The amount of data that advertising campaigns produce is enormous and can be entirely overwhelming. It may seem completely insurmountable and if it’s not analyzed properly, the insights will get lost, and render all of your efforts worthless. A key to any successful advertising campaign for a marketer is to gain an understanding of the data and apply it to the other campaigns waiting in the wings. For all of you forward-thinking, enthusiastic marketers out there - here are six steps to getting the most out of all of your campaigns and how to use your data purposefully.
1. Take off those rose-tinted glasses
Hopefully you’ve approached all of your campaign launches with certainty and confidence. But when the data comes in, it’s time to take off those rose-tinted glasses and get ready to see the sometimes raw reality. That’s not to say that it’ll be bad, it might just not be exactly what you imagined. There probably won’t be any entirely unexpected surprises, but you should be prepared to see facts and figures that aren’t completely aligned with your initial positive outlook.
2. Paint the real picture(s)
Now that the rose-tinted glasses have come off and the reading glasses have come on, it’s time to sit down and look at the nitty-gritty. Spreadsheets filled with numbers don’t really speak to most of us. We’ll generally need to express the data visually. Creating more easily readable charts and graphs from all those numbers by helping put them in context will enable us to get the most from what’s been gathered.
3. Look for patterns
Since the data is now laid out visually, it’s crucial to look for any patterns that were hidden amongst the numbers. They may seem to jump out at us, but some of them might be a bit harder to find. Consistent patterns probably aren’t flukes so give them the attention they deserve. Think about what they mean and their implications. Do they depict something you expected or is this a new trend that’s emerged? Can it really just be an anomaly?
4. Give it a voice
When you’re tired of staring, squinting, gazing, thinking, and discussing - it’s time to write. Keep it simple, but make sure that you commit yourself to writing a few statements summarizing the insights that have materialized. Giving the data a voice can help you reach more definitive conclusions about the campaign as a whole and help to guarantee that you have gleaned all of the wisdom from the numbers.
5. Put it to work
Now that you’re clear on what’s happened in your previous campaign, it’s essential to reap the benefits. So maybe everything didn’t work out as expected or maybe it did, but put the instinctive urge to dwell aside and start fresh. You have the necessary knowledge to make the next campaign an even bigger success, so put it to work. Apply those insights to the future campaign and enjoy watching it thrive.
6. Forever and ever and ever...
You’re now on to the next campaign, but realize that this isn’t over. It will never be over. The process of using data to gain marketing insights is an ongoing one, where you’re constantly learning and evolving with each new campaign and every set of data it produces. Accept the fact that you’ll never have all the answers, but acknowledge your perseverance and determination for improving each time.Data can be an unwieldy beast and as a marketer you have to become its fearless tamer. Approaching campaign statistics with an unruffled calm will help you make the most of what it has to offer and provide you with its secrets to help prepare you for what’s ahead.
What is the most surprising insight a campaign’s data has provided you with?
