business outcomes: → Is it lead quality? → Sales velocity? → Churn rate? → Start there, not with CTR. 2. Group your KPIs into categories: → Acquisition Signals (Awareness, Reach) → Intent Signals (Engagement, Product Interest) → Revenue Signals (Conversion, Retention) 3. Design dashboards around movement, not activity: → If nothing would change after reviewing the data, the report failed. You don’t need 25 metrics. You need the 5 that change how your team behaves. ➞ Which of these metrics do you think your team overvalues? A) Click-through Rate B) Time on Page C) Bounce Rate D) All of the above

I’d bet over 70% of your paid media budget is going to Google search (Demand Capture). Why? Because attribution is signaling that it’s driving demo interest, but you might not be fully evaluating the entire funnel’s contribution. You’re likely blending the performance of your marketing efforts and overlooking some obvious inefficiencies. More often than not, the issue is that the infrastructure doesn’t give you an accurate view of what’s really happening. When I start working with a new team, I usually begin with the questions below. The answers reveal how deep we need to dig. - How are we investing budget today/channels and why? - What % of our ad dollars tie back to opportunities? - What % of our ad dollars tie back to revenue? - Are any programs winning at a faster velocity? After an anecdotal eval it’s time to dig in. Here’s what I’d recommend you do too so you can establish a baseline and build from there: 1. Get revenue targets [for the entire business] 2. Analyze pipeline metrics by sources [6-8 qtrs] 3. Map $ to source for cost-per [SQL/SQO/CW] Here’s the quick process: 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: Identify all revenue goals for the BUSINESS not just marketing: → What’s revenue target all up? [Quarterly/Fiscal] → What’s the % of net new vs upsell/extensions? → What % growth YoY [Ask Inputs] → What % is marketing responsible for? 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: Review and QA CRM data to better analyze pipeline metrics and contribution. → Break out inbound vs outbound lead sources [Bucket] → What are primary lead sources? [Driving 80%+ vol] → What’s current inbound/outbound split % → What’s marketing contribution YTD 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: Map investment to campaign conversion source to get cost-per [funnel stage] by source & bucket into inbound & outbound: → What $ investment by program type: [Demand Capture/Create] 𝘗𝘙𝘖 𝘛𝘐𝘗: 𝘜𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 & 𝘚𝘙𝘈 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘩𝘺𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦. → What $ investment by source [Paid Social/Events/etc] → What’s cost-per-funnel stage [MQL/SQL/SQOCW] → What are funnel conversion rates by source? → What investment is split by lead sources? → What are win rates by program source? 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰: Fill in the blanks to initiate the convo on why the strategy needs to shift: In the last [__] quarters we have invested [_____] in Google and Demand Capture tactics [webinars/ebooks/forms]. That investment yielded [_____] leads at a cost-per [__] but only [_____]% resulted in closed-won revenue for the business. Our Demand Creation contributes [_____]% business revenue for inbound. Given Demand Capture win rates, and revenue contribution our 2025 marketing dollars would be best shifted funds towards ____ H1. Here are 2-4 areas I recommend we fund in 2025 ___ ____ ____. - - - - - Tons of challenges: What are the challenges you're facing doing a similar analysis? - Data quality integrity? - Philosophical alignment? - Too much reliance on attribution? #marketing #b2b #GTM