STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS AND ANALYTICS 2015...2015 by B2B marketers (State of B2B Marketing 2015), it isn’t surprising to find the high degree of importance given by marketers

Research Report - Feb 2015

STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS AND ANALYTICS 2015

WHO WE SPOKE TO

To understand the state of metrics & analytics in B2B marketing

today, we spoke to directors and senior executives of B2B

companies to know what metrics they were using to measure

their marketing performance and the role of analytics in drawing

insights from it.

75 percent of the companies we spoke to were from the

technology sector, the rest spread across various industries. 42% of

them were over a billion dollars in revenue. While the survey was

done globally, a sizeable number of companies (67%) were from

the US.

© REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 01

KEY FINDINGS:

84% marketers say they are currently investing

in analytics» tweet this «

70% marketers cited lack of resources to execute as

the biggest obstacle to investing in analytics» tweet this «


65% respondents say analytics has helped increase

sales revenue by over 10%» tweet this «

65% executives use analytics regularly for insights » tweet this «

56% marketers expect their analytics budget to

increase in the next 12 months» tweet this «

ANALYTICS IMPORTANT FOR MARKETING SUCCESS, SAY MARKETERS

How important is Marketing Analytics for marketing success?


As high as 86% of all respondents we spoke to felt that marketing analytics was

very important for the success of their marketing program. The rest felt it was

somewhat important.

86%

14%

0%

Very Important

Somewhat ImportantNot at all Important

MAJORITY SAY THEY INVEST IN ANALYTICS

84 percent of marketers said they were currently investing in analytics. Considering that

every marketer we spoke to felt that analytics was important to have in her tool bag, we were

surprised to find 16% of our respondents saying they do not invest in it.

Does your organization invest in Marketing Analytics?


84%Yes 16%

No

Yes

No


MOST MARKETERS ARE ABLE TO LEVERAGE ANALYTICS TO MEET THEIR REQUIREMENTS

85 percent of respondents said they were able to leverage their organization’s analytics

data to measure their marketing effectiveness. 15% said they were unable to do so. Many

of them, expectedly, are companies that are also not investing in it.

Are you able to leverage your organization’s analytics data to measure marketing effectiveness?

85%15%


75% OF RESPONDENTS ARE ABLE TO TRACK ROI TO VARYING DEGREES OF SUCCESS

29 percent of those who we spoke to said they were very successful in tracking the ROI of

their analytics investment. Another 46% said they were somewhat successful in doing so.

How successful is your organization at tracking the ROI of Marketing Analytics?

Very Successful

Somewhat Successful

Not at all Successful

46%

29%

25%


ANALYTICS HELPS THE BOTTOM-LINE65 percent of our respondents indicated that analytics has helped increase their

organization’s sales revenue by over 10%.

By what percentage has Marketing Analytics helped increase your organization’s sales revenue?

35%Below 10%

48%10-25%

13%25-50%

4%Above 50%

0%Rarely use analytics for insights


65% OF THE ORGANIZATIONS WE SPOKE TO SAID THEY REGULARLY USE ANALYTICS FOR INSIGHTS

Of the rest, 31% said they do so occasionally. Only a small proportion of marketers (4%)

lacked the tools or skills to turning data into insights.

Which of the following statements best suits your organization’s data utilization to measure marketing effectiveness?

65%Regularly use analytics for insights

31%Occasionally use analytics for insights

4%Lack the tools or skills to turn data into actionable insights

IMPROVING MARKETING PERFORMANCE & GAINING INSIGHT INTO THE SALES FUNNEL ARE THE TOP OBJECTIVES DRIVING ANALYTICS

Gaining actionable insights to improve marketing performance is the key marketing

objective driving analytics within organizations.

Considering increase in revenue was seen as the top priority objective for the year

2015 by B2B marketers (State of B2B Marketing 2015), it isn’t surprising to find the

high degree of importance given by marketers to understanding the sales funnel

through the use of analytics.


89%Using analytics to improve marketing performance

19%Integrating disparate systems and siloed data


What are your organization’s key Marketing Analytics objectives?

39%Enhancing customer lifecycle

73%Gaining better visibility into sales funnel

35%Accelerating the analytics process from data collection to deriving insights

54%Combining data from multiple sources to draw correlations and make predictions

27%

Improving competitive analysis

54%Measuring marketing attribution across channels

19%Gaining executive level buy-in and support

19%

Reducing time taken to analyze data and interpret results


ANALYTICS HELP MARKETERS EVALUATE CHANNELS & PRIORITIZE INITIATIVES

81 percent of respondents saw the key benefit of analytics as helping them identify

marketing channels that provide the most ROI. 76% said it helps them prioritize their

marketing mix tactics.

