Dive Brief:

• Companies that master measurement and analytics are seeing a nearly three times improvement in business decision-making speed and time-to-market with new products, over 9% higher marketing ROI, better marketing efficiency and new customer insight compared to those just starting or developing programs, according to a new report from Neustar done in conjunction with Forrester and the Association of National Advertisers. 
• The survey of 150 decision markers from ANA member companies found 43% of companies with “mastering” analytics cultures, which refers to those with more mature analytics operations, say they perform significantly better against metrics like conversions, engagement and growth. 
• Of the “mastering” companies, 34% spend 10% or more of their marketing budgets on measurement and analytics, compared to 71% of starting companies, which spend 5% or less. A CMO from a global financial services company surveyed in the report credited the company’s increased focus on analytics with a 30% reduction in customer acquisition costs. 

Dive Insight:

The research underscores the competitive advantage that measurement and analytics can provide for marketers, with those that have put in the time and resources over the past few years in this area now reaping the rewards in the form of higher ROI.

The findings also underscore that pulling insights from data and measuring campaign ROI continues to be a struggle for some marketers. With 82% of marketers planning to increase their digital spending as part of their overall ad budget by an average of 49% over the year, just 26% said they were confident in their ability to measure ROI on their digital spend, according to Nielsen’s CMO Report 2018. Nearly 80% said they planned to increase their investment in analytics or attribution tools over the next 12 months.

The most effective “analytics cultures” in the survey were most influenced by strategy, technology, data-science expertise, organizational adoption and putting insights into action. The companies mastering measurement and analytics were most often leveraging the data for audience segmentation, marketing forecasting and budgeting, and creative content and campaign planning. 

For companies looking to beef up their analytics culture, the report recommends that they focus on using analytics to stay hungry and agile; expand both the breadth and depth of their analytics, and invest, and never stop investing, in analytics.