DATA CAN
TELL A STORY
Using marketing analytics to track what actually matters.
You got your monthly marketing report. Now what?
Website traffic increased. Your social audience grew. Your latest email had a strong open rate. A campaign generated thousands of impressions.
Those numbers may sound good—but what are you supposed to do with that information?
Marketing generates a lot of data. The challenge isn’t getting more of it. It’s figuring out which numbers actually matter, what they’re telling you and how they connect back to your goals.
Before adding another KPI, ask:
1. What does this number tell us?
2. Why does it matter to our goal?
3. What might we do differently because of it?
Sometimes your most important KPI isn’t a marketing metric
For some organizations, success may have very little to do with traditional marketing metrics. Consider a nonprofit promoting a fundraising golf tournament. Social reach, engagement and website traffic help explain how promotion performed, but the bigger questions may be how many teams registered, how many sponsorships were sold and how much sponsorship revenue was generated.
FUNDRAISING EVENT
Promotion → Website Traffic → Registrations → Teams Sold → Sponsorship Revenue
B2B PRODUCT CAMPAIGN
Campaign → Product Page Visits → Inquiries/RFQs → Qualified Opportunities
TRADE SHOW
Promotion → Event Page Visits → Meetings Scheduled → Qualified Follow-ups
RECRUITING
Campaign → Career Page Visits → Applications → Qualified Applicants
Helpful reminders for understanding the data
One number rarely tells the whole story.
Look at related metrics together before drawing a conclusion.
More isn’t always better.
More traffic, followers or clicks only matter if they support the right audience or objective.
Context matters.
Compare performance over time, against campaigns or against meaningful benchmarks.
Check the timeframe.
Especially in B2B, awareness today may produce leads weeks or months later.
Don’t stop at the metric
Look beyond the first number to understand whether marketing is driving meaningful action.
Turn the numbers into a story
A good marketing dashboard shouldn’t feel like opening a spreadsheet filled with numbers. It should help you see what’s happening and how different activities connect.
Instead of looking at each marketing channel in isolation, use the dashboard to ask better questions. Did an increase in social activity correspond with more website traffic? Did a campaign drive people to the intended landing page? Did increased traffic produce additional inquiries? Which content generated engagement and meaningful action?
What to look for in your marketing report
Can you connect activity to a real outcome?
Don’t stop at the click if you can follow the journey further. Whenever possible, connect marketing activity to registrations, inquiries, leads, sales, sponsorships or another meaningful conversion.
Do you have something to compare it to?
“Your website had 2,400 visitors” doesn’t tell you much by itself. Compare it with last month, the same month last year, another campaign or another event to give the number context.
Does the data help you decide what to do next?
Instead of asking, “What data can we put on this dashboard?” ask, “What decisions do we want this dashboard to help us make?” That is when analytics moves from reporting what happened to helping inform what should happen next.
Correlation doesn’t automatically mean causation. Two numbers moving at the same time doesn’t necessarily mean one caused the other.
Look for patterns, not isolated spikes. One strong or weak month may not indicate a long-term trend.
Ask why before reacting. If a metric moves suddenly, investigate what changed before changing your strategy.
Don’t optimize a number just because you can. Improving a metric that isn’t connected to a meaningful objective doesn’t necessarily improve your marketing.
Try this with your next marketing report
Pick three numbers from it. For each one, ask:
The goal isn’t to have the most data. It’s to have the right information to make better marketing decisions.