Whether you’re new to digital marketing analytics for small business or it’s your full-time job to dig into the numbers, there are certain terms you hear over and over again. But “Big Data,” and “Google Analytics,” are more than just buzz words or industry terminology–they’re massive concepts that can help you understand, refine, and grow your marketing campaigns and strategies.
But with concepts so large, breaking them down into actionable and actually helpful tactics can be overwhelming. If you’re new to Google Analytics or you’ve never spent time on the data side of your business’s social media profile, the wall of numbers can be intimidating and feel like just that–an impenetrable wall of contextless numbers.
But analyzing your search data and learning how to parse through it will reveal something unexpected–a narrative. Data is just a numeralized version of the story of your customer journey.
How long customers stay on each page of your site, which social posts they prefer to interact with, and how often they open your emails–these may feel like unrelated data points but they create a larger picture of your sales funnel and overall customer journey. A picture that can be used to inform and radically transform every area of your business!
From discovery to engagement to the final sale, you should be using marketing analytics to make decisions about how you grow your business and interact with your customers.
Not sure where to start? That’s completely natural! When it comes to the applications of data analysis the possibilities are literally endless. That’s why we’ve put together this starter guide for small business owners and marketing directors.
These are some of the most common data points and business applications in search analytics analysis. As you master these and become more proficient, you’ll be able to use the data collected from all of your digital marketing efforts to help you inform and improve every area of your business.
What Can You Learn from Analyzing Search Data?
First, we’ll discuss what you can learn from analyzing your search data. Search analytics collects and analyzes data from searches to investigate different interactions between web searchers, the search engine, or content during a search.
In other words, every time you search for something on Google, Bing, or another search engine, you leave a trail of data behind you about your behavior.
When you type in “dentists near me” and choose a site, Google records the time of day, the date, and how long you spend on each page. It tracks which pages you visit and in what order. It records the search term you used to find the site and how you got there–whether that’s from a referral link on another site or by clicking a Facebook post.
All of these data points–and many more–are collected, anonymized, and stored. The search data will not tell them who is searching, but it will aggregate all similar behavior to help businesses develop an overall view of their digital presence and health. Remember, one data point is not statistically significant on its own. You have to gather a lot of information from as many sources as possible to establish a pattern or customer profile.
Once you have that information and can compare it month over month or year over year, you can start to establish trends in customer behavior and engagement. Here are some examples:
Identify Where Your Leads Are Coming From
Search data allows you to identify where exactly your leads are coming from. For instance, Google Analytics separates referral sources–paid advertising, websites, social media, etc.
For example, if you’re spending money on Google Ads, Facebook campaigns, and Yellow Pages advertising, your search analytics will help you sort out how many of your website visitors are coming from each campaign.
This allows you to determine what is and isn’t working–and, therefore, what is and isn’t worth investing your budget into.
Measure Your Visibility
Search data can also help you measure how visible you are online. You can pull numbers that help you understand how often certain search results lead to your business being viewed or contacted versus your competitors.
Understanding what percentage share of local search results you garner versus your competitors can help you make decisions about budget allocation and marketing tactics. How big of a gap do you have to close? What are they doing well that you could improve in your own digital marketing strategy? What kinds of campaigns can you run to make yourself more visible online?
Determine What Resonates
When used correctly, marketing analytics for small business can also reveal which content is resonating with your audience and which isn’t.
Which headlines are getting clicks? Which blog posts have a longer “time on page” average that signals people are reading the blog in its entirety?
Use this information to help you build engaging editorial calendars and appealing headlines. Cover the topics that people actually care about to drive more traffic to your website.
How Can Data Improve Your Decision-Making?
1. It Can Help You Better Understand the Overall Effectiveness of Your Online Marketing Activities
Gathering marketing analytics will quickly become a part of your routine business processes.
And as you learn which data points are most important for your business, looking for patterns will become second nature. These patterns and data points may seem like small details, but together they form a larger picture of the effectiveness and reach of your overall marketing strategy.
Organic traffic is up 25% over this time last year? Perfect! That means our campaigns are working. Now, how can we continue to expand on this approach and cultivate further growth?
Blog traffic increased by 15%? Excellent–our content strategy is working! Now let’s look at which headlines did well and why so we can inform our future editorial calendars. How can we expound on the topics we’ve already covered and make them even more visible to potential customers?
When it comes to marketing analytics for small business, individual data points are only as powerful as they are actionable. It’s great to have a deeper understanding, but if you don’t apply that to future campaigns, your online presence will stagnate.
2. It Can Help You Allocate Your Budget More Effectively
Retail magnate John Wanamaker once famously said “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half!” But with digital marketing, those days are long gone.
Search data allows us to determine which online advertising avenues are working and which are not. We can determine effectiveness in both reach and conversions. You’ll know exactly how many people viewed your ad, how many clicked on it, and what they did after arriving on your site.
Use this information to inform your budget allocation.
Is Yellow Pages sending 5 leads per month while Facebook sends in 50? Cut the YP budget and put it into what’s working instead.
You can also use this data to identify and prepare for seasonal trends. Maybe PPC does better for your HVAC company in the summer and winter months because more people are searching for help with overloaded and broken air conditioning units or heaters.
Adjust your search terms seasonally to ensure that you’re not wasting your money. Or consider shifting more budget into content marketing to help you build up your organic SEO and use the savings from that to advertise during the leaner spring and fall months.
Review your data critically and ask yourself, “Where can I get the most bang for my buck?” Then allocate accordingly and watch your conversions rise!
3. It Helps You Reduce Marketing Costs and Wasted Budgets
Knowing who your target audience is, how they behave, and what your return on investment is per marketing dollar spent can drastically reduce waste and overall expenses. By optimizing your strategy to focus on the most impactful channels and campaigns, you’ve ensured that your budget is being used as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Cutting back on waste means you can pour those savings into improving processes, hiring more people, improving your products and/or services, and generally growing your business to keep up with the demand you’re creating online. And as that growth continues you’ll have more money to pour back into your marketing campaigns–it’s a symbiotic cycle that results in profitable and successful businesses!
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
Surefire Local is the all-in-one marketing platform designed to help small business owners streamline their digital marketing efforts. We specialize in aggregating and mobilizing marketing analytics for small business.
Analyze your data and launch your digital marketing campaigns from one easy-to-use dashboard. Schedule a free demo today!
