Analytics For ROI For Employees & Clients

Using Analytics to Demonstrate Return on Investment for Digital Marketing Clients

by Hank Zane

Whether you are a full time digital marketing employee or managing social media for a client, it can sometimes be hard to achieve or even demonstrate Return on Investment.

Return on Investment - or ROI - is direct financial benefit in dollars, as opposed to Impact on Investment (IOI) which is a much more intangible concept. Branding, engagement and reputation campaigns can all have impact on how your company, product, or client is perceived in their market vertical - but do these efforts show an actual return in higher sales or a boost in clientele or revenue?

Whether you are marketing for a brick-and-mortar store or an eCommerce site, business owners will want to know how your efforts are impacting their bottom line. My hope is that you can use some of this information to achieve greater return on investment, and how you can demonstrate this to your client.

Google and Yelp Analytics

Managing Google My Business and Yelp listings is an essential part of digital marketing for brick-and-mortar stores. Each of these platforms has options for controlling information, not only for what is displayed, but also what is used for search engines. There are also increasing opportunities for marketing on these platforms, like products, offers and services. Even Facebook is going in this direction and has recently added options for job posts, offers and services.

As a digital marketer it is important to track insights and analytics so you know which efforts are having an effect on your traffic. Keep a spreadsheet or analytics portfolio that shows growth over time, and be prepared to explain how that growth relates to actual dollars.

Are more people requesting directions to your locations? Are people checking in on Yelp or responding to your offers? Are you getting more organic searches and showing up more in general searches? These are all examples of Return on Investment! More web traffic leads to more sales! It can be hard to show the direct correlation unless you have access to sales data, but these platforms make it easy to create graphs and other visuals that will make employers and clients happy.

Social Media Analytics

Every social media platform has its own analytics, though you may have to activate the page as a business profile to access some of them. Instagram is one example. Once you have access to metrics, you can use this information to determine what kind of content your audience responds to, and to what degree.

Depending on the type of content, you may have a Call to Action that directs traffic away from the platform. Social media analytics will track the number of clicks so you can get a rough idea of how people are engaging with your link or button. You will need to refer back to your web analytics to figure out conversion rates but social media metrics alone can help you figure out how to get your audience to engage.

Facebook Ads is another great place to demonstrate this, by comparing Reach traffic to other forms of marketing & advertising, which have even less accountability for Return on Investment.

Overall, the more information you have about how people are responding, the more you have in your arsenal when discussing ROI.

Web Analytics

By far the most comprehensive set of analytical data will come from your website, especially if you are paying for premium services. Here you will be able to see data like conversion rates, bounce-backs and determine where you are losing potential customers and clients in your digital sales funnel. Yes, your website DOES track when potentials abandon shopping carts, and yes, you can utilize this information to your benefit.

Which leads us to actually achieving ROI. Next time we will be discussing how to use web and other analytics to actually ACHIEVE Return on Investment.

Stay tuned...