By Guest Blogger:

Rachel Mitchell, Director

Your Favourite Story

“So, how’s the new website doing? Can I get the latest report?”

It’s a reasonable question to ask a Marketing Analytics team, right? So why has it given me a sinking feeling over the years? Well, that feeling means I’ve failed. Oh, I can update the report, no problem. I’m talking failure at a more fundamental level:

I don’t want to run this report – it doesn’t tell us anything useful.

Many organisations measure things that just don’t matter. Enter “vanity metrics”.

They often end up in KPI dashboards for the C Suite, and it’s easy to see why: they are usually large, upwardly trending numbers that give a warm feeling of accomplishment. They look good in a chart. They are easy to track. Examples: Page Views; Visits; Social Likes or Followers.

“So what..?”

At the risk of writing myself out of employment, it’s not that hard to set up web analytics or run a basic report. Where I can add more value is by helping clients measure what matters. Asking “So what?” (politely of course!) is a useful test when choosing what to report on: it’s my shorthand for “So what…will you do with this data?”

  • If you can’t act upon it, it’s useless
  • If its impact on business performance can’t be measured, why track it?

A report full of vanity metrics = an analytics failure in my book. Your organisation’s overall strategy needs to be translated into a Marketing Strategy and a core set of measurable goals. Your KPIs – a small set of meaningful measures that show if you’re on track to hit your targets – should be based on these goals and any Marketing activity should support at least one of your KPIs. Why would you run it otherwise?

Real world example

Organisation A wants to improve its delivery of membership benefits through digital channels. Web Visits is a valid metric here, but it doesn’t tell much of a story. A better metric is one that tracks the uptake of digital benefits e.g. percentage split of Visits from non-members and members, as a swing towards the latter over time would demonstrate increased engagement with the new digital offer. Overlay this with reviews from members (captured on your website, social media, etc.) and you have a solid base on which to evaluate your success.

“Don’t give us bad news”

What if the data shows that your last acquisition campaign didn’t perform as well as expected? Learn from it. Resist looking for “good news” data e.g. “highest Click Through Rate this year!”. CTR is another Vanity Metric. If it didn’t get you more members have a deeper look at the data and try something different.

So should I NEVER use vanity metrics?

Confession: we do track Vanity metrics for our clients. They can provide useful context for interpreting other data. And they have some merit in the short term e.g. if you want to build a Social following so that you can later use Social Media for member recruitment or CRM. But they can pull your focus away from metrics that hold greater potential for your organisation.

Final word

If you’re being told that Page Views, Visits and Social Likes absolutely MUST continue onwards and upwards, here are a couple of options:

  1. Buy yourself some traffic or Followers – they can be had very cheaply!*
  2. Hold a “performance bootcamp” with your SMT/C-Suite to improve their understanding of measurement that matters. We’d love to help you with this – contact us if we can help.

* Please don’t do this. It’s a terrible idea.

Your Favourite Story are a strategic analytics consultancy and have worked with some of the world’s biggest brands. They help companies find value and growth opportunities from their data, analysing and optimising key customer journeys both on-site and off-site through campaigns.