So I am pursuing a Web-Digital Analytics certification program to complement and update my expertise in this domain and the more I go through the training (which is well done), I realize again that we just love to complicate things...to have the feeling that "we" know...and that "they" don't.
As one goes through a certification program on Digital Analytics with a strong focus on Google Analytics, it is highly probable that this person will be exposed to known terms...Metrics, segments, kpi, etc. and new ones like dimensions, traffic sources, goals, path, medium, outcomes, outcomes as goals, goals for KPIs, etc.
At first it is obvious one will be confused by so many terms and so many combinations of those terms...very confused. This is always the case when technology is put before business or marketing logic and a (brilliant) team of technologists use what they know, to give a business or marketing feel to what they propose.
Well, let me demistify Digital Analytics one step at a time:
Digital Marketing analytics (linked to tracking and analyizing SEM, SEO, emails, etc) is no more and no less than Database Marketing applied to online data...as simple as that! No 4th dimension world with new logics and new alien concepts.
- What is Database Marketing...This is what I came up with: The application of database and data analysis to marketing decisions!
- What are the marketing decisions that we are talking about? let me summarize the ultimate decisions that you want to make
- What is the "best" target?
- What are the "best" offering and offer?
- What is the "best" time to contact?
- What is the "best" channel?
- What is the point of improving marketing decisions? A higher return for your marketing investment!
When you look at Digital Marketing, this is the same purpose but online so the specific dimensions for you to try to find the "best" are not exactely the same than for the offline world but pretty close. They are not the same in the sense that they are linked to online but at the core, they relate to the same core focus: Observing and tracking consumer behaviors and understanding who they are so that a marketer can concentrate on the consumers or prospects who have the most or the most propensity to have the targeted behavior.
What are those online dimensions in line with the key marketing decisions?
- What is the "best" target?...Translate in Digital Marketing terms applied to digital data
- What is the "best" traffic source?
- What is the "best" visitor location?
- What is the "best" keyword?
- What is the "best" mobile device?
- Etc.
- What are the "best" offering and offer?...Translate in Digital Marketing terms applied to digital data
- What is the "best" AdWord Ad?
- What is the "best" AdWord campaign?
- What is the "best" message?
- Etc.
- What is the "best" time?...Translate in Digital Marketing terms applied to digital data
- What is the best traffic day?
- What is the best traffic hour?
- Etc.
- What is the "best" channel?...Translate in Digital Marketing terms applied to digital data
- What is the "best" traffic source?
- What is the "best" visit path?
- What is the "best" landing page?
- Etc.
Point made!
Digital Marketing is no more/no less than marketing commmunications...online/on digital devises:). So of course, it has its own content creation rules, technology requirements, interaction rules, etc....but in the end, this is still about a target going from point A ("I do not know you") to point Z ("I purchase your product") where the "online" path from A to Z, while not being linear, is still in the end in having as many people in the target going from A to Z.
So this means that Digital Marketing and therefore Digital Analytics are here to help build effective marketing communications to push or pull as many people in the target to the purchase stage.
It seems to me that once we simplify our understanding and once we go back to basics, things get clearer and manageable.