Making sense of the vast amount of marketing data can feel overwhelming, but it’s also where the magic happens. To better understand how businesses are turning data into action, we spoke with CEOs and marketing executives who shared their real-world approaches. From finding clarity in multi-channel attribution to refining strategies with performance analytics, these twelve experts reveal how data is shaping smarter marketing decisions.
- Employ Multi-Channel Attribution Modeling
- Adapt to Server-Side Tracking
- Utilize Propensity Modeling
- Predict with AI and Local Data
- Analyze Real-Time Engagement Metrics
- Focus on ROI Analysis
- Study Competitor Performance
- Define Objectives and Collaborate
- Shape Decisions with A/B Testing
- Optimize with Cohort Analysis
- Prioritize Instrumentation for Decisions
- Guide Strategy with Performance Analytics
Employ Multi-Channel Attribution Modeling
We measure the ROI of every campaign through multi-channel attribution modeling. Rather than relying solely on last-click attribution, we look at how different channels—social media, email marketing, paid ads—work together throughout the customer journey. This lets us understand which combination of efforts leads to conversions, not just which one gets the credit for the final click. It gives us a fuller picture of what’s truly driving value and where to invest more heavily.
Alari Aho, CEO and Founder, Toggl Inc
Adapt to Server-Side Tracking
Server-side tracking and customer data platforms (CDPs) have become essential in driving marketing decisions, especially with increasing cookie consent regulations. With more users opting out of traditional tracking methods, businesses must pivot to advanced solutions. For example, by using server-side tracking and CDPs, we’ve recovered data for 1 in 3 users opting out in the EU and 1 in 5 in the USA.
Without these solutions, analytics dashboards would show incomplete or misleading data, making it difficult to trust trends and make informed decisions. Implementing server-side tracking gives us cleaner, more accurate data, which helps improve our market understanding and gives us a competitive edge over businesses that are seeing flat or unreliable numbers. The key takeaway: If you aren’t adapting your analytics strategy now, your data might already be missing key insights.
Mike Zima, Chief Marketing Officer, Zima Media
Utilize Propensity Modeling
At our company, we employ propensity modeling to predict which users are most likely to convert, allowing us to focus our efforts on high-potential leads. This model uses historical data to assess the likelihood of a user taking a specific action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
By prioritizing these users in our campaigns, we can maximize conversion rates while minimizing wasted ad spend. It’s a data-driven way to ensure that our marketing dollars are spent where they’re most likely to yield results.
Jason Hennessey, CEO, Hennessey Digital
Predict with AI and Local Data
At Local Data Exchange, we’ve developed proprietary AI algorithms that analyze vast amounts of local search data to predict consumer behavior and optimize marketing strategies for our clients. Our machine-learning models have helped businesses achieve an average of a 37% improvement in their marketing ROI by enabling hyper-targeted campaigns based on real-time market insights.
Joshua Odmark, CIO and Founder, Local Data Exchange
Analyze Real-Time Engagement Metrics
At RecurPost, we’ve honed in on the power of real-time engagement metrics to drive our marketing strategy.
By meticulously analyzing which types of content perform best across various social media platforms, we can adjust our content strategy on the fly. For instance, if we notice that video content is outperforming static posts in terms of shares and comments, we’ll pivot to produce more videos. This data-driven approach not only keeps our content relevant but also ensures we’re consistently maximizing audience engagement and reach.
Dinesh Agarwal, Founder, CEO, RecurPost
Focus on ROI Analysis
ROI analysis is crucial for making informed marketing decisions. By calculating the return on investment (ROI) for various marketing initiatives, you can ensure resources are being used efficiently and effectively. This data-driven approach allows you to identify the most profitable strategies, enabling you to allocate budgets wisely and maximize overall campaign performance.
With clear ROI insights, you can confidently adjust your marketing efforts, focusing on what drives the most value for your business and eliminating wasteful spending. This sharp focus on ROI empowers your marketing strategy to consistently deliver strong, measurable results.
Nitin Khanna, President, N3 Business Advisors Inc.
Study Competitor Performance
My team and I have used data to gain an edge over the competition by thoroughly studying how rivals are performing. We dug into various metrics, such as social media engagement, email marketing success, and even the popularity of their products, to spot where competitors were missing the mark. This isn’t just about keeping up; it’s also about finding opportunities and carving a niche for the company.
For instance, if a competitor is really hitting it off with one target demographic but struggling with another, there’s an opportunity to tailor the marketing strategies to connect with them. Or, if customer reviews show that people are unhappy with a particular product or service offered by your competitors, you can use the feedback to craft products that perform better in those metrics.
It also helps us figure out which of their strategies are working and which aren’t. If there’s a certain type of content or ad that is generating the necessary numbers, we could adopt similar tactics. Alternatively, if something they tried failed, it tells us to stay away from that strategy.
Ultimately, by analyzing how competitors are performing, we could alter our marketing strategies to better meet customer needs and shine where they failed.
