The digital revolution has brought unlimited data within reach of business leaders at the stroke of a key. We can track consumer behavior by the month, the week or even the minute, cutting our data sets ever more finely to reveal new secrets to performance. Many marketing decisions that once depended on manual analysis and predictive human judgment (also known as the art of the educated guess) have become largely automated, sometimes even invisible to those same marketers who rely on them. However, faced with overwhelming amounts of data to constantly scrutinize, some clients can fall victim to “analysis paralysis,” with execution hampered by an incessant desire to test and learn more.

As the old saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. While rigorous measurement lies at the heart of any effective marketing program, quantitative insight is still only as valuable as the skill with which it is gathered and applied — and over-reliance on hard data to the exclusion of vision and judgment can be just as damaging as a lack of quantitative rigor.

At Wilks Communications Group, we counsel clients to reflect on their measurement practices to get the most value from available tools. A simple “Why / What / When / If” thought model underlies our approach.

Why measure?

It is surprising how infrequently this question comes up. With unlimited data access baked into google analytics and other algorithmic tools, perhaps it seems like a question that is not worth asking. In fact, it is the question you should ask before any other.

What specific business decisions or actions are you seeking to inform with quantitative analytics? When you pose this question to a leadership team, extraordinary conversations often follow, driving critical alignment about priorities, organizational truths and open opportunity spaces.

Measuring without first establishing a clear “why” places your organization in a reactive stance from the start, which increases the risk of the tail wagging the dog.

What to measure?

When it comes to a body of data, “more” does not necessarily always mean “better.” In fact, a high volume of complex, poorly managed information can quickly become a liability, creating more confusion than clarity.

One common organizational pitfall is multiple teams basing decisions on disparate quantitative indicators that do not ladder up to central priorities. Stated more simply, people end up paying attention to the wrong things. Defaulting to the easily measurable, rather than the most business-relevant, metrics is a common culprit here. The antidote is a holistic measurement strategy; a finite, intentional, organization-wide universe of KPIs firmly anchored in your “why.”

Of course, establishing such a strategy is more easily said than done, but it is an exercise in discipline that will pay you back many times over.

When to measure?

Aligning on measurement cadence is just as important as the KPIs themselves when it comes to deriving full value from the data you collect. It’s essential both to track like-for-like over time to understand trends, and to shape your measurement cadence to match the scenario being evaluated.

Direct response (DR) digital ads, for example, can often be assessed in days or even hours. A multitouch advertising and PR campaign, in contrast, can take weeks or even months to influence consumer behavior, sentiment or product sales in a measurable way. While this may seem like an obvious distinction, it’s common for teams accustomed to the immediacy of DR campaigns to struggle to remain invested in slower-burn tactics long enough to see the payoff.

Thinking deeply about measurement cadence up front helps set realistic expectations, reducing the risk of misplaced investment.

Should you be measuring at all?

This filter brings us full circle to the “why” that began this article. Even in a data-driven world, judgment and instinct have a huge role to play in marketing excellence. And while the clarity and seeming objectivity of data can feel very reassuring, it’s not the right lens to help answer every question.

Consider innovation, for example. If we take existing product performance as our sole input to new product ideation, the natural output will be a boring series of copycat line extensions. How much more blue sky might we discover by balancing past performance data with rich inputs gleaned through consumer insights, out-of-category audits and — most importantly — the sheer power of imagination?

Creative development in branding, advertising and packaging is another area where data should be handled with extra care. While testing advanced creative work certainly has its place, introducing quantitative validation too early in the development process is likely to halt exploration within the limits of the comfortable and familiar. The result: precisely the type of creative that’s least likely to break through.

Wilks Communications Group is a diverse, thoughtful team of marketers and communicators with talents that span the spectrum from analytics to strategy to creative. We’re in the business of helping clients bring the best of all disciplines to bear in the service of stellar results. If you’ve got a challenge to solve or a goal worth chasing, we’d love to hear from you.