The digital advertising industry thrives on data. Data-points provide agencies with the analytics & insights needed to optimise digital campaigns, web sites, landing pages, etc. The more data we can collect and analyse, the better, writes Charlie Hudson Sq1, database administrator, performance sciences.
Agencies typically collect basic metrics such as impressions, clicks and conversions. However, more in-depth metrics, such as geo-location, consumer segmentation, demographic, psychographic, A/B testing, heat mapping, scroll-depth testing CRM data, and even offline sales are often needed to create actionable insights – to name a few.
Together, these data-points assist agencies in consumer/campaign segmentation and developing more effective strategies.
Furthermore, the effective use of data improves the internet as a whole. Collecting, analysing & optimising data helps set standards for how the web will be developed in the future and how relevant information can be provided to users.
Although agencies now have access to vast amounts of consumer data, there still lies one fundamental problem, data aggregation. Agencies pull data together from various sources and third-party tools, but how effective is their process really? Manually aggregating data from all these sources together for the purposes of reporting and strategising is often time-consuming and inefficient.
Many analysts invest the majority of their week pulling data from different data sources and stitching it together, while their time is better spent actually doing analysis.
This process can lead to errors in information, which in turn, leads to poor campaign planning and communication throughout an organisation. When it comes to data aggregation, ‘human error’ can and does happen on a daily basis.
The solution to this data debacle is a flexible system able to aggregate all necessary data from third-party data sources into once centralised platform.
This platform needs to have three fundamental characteristics: Ease of use, multi-browser capability & customisability.
• Ease of use – a well-developed user interface (UI) is mandatory. The user must be able to easily navigate the platform. It needs to be intuitive, because a complex user experience can be just as detrimental and inefficient as existing manual processes.
• Multi-browser capability – well-built platforms must be available across multiple browsers such as Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome and Firefox and be accessible from analytics tools like Excel and Access. Everybody has their own preference, and flexibility is crucial for usability
• Customisable – Every client has different needs, goals and preferences. Developing a flexible system that can be customised as needed will provide users with the freedom to tailor results to fit their clients’ needs.
The platform you choose to implement should encompass all of the above. Like your clients’ audiences, the platform should continually evolve to fit their specific needs and aggregate search engine data, display data like DSP performance, audience data and site analytics data into a single ‘source of truth’.
This will provide high level dashboards for business insights, while also handling the day-to-day analytics and optimisation requirements needed to effectively operate in today’s fast-paced, data-driven environment.
Having a dynamic platform can also help create a more efficient workplace. In theory, a company could bring on more clients without the concern of affecting employee bandwidth. The customisable data aggregation and data pull could provide your company with the edge needed to compete in this evolving digital age.
Charlie Hudson, Sq1, database administrator, performance sciences