A little over half the respondents (52%) were using analytics to help them demonstrate

marketing function’s contribution to overall revenue, highlighting the pressure that

B2B marketers today are increasingly facing toward achieving sales goals.

81%Useful for decision-making

81%Helps identify marketing channel that provides the most ROI

48%Better marketing message and positioning

76%Helps prioritize marketing mix tactics

38%Faster revenue growth

19%Better understanding of market conditions and trends

29%Helps identify the precise customer needs

Helps predict customer behavior 43%

48%Helps reduce marketing cost

Better utilization of resources 62%

52%Helps demonstrate marketing function’s contribution towards overall revenue

What are the key benefits of Marketing Analytics in your opinion?


CROSS-CHANNEL VIEW IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CAPABILITY SOUGHT IN ANALYTICS TOOLS

82 percent of marketers looked for cross-channel view of results in their analytics tool.

This was followed by 68% of those who sought predictive and prescriptive analytics.

Given the long sales cycles that B2B businesses undergo, we weren’t surprised when only

less than half the respondents (46%) said they looked for real-time reporting capabilities

in their analytics tool.

But what did come as a surprise to us was when none amongst those whom we spoke

to tagged mobile device support as a capability that they sought. This waning interest in

mobile amongst B2B marketers was noted by us earlier in our report on the

State of B2B Marketing 2015.


In your opinion, which of the following capabilities are most important while evaluating Marketing Analytics tools & technologies?

68%Predictive and prescriptive analytics

82%Cross-channel view of results

Dashboards 64%

A/B and multivariate testing 50%

Real-time reporting 46%

Advanced customer behavior analysis 55%

Integration with Microsoft Office apps 5%

Creation and testing of hypothesis 36%

Integration of online and offline data 50%

Mobile device support 0%

OLAP and ad-hoc query support 5%


ANALYTICS TOOLS STAY SIMPLE; AND IN THE CLOUD

Dashboards (77%) and Spreadsheets (73%) are currently the most widely used analytical

tools. In going with the changing times, cloud-based solutions at 64% won over

on-premise analytics software at 36%.

Custom data modelling (32%) is yet to find popular adoption amongst B2B marketers,

who seem to prefer out-of-the-box solutions to meet their analytical needs.

73%Spreadsheets

32%Embedded analytics components

77%Dashboards

64%Cloud/SaaS based analytics solution

36%Presentation software or tools

55%Database querying tools

23%Statistical analysis software

46%Business intelligence tools

41%Data visualization tools

36%On-premise/installed analytics software

32%Data modeling tools

27%Programming languages

Which of the following Marketing Analytics tools & technologies does your organization currently use?


EMAIL MARKETING IS BY FAR THE MOST WIDELY USED AND TRACKED TACTIC AMONG B2B MARKETERS

Email marketing was chosen by one and all as the most universally used marketing

tactic in the B2B space. There were no surprises in the list that followed which included

Search Marketing, Social Media and Website Marketing.

Video, voted as the most indispensable content type for 2015 by B2B marketers in

our earlier survey, State of B2B Content Marketing 2015, came in here at a low 43%,

suggesting that it is yet to play a significant role in the analytics mix.

Which of the following marketing tactics does your organization use and analyze?

76%Website marketing

71%Display/banner advertising

100%Email marketing

81%SEO (organic search) marketing

81%Social media marketing

86%Content marketing

76%PPC (paid search) marketing

43%Video marketing


We first asked our respondents how they chose their marketing channels. 75% of them said

they based it on their marketing objectives and the profile of their target customer. The role

of competitors (20%) did not seem to influence their decision much.

On what basis does your company typically select a marketing channel or mix?

75%Target customers

75%Marketing objectives/goals

65%Budget

60%Products or services being offered

60%Return on investment

20%Stages of customer life cycle

20%Competitors

5%Stages of product life cycle

MARKETERS STICK TO BASICS WHEN TRACKING THE METRICS OF THEIR PROGRAMS

Running through the list of metrics that marketers said they tracked to evaluate

their marketing programs, we find most of it dominated by numbers that are easy to

capture and interpret.

There were, however, some exceptions along the way and we will talk about this

under each finding.


It was encouraging to see the conversion rate being tracked by a significant number of the

companies we surveyed alongside visits and page views.

Which of the following Website metrics does your organization track?

100%Visits

80%Page view duration

95%Views

80%Conversion rate

75%Bounce rate

50%Exit rate


What of the following SEO metrics does your organization track?

