The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid is a computer network designed by CERN to handle the massive amounts of data produced by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The particle smashing physicists in Geneva produce around 27 terabytes(TB) of data every day as well as around 10TB of event data per collision of which there are usually hundreds. So, how do they make sense of all this data?
Before the data is examined, the scientific world start with a question, make and educated guess as to what the answer might be and then go looking in the mountains of data to confirm or correct their assumptions. Without first asking the question, the terabytes of data is simply a mountain of useless 1s and 0s.
Google Analytics is, in my opinion, the most important, interesting and significant marketing tool ever invented. If used correctly it can shine a torch into the deepest recesses of your business and contradict customer behaviour assumptions you were sure was fact. It is powerful enough that it can change the entire direction of a business, its focus and investment. It uncovers excitement and insight and the Marketer using this evidence based decision making technique – they become the most powerful person on the management team.
Analytics Visitor Flow Illustrating How Customers Move Through Your Site
The challenge many marketers have using Google Analytics isn’t how it works but how to extract meaning from the application. Where most marketers go wrong is they feel that their inability to distill value from the historic archive is because of lack of technical insight into how it works. I know many people that understand the function behind every button in the application but still fail to grasp what the data is telling them. The challenge isn’t technical, it’s managerial. It’s not a matter of what Analytics ‘tells you’ it’s much more to do with what are you trying to find out.
Like the LHC, websites produce mountains of data and so to interpret meaning from the data the marketer needs to lead first with a question. These usually start with simple questions like: “What do customers come to my website to do?” or “How much reward is email marketing giving me?” Even the simplest of questions lead to further questions. For Google Analytics to work we need to define first what it is your website is supposed to do or in the case of the email marketing question, what does the business consider the email marketing “reward” to look like?
These are tough questions and the reserve of experienced senior management. Google Analytics doesn’t load up and shout at you that your customers think you’re a buffoon or that email marketing is the saviour to your business. The whole process is a lot more subtle than that. Learning the ‘questioning > research > evidence based answer’, methodology should be an essential skill of senior management. In my opinion the measure of the marketer is not in how they use the tools but how important the answers they seek are to the business.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein
**iON offers extensive courses on Evidence Based Decision Making for Senior Management Using Google Analytics**
Terry Pratchett covers the conversations that go around data analysis quite well in Thud! (The imp is a computer analogy)
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“Now, what was it” Said the Imp ” … Oh, yes. You asked me about the night-soil removal. Over the past three months the extra honey-wagon load has averaged forty tons a night.”
“Forty tons? That”d fill a big room! Why didn”t we know about it?” “You did, Insert Name Here!” said the imp. “But they were leaving from every gate, you see, and probably no guard ever spotted more than one or two extra carts.”
“Yes, but they turned in reports every night! Why didn”t we spot it?”
There was an awkward pause. The imp coughed. “Um, no one reads the reports, Insert Name Here. They appear to be what we in the trade call write-only documents.”
“Wasn”t anyone supposed to be reading them?” Vimes demanded. There was another thundering silence.
“I rather think you were, dear,” said Sybil, paying attention to her darning.
“But I”m in charge!” Vimes protested. “Yes, dear. That”s the point, really.,
“But I can”t spend all my time shuffling bits of paper!” “Then get someone else to do it, dear,” said Sybil. “Can I do that?” said Vimes. “Yes, sir,” said Carrot. “You”re in charge.”
Vimes looked at the imp, which gave him a willing grin. “Can you go through all of my in-tray-” “. floor.. :murmured Sybil. “-and tell me what”s important?”
“Happy to, Insert Name Here! Only one question, Insert Name
Here. What is important?”
“Well, the fact that the dunnikin divers are carting a whole lot more muck out of the city is pretty damn important, don”t you think?”
“I wouldn”t know, Insert Name Here,” said the imp. “I do not, in fact, think as such. But I surmise that, if I had drawn your attention to such a fact a month ago you would have told me to stick my head up a duck”s bottom.”
“That”s true,” said Vimes, nodding. “I probably would. Captain Carrot?”