Yogesh Kumar, Digital Marketing Head, eResource Scheduler
Define Objectives and Collaborate
As the Head of Operations at a digital marketing agency with over a decade of experience, we leverage data at every step to drive our marketing decisions. We start by defining clear objectives for both upper- and lower-funnel campaigns, such as brand awareness and conversion optimization for the latter.
For upper-funnel campaigns, we utilize data from social media engagement metrics, brand sentiment analysis, and reach metrics to understand the effectiveness of our messaging and its resonance with our target audience. We also analyze the demographics and psychographics of our engaged audience to refine our targeting and creative strategies.
For lower-funnel campaigns, we focus heavily on conversion data, user behavior analytics, and A/B testing results. This approach helps us identify what drives users to take action, allowing us to optimize landing pages, ad creatives, and calls to action for maximum impact.
Additionally, at GetHooked360.com, we closely and regularly collaborate with representatives from Meta, Google, and ByteDance to implement and test new products. These partnerships enable us to stay ahead of the curve, experiment with emerging trends, and leverage the latest tools and technologies to enhance campaign performance.
By continuously analyzing data and incorporating insights from our partnerships, we can make real-time adjustments to our campaigns, ensuring we are always aligned with our clients’ goals and market conditions. Data is not just a tool for us; it’s the compass that guides our strategic direction and decision-making process.
Andie Zalamea, Head of CRM, Get Hooked 360
Shape Decisions with A/B Testing
As a seasoned SEO professional leading a digital agency, I rely heavily on data to shape marketing decisions. Our process kick-starts with a data point: understanding the client’s unique industry dynamics using analytics helps us devise an effective SEO strategy.
For instance, implementing A/B testing leniently allows us not just to speculate, but to make decisions based on concrete results. Similarly, while managing an e-commerce client’s marketing approach, data about customer browsing behavior from Google Analytics powered us to optimize their landing page, successfully reducing the bounce rate by 30%.
Moreover, tracking a combination of vanity and actionable metrics, like organic traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates, allows us to tune our strategies to match evolving consumer habits and search engine algorithms. Essentially, the essence of our practice lies in interpreting raw data into actionable marketing goals.
Jim Kreinbrink, CEO, Hyper Dog Media
Optimize with Cohort Analysis
Leveraging data analytics has been crucial for driving effective marketing decisions. One particularly impactful approach I’ve seen implemented is cohort analysis to optimize email marketing campaigns.
We segmented email subscribers based on their joining the list and analyzed their engagement patterns over time. This revealed that subscribers who signed up during product launches had significantly higher long-term engagement rates compared to those who joined through general lead magnets.
Armed with this insight, we adjusted the strategy to focus more resources on launch-related email acquisition. We also created tailored nurture sequences for different cohorts. For the high-engagement launch cohorts, we developed more in-depth product education content. For the lower-engagement general cohorts, we focused on re-engagement campaigns and providing more varied content to spark interest.
To implement something similar, start by clearly defining your cohorts based on acquisition source or timing. Then, track key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions over time for each cohort. Look for patterns and divergences between cohorts to inform your segmentation and content strategies.
The goal isn’t just to collect data but to derive actionable insights.
Regular review sessions with your marketing team to discuss cohort performance and brainstorm targeted strategies can help ensure you’re continuously optimizing based on data-driven insights.
Aaron Whittaker, VP of Demand Generation & Marketing, Thrive Digital Marketing Agency
Prioritize Instrumentation for Decisions
For our online software-as-a-service (SaaS) business start-up, we’ve found the secret is prioritizing instrumentation from day one—and then using that data to drive every decision. For example, when we run ads, we know exactly what our sample size needs to be to determine if our click-throughs are performing based on the audience. Every time we run a new ad, we carefully monitor early metrics and response rates based on those sample sizes to understand if we’re being successful. From there, we carry that philosophy through every step of our sales funnel until it turns into a conversion.
For us, that means spending effort building internal tools that consolidate multiple different reports/data into a single view to truly understand the ROI of our efforts—including instrumenting our own software products to track user behaviors. I think a lot of small online businesses may be successful in driving traffic to their website, but since they haven’t invested in it, they miss out on the data that lets them understand what about the experience past that is preventing a conversion from happening.
John Coggeshall, CEO, Arvee Solutions, Inc.
Guide Strategy with Performance Analytics
At Top Fox Marketing, data plays a critical role in guiding our marketing strategies. We use a combination of performance analytics, customer insights, and industry benchmarks to inform every decision. By tracking key metrics such as engagement rates, conversion rates, and ROI, we can quickly identify what’s working and where improvements are needed.
For example, we recently optimized a client’s digital ad campaign by analyzing conversion data and adjusting targeting parameters, which resulted in a 25% increase in lead generation within just a few weeks. This data-driven approach ensures that we are always maximizing the impact of our marketing efforts.
Lindsay Sutula, Founder & CEO, Top Fox Marketing
