You don’t have to do the Math to Use the Math

On February 14, 2003, I had the worst job interview of my life. After a few preliminary questions, the interviewer asked “What type of marketer are you? Are you analytical or creative?” I felt like this was a trick question. “Did he want me to be creative? Was he looking for analytical?” Nervous and unsure about the correct answer, I responded “I feel that I am both.” He then proceeded to lecture me on the scientific reasons people can only be analytical or creative – not analytical and creative. I emphatically disagreed and proceeded to argue back…for the next 45 minutes. I knew I wasn’t getting the job about five minutes in, but there I was at 5 p.m. on Valentine’s Day fighting for my right to be a multidimensional, analytical/creative marketer.

Truth be told, I don’t love math (or numbers), but I have always liked using data to drive decisions and build marketing strategies. All marketers, both analytical and creative, need to use data to gauge marketing effectiveness, set pricing, propose projects and support marketing, sales and business initiatives. Anyone can have a “good idea,” but how can you support its feasibility without data?

The wide range of analytics tools available makes analysis and data usage easier than ever – even for creative types. With today’s tools, marketers don’t need to know how to crunch numbers, but they do need to know how to use them.

Visual Analysis – Even Better

Today, Google announced the launch of Browser-Size analysis in Google Analytics.  This new feature addresses the increased number and variety of devices which people are using to view web content. According to the Google Analytics Blog:

What is actually “above the fold” on a web page is a significant factor to conversion rates. If visitors have to scroll to see an “add to cart” button, or some other critical element, they may never get around to it. …we've created a visualization that lets you quickly determine which portions of your page are visible to which percentages of visitors. (Yahas, 2012).

The graphic is a visual display of in-page analytics. By clicking “Browser Size” it shades the sections of the page that are below the fold. The new feature also includes insight on conversions. “For example, if users on your goal page appear to have larger browsers than those on your landing page, this is a strong indicator that you are losing conversions because some pages in the funnel are not laid out in an optimal manner.” (Yahas, 2012). Google will be rolling out all of the features of Browser-Size Analysis in the coming weeks – and I am excited to play around in there.

YouTube Metrics

YouTube analytics (which are part of Google analytics) are also full of visual metrics – which I love. In addition to tracking the number of viewers, YouTube tracks the playback locations (YouTube channel, mobile device, etc.), demographics, views over time, regions in the world (or country), and engagement. 

I am a big fan of the chart showing views by day, since I can match up my marketing efforts to changes in traffic. In the graph below, I took a video that had been posted on our website for several days – and sent it out through Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Pinterest and Scoop.it. The effort produced a spike in views for one day – higher than the combined views of the previous days and the days following.

Video production takes a lot of work, and if you’re investing hours in scripting, filming and editing, but seeing few results, it’s time to rethink your video strategy.  

 Yahas, G. (2012, June 4). [New Feature]: Conduct Browser-Size Analysis Within Google Analytics. Analytics Blog. Retrieved June 4, 2012, from http://analytics.blogspot.com/