Digital Marketing Results Require Honest Analysis
When your business has a true ally focused on digital marketing results, you get more value from the services they provide.
This value comes from listening to your concerns, finding meaning in digital marketing results, and proactively creating plans for the road ahead.
We look for insight — both from results and from our clients.
Whether it’s through email, Facebook ads, Google search, or a blog, you need to make meaningful, genuine connections with your audience. And fortunately for your bottom line, this meaningful online engagement is very measurable.
When it comes to reporting monthly results, our team takes a unique approach. While we could spend our meetings rambling off CTRs and CPCs, we put these things into context.
How did the CTR compare to last month or last year?
Is the CPC above or below our average?
What do we think influenced it?
This is how we cultivate insight.
And then, we listen.
While we’d like to think we know everything that goes on with our clients, the reality is that we don’t have boots on the ground. Your perspective paints the other half of the picture every month. When we ask clients “How did things go this month?” we really want to know.
9 Clouds has a habit of transforming insight into progress.
The data that can transform your business is closer than you think. It just needs to be translated from digital marketing results into action.
That’s why 9 Clouds puts so much emphasis on cultivating insight from past performance, while also looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead for your business.
Through internal and external factors, every market has ups and downs. As with most things in life, it’s important to make a marketing plan for the peaks as well as the valleys.
Meaningful work comes from simply helping people. When you think about tying your ads to your sales, you likely have at least a few examples of how they helped individuals reach a goal.
However, this qualitative perspective can be hard to tie back to thousands of data points in a digital marketing report. In the same manner, many marketing managers frustrate their own goals by failing to tie their investment in digital efforts to real-world outcomes.
Part of the reason for this is the amount of data that comes from online activity. This data has grown exponentially in our lifetimes, and it’s never been harder to isolate meaningful digital marketing results.
“There were five exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every two days.”
Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman at Google
Making sense of the results is just as important as the work itself. But, with data flooding our brains every day, how do we make the results meaningful?
We are methodical and intentional.
Our digital strategists rely on key digital marketing results to provide insights and recommendations. We write, design, and launch online content for our clients every month. The same eyes and brains that interpret the data are also sharpening the tactics that fulfill your marketing goals.
The sheer firehose of data one of our clients had been getting from a previous Google Ads vendor drove them to partner with 9 Clouds.
Every month, a vendor would send our client a 14-page print-out of all of the data points from their Google Ads campaigns, and every month, our client would be confused. There was no forthright explanation of the data.
That’s why they now work with us.
Data is sexy if you make it sexy.
Choosing the right digital marketing metrics means cleaning out the data that isn’t actionable.
Many times, processing marketing data is more like waste management than laboratory science.
“Data is like garbage. You’d better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it.”
Mark Twain
At the outset of our relationships, each 9 Clouds partner defines key performance indicators (KPIs) which we closely monitor and report every month.
By diving into the factors that influence these KPIs, our team finds new ways to form better connections with your audience online. This valuable step in our monthly process gives meaning to our work.
Sometimes, the data stinks.
It’s not all roses, however. There will always be down months. When your digital marketing allies prepare for these valleys as we have, you can rest assured that more peaks are ahead.
Some digital marketing vendors will try to simply sweep this data under the rug, hiding their tracks. In some cases, we’ve seen monthly reports apply heavy sugarcoating to hide significant negative insights from their clients.
“We don’t shy away from the high costs or low results,” said 9 Clouds Account Management Director. “If it’s bad, we’re finding ways to not only remedy the situation, but to build back even stronger.”
We are transparent with our partners about the work we are doing on their behalf. There is no silver bullet in marketing. It is about testing, learning, and adjusting our marketing tactics based on the data that results.
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
Henry Ford
This isn’t to pass the buck or to dodge accountability for performance. Every agency gets hired to perform, and the best agencies stay hired because they both perform and learn from failure.
Make Sense of Your Digital Marketing Results Today
Numbers can be brutal.
It’s tough work to make sense of things all the time, but digital marketing is easier when you know what is (and isn’t) working within your marketing strategy.
For that reason, we created special packages specifically for reporting your marketing ROI. These packages are tailored to help you make sense of the results from your marketing efforts. They will also help you get the best return on your marketing investment.
When you’re ready for more marketing clarity, contact 9 Clouds!
Show me my Marketing ROI!
John Nelson
As the creative director at 9 Clouds, John leads a team of talented marketers. When he was little, he wanted to be a mechanic. Instead of fixing cars, John and his team are making cars easier to sell. Learn more about John.
