Wow that title is a bit of a tongue twister. Any who, according to a new study by Econsultancy and analytics firm Lynchpin, marketers still face many challenges in using Web analytics and measurement effectively, but some are taking steps to address those problems and move toward more coherent and integrated measurement strategies.
Naturally, lack of budget was cited as one of the biggest barriers to effective measurement, although budgets are beginning to ease. About 40% of companies said they were planning to increase budgets in the next year for internal staff and technology to improve their use of analytics, and almost one-half are planning to increase the number of internal employees working in the area. After budget, lack of coordination, strategy, and overall understanding of online measurement were cited as barriers in the study. This comes as no surprise. A couple of months ago, Datran Media’s 4th annual marketing and media survey revealed there was a great deal of improvement needed in the area of online audience measurement.
According to our study, while marketers continue to embrace digital channels to reach a targeted audience (84.2 percent), generate quality leads (73.6 percent), and retain existing customers (56.8 percent), there is a significant gap between the percentage of marketers that claim that they engage in online audience measurement and those that claim to take action on what they measure. With all the rich data offered by digital campaigns, you’d think marketers would figure out how to use metrics to their advantage.
So what gives? Accuracy topped the list of marketers’ biggest challenges around measurement. The lack of ability to take action on data and lack of standards are also key barriers. This is hardly a surprise. Looking back to a few recent brand measurement studies, better, common, and more meaningful metrics for online audience measurement are in high demand. The industry first needs to understand what audience measurement actually means. Simply stated, audience measurement is the process of monitoring consumer behavior across all touchpoints, throughout their daily routines, across the web. As campaigns are executed across diverse multi-channel platforms, piecing the measurement story together is imperative. On the other side, digital media measurement — the process of tracking media placement to conversion and establishing an ROI — is a closed-loop process and just one piece of the overall measurement plan.
Marketers agree they need to increase their investment around audience measurement. They just need to know how to use it to their advantage.
