Why Creative Agencies Need to Embrace Digital Analytics Platforms

The pressure is on for creative agencies

Clients want results. Hard, measurable results. They want to see every campaign’s performance down to the last digit. They want to know that they’re getting bang for buck.

Thing is…

Pretty ads don’t cut it anymore. In the modern age, creative needs to go hand in hand with performance. Understanding how customers behave at every touchpoint is crucial.

That’s where a digital experience analytics platform comes in.

Table of Contents:

1. Data-Driven Results are No Longer Optional
2. Digital Experience Analytics is a Game-Changer
3. The Creative Agency Advantage
4. Making Digital Analytics Work for Your Agency

Data-Driven Results are No Longer Optional

Ok, let’s cut to the chase.

A Deloitte survey found 88% of CMOs expect their agencies to deliver data-driven results. Not creative ideas. Measurable impact.

Insane right?

Creative agencies that don’t realise this will lose clients. Fast. With budgets getting squeezed left and right, CMOs want to know their agency can prove return on investment. Period.

But get this…

The best agencies are bringing in tools like Quantum Metric to connect the dots between creative vision and business performance. A digital experience analytics platform gives the agency complete visibility into how users are experiencing digital. What’s working. What’s not. And why.

Totally game-changing, right?

The type of deep insight this tool gives agencies helps them move beyond the power of gut feeling. With data from a digital experience analytics platform, an agency can truly see how customers are responding to their campaign rather than just assuming they like it.

Digital Experience Analytics is a Game-Changer

Ok, so what is a digital experience analytics platform, anyway?

It records every interaction a user has with a website or app. Every click. Scroll. Hover. Pause. Rage click. You name it.

All that data collected together reveals powerful patterns.

And that’s the killer.

Traditional analytics tools can tell agencies what happened. A digital experience analytics platform can tell them why it happened. That’s a major game-changer.

Agencies benefit massively from this data because it can be used to optimise campaigns based on real human behaviour, rather than a set of assumptions. The end result? Better performing campaigns and pleased clients.

Banks that have implemented advanced analytics have seen revenues increase by more than 20% over three years, per McKinsey.

The same can be said for most industries. When businesses truly understand their customers, there’s no limit to growth.

Digital experience analytics has many benefits:

• Finding friction points. Clients will see where users drop off or get frustrated.
• Validating creative. Proof the design is having the desired impact on conversions
• Optimising in real-time. Agencies can make adjustments even while a campaign is live
• Demonstrating ROI. Clients want evidence campaigns are delivering results

The data don’t lie. And clients want to see hard data.

The Creative Agency Advantage

Ok, but will a data analytics platform kill creativity?

No. Actually the opposite is true.

Analytics liberates creative. It’s much easier to take creative risks when you have data to back those decisions up. Test ideas and see what resonates with real people.

Here’s another thing many agencies don’t realise…

Creativity always involved some element of data. These days it’s just more quantified. Rather than a meeting room full of opinions, an agency can test all the options and let the data pick the winner.

Think about it this way…

Traditional agencies would go all in on a campaign and cross their fingers it works. Data-driven agencies go all in… but keep measuring and iterating. The best agencies run an endless series of experiments. Analytics is the constant, and they use those learnings to improve.

And guess what another massive bonus to analytics is?

Agencies that know how to use analytics will have the best talent. The top creatives all want to work in a space where their ideas are validated. They want to see their impact quantified in real numbers.

Making Digital Analytics Work for Your Agency

Ok, so how do agencies actually put this into practice?

Let’s dive in.

Define your goals. Before you do anything else, make sure to have a clear objective in mind. Are you trying to boost conversions? Improve engagement? Decrease bounce rates? Before you do anything else, make sure you have clear targets.

Map out the customer journey. Think about every digital touchpoint your customers have with your brand. Websites, landing pages, apps, the works. You need to collect data across the full customer journey.

Build collaborative teams. A truly data-driven agency needs data analysts and creatives working hand in hand. Insight is generated by blending analytical thinking with creative intuition. Break down any agency silos. Make collaboration the new normal.

Continuously test and iterate. Don’t get bogged down in data collection before taking action. Agencies should be running experiments and testing approaches. Test new ideas. Measure the results with analytics. Learn and iterate.

Reporting is key. Data doesn’t mean anything if it can’t be communicated clearly. Build simple, effective reports that show only the key metrics and tie them back to business objectives. Keep the reports clean and simple. No need to use any tech jargon.

The agencies that make this transition will have a leg up on everyone else.

Bringing It All Together

Creative agencies can continue to do business the way they have for decades and hope their clients are happy. Or they can get data-driven with digital experience analytics.

Guess which is the smarter play?

Digital experience analytics isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the new competitive advantage agencies need to differentiate themselves. It’s the tool that will help agencies win new business and retain existing clients and deliver measurably better outcomes.

Here’s the thing.

The pressure for accountable outcomes will only increase. Expectations from clients are not lowering. If anything they’re only getting higher. CMOs want agencies who can provide real impact not just throw some pretty work at them that may or may not perform.

Agencies that combine creative chops with data are set to thrive. Those that don’t will slowly be left behind in the dust by agencies that do understand the importance of data.

Time is not on their side. Digital experience analytics tools are here. The need is clearly there. All that’s missing is the will to get started.

Audit your current capabilities. What data do you currently have at your disposal. And what’s missing?

Build a clear roadmap for integrating digital experience analytics into your workflow.

Agencies that move early will have the first-mover advantage in the race for new clients. Don’t get left behind because other agencies didn’t figure it out before you.

So get to it.