B2B Marketing Analytics: Using Data for Informed Marketing Decisions

Marketing is great when it works, but how can you tell if it’s working? That’s where tracking marketing analytics comes in. The ability to see numbers, trends, and graphs can help visualize the success of your marketing efforts. Leveraging data to optimize marketing strategies will enhance your customer engagement and drive tangible results. No more hoping and praying that your marketing is working — you can know, with absolute certainty, what is working and what isn’t. 

What is B2B Marketing Analytics?

B2B marketing analytics (business-to-business), is the use of data to help understand, assess, and improve marketing strategies. Analytics plays a crucial role in making informed business decisions based on data — not just a gut feeling. 

By using B2B marketing analytics, you’ll be able to identify trends and areas for improvement, such as targeting optimization, content enhancement, or the use of your budget. You can also predict other aspects of your business, such as conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and more.

Predicting future trends and outcomes will open up new opportunities and prevent wasting time and money. 

Choosing the Right Tools for Marketing Analytics

While finding the right tools to track analytics can be daunting, there are some common tools that can help you track your marketing. Most platforms you advertise on, like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google Ads, have their own analytic capabilities. 

There are also third-party tools that can help. For example, Google dominates in the world of analytics tools. They offer Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, and Google Search Console. Here’s the breakdown:

• Google Analytics: This is a widely used tool for free web analytics. Google Analytics provides insights into website traffic, user behavior, and other important metrics. 
• Google Data Studio: A data visualization tool that allows marketers to create customizable dashboards and reports. Google Data Studio uses data from multiple sources. It has the ability to connect to other Google tools, and third-party analytics too. 
• Google Search Console: A free tool that helps marketers monitor and optimize the performance of their website in Google’s search results. It provides data including search impressions, clicks, and keyword rankings.

If there is a marketing metric to be tracked, odds are that Google can track it. 

But besides Google, there are also several third-party tools that can be extremely useful. A few of the most commonly used tools include:

• HubSpot: Hubspot is an all-in-one marketing automation platform. It is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that also offers a suite of tools for B2B marketing. These include analytics, lead tracking, email marketing, and content management. 
• SEMrush: SEMrush lets users do keyword research and view other advertising insights. 
• Moz Pro: Moz Pro is similar to SEMrush in that it is an SEO tool tailored to keyword research. This platform offers analytics, keyword research, and site auditing tools. 

What Key Metrics Should be Included When Reporting?

Reviewing key metrics is essential to helping see if your marketing efforts are successful while having the data to support it.

There are several key metrics that should be included in your reports. Here are a few of our favorites. 

Website metrics

Below are a few website metrics that most businesses should track. 

• Website traffic: The total number of visitors to the website.
• Bounce rate: The percentage of users who leave a site after viewing only one page.
• Time on page: The amount of time a user spends on a webpage.
• Pages viewed: Statistics on what pages and how often they were viewed. 
• Conversions: Conversion tracking allows you to determine what a conversion looks like, allowing you to track that metric. 
• Conversion rate: This is the rate at which users take the desired action you are tracking. This could be filling out a form, viewing a certain page, or registering for a webinar. 
• Marketing qualified leads (MQLs): An MQL is a lead that has a high likelihood of becoming a customer based on their interactions with marketing efforts. 
• Sales qualified leads(SQLs): SQLs are leads that have been qualified by the sales team as ready for direct contact. These leads have a high likelihood of becoming a customer. 

Email marketing metrics

While there aren’t as many email metrics to track as there are website metrics, the possibilities are still near endless. Listed below are a few key email marketing metrics you can use to track success. 

• Open rate: This measures the percentage of email recipients who opened the email out of the total number of emails delivered. 
• Click-through rate (CTR): This is the percentage of recipients who clicked on one or more of the links within a marketing email.

Social media metrics

Understanding key metrics is essential to optimizing social media posts and campaigns as well. The following are some key metrics to pay attention to. 

• Social media reach: Reach will measure the number of users who have seen your content. This metric can help gauge visibility by measuring how many people your post or ads reached. 
• Clicks: This will measure the number of users who clicked on a link for your ads. 
• Click-through rate (CTR): This is similar to CTR for email metrics, except it will measure the percentage of users who clicked on your social media post or ad link.
• Engagement rate: This measures the level of interaction your social media posts or ads receive. This includes likes, comments, shares, and clicks. 
• Cost per result or cost per click: This will measure the amount of money it costs for each link click in an ad. 

Paid Ads

Paid ads are a crucial part of many B2B marketing strategies, and tracking paid ads metrics is essential for optimizing your marketing efforts. Here are a few important metrics to track for paid ads

• Cost per click (CPC): This metric measures the average cost per click on your ad. Reviewing this metric will help you understand how efficiently your budget is being utilized and can allow you to make adjustments to your bidding strategy or ad targeting. 

• Click-through rate (CTR): The CTR will indicate the percentage of users who click on your ad after seeing it. A higher CTR will indicate that your ad is relevant and engaging. 

• Conversion rate: This metric measures the percentage of users who took a desired action, such as filling out a contact form or making a purchase, after clicking on your ad. 

• Return on ad spend (ROAS): ROAS calculates how much revenue was generated for every dollar spent on an ad. This will give you a snapshot of how profitable your ads are and can help you allocate budget accordingly. 

ROMI

Return on marketing investment (ROMI) is the end all be all for marketing analytics. ROMI tracks the effectiveness and profitability of marketing campaigns. 

• Return on marketing investment (ROMI)
  
  • Tracking ROMI in B2B marketing analytics is essential. ROMI will show how much profitability came from marketing efforts. This is done by tracking costs with marketing efforts and comparing them to the revenue generated from those efforts. 
    
  
  
• How to calculate ROMI:
  • Formula = (Revenue generated - marketing costs) *100 to get a percentage
    

Telling a Story with Your B2B Marketing Analytics

By translating raw data into visual narratives, it is possible to visualize the story of your marketing efforts. Being able to see data, instead of simply looking at numbers, helps identify trends and leads to strategic optimization. 

Complex data sets and massive spreadsheets are hard to interpret.  Data visualization allows for quick and easy comparative analysis. Plus, comparing graphs or charts will identify top-performing channels or strategies in marketing efforts. 

Valuable Insights from Marketing Analytics

Continuing to run unsuccessful campaigns is like throwing money away. But being agile in marketing can mean the difference — and using analytics can help.

Evaluating B2B marketing analytics allows for real-time insights, which then promotes rapid decision-making and optimization. Tracking metrics will identify trends and anomalies, which allows you to pivot easily. 

Harnessing useful tools like HubSpot, Google Analytics, SEMrush, and others allows you to track key metrics, leverage data, and continuously refine your strategies based on data-driven evidence will maximize the effectiveness of your campaign

Embrace the power of B2B marketing analytics to propel your marketing efforts toward lasting success. 

Ready to propel your strategic marketing to the next level? Take a bold step and discover how a comprehensive strategic marketing plan can drive your business forward. Learn more about building a 12 month marketing plan and get your free marketing checklist here.