Take Your Business To The Next Level With Our Simplified Analytics Guide

Ah, data. It’s that intangible thing hanging over our heads nearly every waking moment. We are constantly asked as users if we are okay with having our data collected, whether we’re blinding “accepting all” cookies or ticking the box that says we have read the rules and conditions when creating an online account. But have you ever wondered what all that data is for? What are business owners using it for? And how can you use it to help your business?

Simply put: in business, he who has the data has the power. Digital marketing analytics involves analyzing certain data sets that business owners use to gain insight into customer behaviors and patterns. Understanding this information can help you make more informed decisions in virtually every aspect of a business, from deciding which leads to pursue to which products to promote. Let’s do a deep dive into analytics and why you should absolutely be using them for your business. 

What Are Digital Marketing Analytics?

Digital marketing analytics involves collecting, measuring, and analyzing data from digital channels to understand user behavior and campaign effectiveness. It’s kind of like a lead paragraph in a news article: the Who, What, When, Where, Why (and sometimes How) of your customer base. You can get a pretty darn good idea of what’s going on based on a few metrics.

There are four main categories of marketing analytics. A strong strategy includes all of them. Let’s take a closer look at each of these categories and the role they play in your analytics blueprint. 

1. Descriptive Analytics: Your Rearview Mirror

Descriptive analytics answers the question, “What happened?” It looks at past data and organizes it into patterns, like a map of where your business has been.

Metrics in this category are like individual puzzle pieces. One on its own might not say much, but fit a few together and the picture starts to come into focus. Examples include:

• Website Traffic: Total number of visitors over a given time.
• Page Views: Number of times specific pages are viewed.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Percentage of people who clicked a link versus those who saw it.
• Bounce Rate: Percentage of visitors who leave after viewing just one page.
• Conversion Rates: Percentage of users who completed a desired action (e.g., form fill, purchase).
• Email Open and Click Rates: How many recipients opened or clicked through an email.

Even though this data is about the past, it’s a treasure trove for future planning. Think of it like reading your old journal entries—you learn what worked and what didn’t, so you don’t repeat the same mistakes.

This analytics dashboard shows descriptive analytics in the form of a Site Visitors Overview, visualized as a line graph (bottom left corner). 

2. Diagnostic Analytics: The Mechanic of Your Metrics

If descriptive analytics is your rearview mirror, diagnostic analytics is your mechanic. It looks under the hood to figure out why things happened the way they did.

Say you notice a sudden drop in conversions after a site redesign. Diagnostic analytics digs in to figure out if the issue is a change in user behavior, a technical glitch, or something else entirely.

Common metrics and tools used in diagnostic analytics include:

• Traffic Source Analysis: Where are users coming from—organic search, social, direct?
• User Journey Mapping: The common paths visitors take before converting or dropping off.
• Segmentation: Breaking down audiences by age, device, location, etc.
• Error Rates: Frequency of website errors (e.g., 404 pages).
• Heatmaps and Session Recordings: Visual data showing where users click, scroll, and linger.

Diagnostic analytics helps you stop flying blind. You don’t just know that something happened—you find out why, so you can fix it.

This dashboard shows a significant dip in Daily Signups (top right) during a specific time frame. Diagnostic analytics can help determine what caused this. 

3. Predictive Analytics: Your Business Weather Forecast

Predictive analytics uses patterns from the past to forecast what might happen next. When you read the weather report and there’s a 95% chance of rain, you pack an umbrella. The same reasoning is true for your predictive analytics. It’s not perfect, but it’s close, and it gives you a valuable heads up for how to prepare.  

Examples include:

• Lead Scoring Models: Predict which leads are most likely to convert.
• Churn Prediction: Spot customers who might stop using your product.
• Sales Forecasting: Estimate upcoming sales based on past data.
• Content Performance Prediction: Forecast how well new blogs, videos, or ads will perform.

Predictive analytics is the difference between guessing and making a very educated bet. It can be a major advantage in a scenario where timing and accuracy matter (and don’t they always?).

4. Prescriptive Analytics: Your GPS for Success

This is where data becomes action. Prescriptive analytics takes all the previous insights and suggests what to do next—like a GPS recalculating your route in real-time.

It is also the point where, if you haven’t done so already, you should consider outsourcing to a professional. A seasoned data analyst can take a look at your descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive data and use them to create a plan of action. For instance, your analyst might recommend increasing ad spend in a specific channel based on projected ROI or adjusting messaging for a target audience. He or she can also make suggestions for future product offerings, content topics, A/B testing for digital campaigns…the list goes on. 

We highly recommend working with a professional analytics firm from the get-go. Yes, the metrics on their own can give you a wealth of information. But a professional can help you decide which metrics to monitor in the first place, keep an eye on them, and have a ton of ideas ready to go by the time you get to the prescriptive phase. No need for them to investigate–they’ve been with you the whole time. 

How Does Digital Marketing Analytics Improve Business Decisions?

We’ve already discussed the various types of metrics you can monitor and the decisions they can help you make as a business owner, but let’s recap in a tidy list. When you implement a solid analytics strategy, you are rewarded with:

Informed Decision-Making

Data replaces guesswork with confidence. If one landing page has a sky-high bounce rate, analytics will flag it—and you can tweak and improve.

Customer-Centric Strategy

It’s like hearing directly from your audience. By tracking behavior and preferences, you can tailor products, services, and content that actually resonate.

Optimized Campaigns

Analytics shows which efforts earn their keep. With A/B testing and ROI tracking, you can double down on what works and cut what doesn’t.

Operational Efficiency

You’ll be able to spot bottlenecks in operations—from order fulfillment to customer service—and fix them before they impact growth.

Competitive Advantage

Savvy businesses use data to outpace the competition. If you can spot a trend or pivot faster, you stay ahead of the curve.

Can/Should I Outsource My Digital Marketing Analytics?

If your internal team doesn’t have the tools, time, or training to handle complex analytics, outsourcing to an expert agency like RCG can be a game-changer. And not to scare you, but not all data is created equal. If you are making decisions based on irrelevant, duplicate, or plain incorrect data, the results could be disastrous. An experienced analytics firm can ensure you are working with quality, uncompromised data. 

High-Quality Data: The Recipe for Success

Imagine trying to cook with expired, mislabeled, or missing ingredients. That’s what working with bad data feels like. High-quality data should be:

• Accurate: No typos or mismatched records.
• Complete: All key details filled in.
• Consistent: Same info across systems.
• Timely: Up to date and ready when you need it.
• Valid: In correct formats (e.g., dates, email addresses).
• Unique: No duplicates.

Your data team can help enforce these standards through governance policies, real-time monitoring, and regular audits. And if your staff uses the data to make decisions, they should be trained in spotting red flags.

Your data analyst specialist can help you develop a fool-proof system for ensuring high quality data. This includes implementing strong data governance policies with clear standards for how data is collected, stored, named, and maintained. Regular audits should be performed with real-time data monitoring to alert for anomalies. If you plan on giving your team members access to the data or expect them to use it for business decisions, they should be trained on things to look for and the importance of secure, high quality data. 

Put Your Analytics to Work Today!

Stop guessing and start growing! Analytics are an invaluable tool that you deserve to be using. Whether you need help interpreting your current data or want to build a comprehensive analytics strategy from the ground up, RCG is here to help. Let us show you how to harness the full power of digital marketing analytics to improve performance and drive long-term success. Contact us to put your data to work and your business on a smarter path forward.