Are you obsessed with a vanity metric?

by Naveed A. Writer

We all know digital analytics is about numbers and metrics. But then I tell you – do not be too obsessed with tool metrics.

Let me explain.

You know what vanity metrics are – the ones that don’t really make any sense. For example, hits, clicks, impressions, views etc.

I tell you - there are no constant vanity metrics. Nothing is a vanity metric all the time.

The truth is that any analytical metric viewed in isolation without applying its context is a vanity metric. And when you are obsessed with those metrics, you end up going off on a tangent.

Let us look at a couple of examples.

An 80% bounce rate is bad. It is more than twice the average bounce rate.

When we apply a bit of context over it, we will see that this 80% bounce is happening on a landing page. There is a huge problem in this page! The problem is that the audience has nowhere to go, before converting.

‘Time on Site’ is a metric that we all track. We assume the higher the metric is, the higher the engagement! But I say that an isolated view of this metric is utter nonsense.

Picture this - yours is a transactional / functional website. You have a lot of calls-to-action and your audiences is spending a fair amount of time on the website but then, they drop off! Instead of being kicked about the fact that your audience is spending a lot of time on your website, shouldn’t you be concerned that your audience is not able to find what they were looking for?

There are many such metrics - that need to be seen in context - which you need to be wary of.

Despite all the powerful features of digital analytics platforms, you need to be cognizant that they are not panacea for your business problems.

What you should be doing, is to define what metrics are worth paying attention to, and take a look at those.

Here are some such metrics -

·         Entry points by source and volume
·         Retention by source
·         Conversions
·         Revenue
·         Profit
·         Profit/Revenue/Conversion by source

It is obvious that they are all not direct but derived analytical tool metrics. To such metrics, if you added an additional parameter such as ‘source’, you can establish context and meaningfully make decisions.

Looking at the right metrics in context is just the beginning. The real value lies in your ability to take marketing actions based on insights.

But 90% of marketers don’t know what they don’t know, creating problems with consistency and marketers’ ability to act. (Kantar)

Here are some of the marketing actions that you can take after taking a look at the right metric in the right context.

·         Re-allocate the media mix
·         Micro-segment the audience
·         Test different drivers of interest for each segment
·         Test effectiveness of niche acquisition platforms
·         Run marketing experiments

These are only examples and this is not an exhaustive list. Only when you make the right marketing intervention as a response to the analytical insights that you have, you would be able to move up the analytical maturity ladder and most importantly, grow your business.

Here’s what you need to do to ensure your focus is on right metrics and truly leverage the power of digital analytics to drive your marketing.

·         Shortlist metrics that directly represent the growth of your business.
·         Arrive at how those metrics can be derived by combining metrics that are available in your digital analytics platform.
·         Validate data collection method for these metrics and ensure tagging is proper with appropriate events captured and reported
·         Rollout data collection, reporting and auctioning

There are so many metrics available that they can confuse you. What should you track? You need to effectively manage your Digital data and analytics to get the right insights from data, using the right metrics.

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So with the right metrics and all the data, you have insights that can power your business strategy and decision-making. Just having those insights is the first step. You need to set them in motion.