If you’re a mobile marketer and not putting a laser focus on data-driven campaigns, then where have you been? According to new figures from marketing platform YouAppi, almost all mobile marketers have increased focus and investment on data over the past five years – with the vast majority seeing improvements as a result.
The study, which polled more than 500 global in-house and agency marketers, found an overwhelming 97% saw investments in data had been worthwhile, with more than half seeing ‘significant’ improvements.
The majority (81%) said they had invested in reporting and dashboard technology, alongside investing in in-house data analytics teams (64%) and purchasing third party performance data (47%). Only a quarter (24%) said they invested on outside agencies for data analysis.
This may be explained by the fact mobile marketers’ job specs have altered considerably in recent years. 96% affirmed this, with 57% overall saying their role had ‘significant’ change. 62% of the executive layer polled said they had seen a dramatic increase in their focus on data and metrics.
Specs differ dependent on what side of the house you sit – whether you are a brand marketer or performance marketer. Ultimately however, everyone needs the same skills. 96% of all respondents argued brand marketers needed the data savviness of performance marketers, while 91% said performance marketers needed the creative expertise of their brand colleagues.
“It’s fantastic to see more organisations take advantage of the skills and expertise that performance and brand marketers bring to the table, and create an environment where these two disciplines can better complement one another,” said Moshe Vaknin, founder and CEO of YouAppi. “As marketers continue to invest in more sophisticated data analytics, and find creative ways to make that data actionable, they will see measurable results that connect them in powerful ways to their end customers.”
As regular readers of this publication will be aware, the need for data-driven strategies has led organisations to put ad-hoc strategies together. It happens many times when businesses expand; little initiatives are done here and there, some without the knowledge of the C-suite, in order to get pressing work done. Writing for MarketingTech in January Florian Gramshammer, managing director EMEA at Impact, compared this new marketing super-stack into more of a ‘Franken-stack.’
“It is imperative that the CMO adopts a person-centric view of their data and can track to a single consumer journey, or they will be adding waste to their marketing investments,” Gramshammer wrote.
“Avoid [bad data] and the future of a super-stack is clear. It can create a true system of record at the core with the ability to track and ingest data from all marketing sources. It can run scenarios on how to allocate budgets across channels, partners and even what to bid at the event level,” he added. “Most importantly, it can examine, cleanse and account for marketers’ data in a way that will inform sound decisions about paid marketing and media spend.
“Ultimately, it will enable CMOs to become data stewards within their own organisations and lead their teams with confidence.”
You can read the full YouAppi analysis here.
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