Data, data and more data. That’s what marketing is all about. However, the evaluation is often still carried out using outdated methods. But the future lies elsewhere – in predictive analytics.
Even at the end of 2021, digitization has not progressed as far as many would like. In too many companies and marketing departments, data analysis still means manually filling out Excel sheets. And that, although the technical possibilities offer so much more than what is ultimately used in reality. As a result, companies lag far behind the technical possibilities. After all, it is not just about making data digitally accessible, but about integrating it and above all being able to manage and analyze it automatically and taking the necessary steps before bad investments are made: Keyword predictive analytics.
The marketing dashboard of the future allows you to look into the crystal ball
Although the trend towards data-driven marketing has now been recognized in most companies, the MS Office tool Excel is still used far too often for data analysis. This leads to numerous limitations in the area of granularity and quality of reporting, such as the risk of manual errors, technical limitations and high, recurring time expenditure. However, these disadvantages can easily be avoided with the right tools and automated processes.
Thankfully, business intelligence (BI) platforms have evolved rapidly, making the modern, visual, and interactive marketing dashboard a key business intelligence tool that has little in common with the static reports of the past. The aim should be to be able to make valuable statements for future campaigns using high-quality data analyses.
A high standard of data quality and analysis pays off
You should be aware that the quality of the output depends on the quality of the input. What does that mean? Simply put, all metrics are only as insightful and detailed as the metrics they drive. When marketers rely solely on traditional methods like CPC, CPA, or CPM analysis, the outcome is likely not what executive-level marketing decisions require. Rather, it will be static and one-dimensional. One way to get around this is to go beyond CPX-style metrics and instead deck out a dashboard with a set of broader and customer-focused KPIs, like landing page conversion rates or lead-to-customer ratio.
What do marketers typically expect from data analysis? Of course, it’s important to know where and if spending has increased — for example, in a specific channel or geographic region. But data analysis could and should do more, for example showing those responsible exactly why something happened. Only with this knowledge can marketing teams learn from their actions, identify potential and improve methods for the next marketing campaign. Choosing a dashboard that offers sophisticated and more holistic data analysis is the first building block to campaign optimization and eventual success.
To move away from traditional static reports, algorithms must be integrated into the dashboard. This adds a dynamic layer to insights that not only uncovers trends and anomalies across channels, but also enables a true multichannel attribution model. This model is critical to maximizing marketing budgets and can also account for individual ad impressions or customer interactions. This, in turn, enables real-time actions that inform current and future campaigns.
Always one step ahead – with predictive analytics
Even real-time performance dashboards are often not enough to prevent campaign inefficiencies. In the worst case, agencies, partners and even internal teams end up spending a significant part of the marketing budget before those responsible realize it. Because of this, we are witnessing a slow but steady transition from reactive analysis to proactive analysis, a key catalyst for improved marketing performance and ROI.
Real-time data is definitely better than outdated performance data, much of which was still being accessed in 2021. However, what companies actually want to achieve can only be achieved by integrating a certain degree of predictive analytics: This makes reporting agile and future-proof. The real game changer is a dashboard that can anticipate campaign trends through proactive algorithms. Predictive analytics enables modifications and optimizations before campaigns are completed or even rolled out in some cases, ensuring businesses are always one step ahead.
Coupling effective KPIs with dynamic data and predictive analytics – this is what a marketing dashboard will look like in 2022. This gives marketers comprehensive insights, allowing them to identify patterns and trends at an early stage, which they in turn can use to adjust their strategy and achieve the greatest added value in the long term.