68%Keyword rankings

58%Unique search terms driving traffic

63%Top sources of organic traffic

74%Percentage of total traffic from organic search

84%Click-through rate

53%Keywords triggering search results

53%Conversion rate by key term

74%Keyword clicks

42%Keyword movement (e.g. month-over-month)

42%Branded versus non-branded organic search traffic

32%Lead-to-close rate

Which of the following PPC marketing metrics does your organization regularly track?


47%Sales conversion rate

63%Visit-to-lead rate

37%Opportunity-to-close rate


Which of the following Social Media metrics does your organization regularly track?

63%Social reach (# of followers, likes, members, subscribers, etc.)

13%Sales by social media channel

50%Traffic referrals by social media channels

44%Leads by social media channel

50%Engagement per post / tweet

38%Conversion rate by social media channel

31%Brand sentiment (ratio of positive to negative mentions)

19%Top influencers

19%Share of voice/conversation

(% of conversation compared to the competitors)

0%Cost per follower

B2B marketers don’t expect to generate much leads through social media engagement and

this is noticeable by the fact that only 44% tracked leads and 38% track conversion rate.

More involved metrics like Brand Sentiment and Share of Conversation are yet to find

popular appeal with the marketers.


What Mobile metrics are more often tracked?

50%Mobile site traffic

25%Conversion rate

25%App downloads

17%Visitor and consumer usage pattern

33%App engagement

17%Customer acquisition cost

42%Type of device used to access mobile app/site

83%Click-throughs

0%QR/Barcode tags

0%SMS marketing metrics

33%Session length

25%Ad impressions

8%Session interval

8%Mobile advertising metrics

Mobile Apps perhaps need higher traction in the marketing mix to warrant more attention

in the analytics area. This is an opportunity that both marketers and their agencies need to

address as engaging customers through Apps could be one way of reviving the mobile space

in B2B marketing.

Deliverability rate 56%

Clicks-per-link in email 50%


Which of the following Email metrics does your organization regularly track?


Open rate 89%

Unsubscribe rate 67%

Conversion rate 72%

Clicks-per-email 67%

Inbox placement rate 0%

Social sharing rate 11%

List size 44%

Which of the following Content Marketing metrics does your organization regularly track?

83%Leads

Views 61%

Comments per post 39%

Downloads 78%

Duration (time on page) 33%

Likes, +1’s, tweets, shares, etc. 44%

Conversion rate 39%

To us it would seem like social integration of content and encouraging conversations

amongst stakeholders are areas that need attention as revealed by the rather low numbers

cited by our respondents for ‘likes’ & ‘shares’ (44%) and comments per post (39%).


Which Video metrics are often tracked?

90%Views

60%Time duration spent

30%Play rate

30%Comments

30%Visitor traffic

40%Likes, +1’s, tweets, shares, etc.

0%Brand conversation

30%Engagement

10%Conversions

30%Downloads

0%Hosting venue

20%# of videos produced monthly


56% OF RESPONDENTS EXPECT THE ANALYTICS BUDGET TO INCREASE IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS

About a third (33%) expect the budget to remain the same.

However, in terms of actual allocation, the share of analytics as a percentage of the

overall marketing budget remains, at best, modest.

How do you see your Marketing Analytics budget change over the next 12 months?

Increases

DecreasesRemains the

same

11%

56%

33%


What percentage of your marketing budget is currently allocated towards Marketing Analytics?

87%Below 10%

13%10-25%

0%25-50%

0%Above 50%

LACK OF RESOURCES IS THE NUMBER ONE CHALLENGE THAT MARKETERS NEED TO ADDRESS TO INVITE FURTHER INVESTMENT IN ANALYTICS

70 percent of our respondents tagged lack of resources to execute, as the biggest

obstacle that was stopping their organization from investing in analytics.

Given the increasing pitch for outsourcing elsewhere, this might be a good opportunity

for external vendors to take the initiative and present a viable proposal to marketers for

outsourcing their analytics to them.


What are the key obstacles stopping your organization from investing in Marketing Analytics?’

33%Issues with data quality and integrity

37%Budget constraints

30%Lack of system integration

30%Lack of strategic vision / roadmap

37%Lack of know how in using analytics tools

22%Lack of proper analytics tools

70%Lack of resources to execute

41%Time required to collect and analyze data

Nimish VohraSVP, Principal Analyst

Srinivasan SeethapathySenior Marketing Manager

Nimish, Senior Vice President, works with CMOs and senior

marketing professionals. His research focuses on customer

experience management, predictive analytics, mobile

enablement and other emerging trends that help customers

leverage technology as an enabler of marketing and

business outcomes.

Srinivasan’s research is focused on optimizing customer experiences

across all channels. His research is aimed at marketers who want to

understand how they can spend their budgets more efficiently by

improving customer experiences across marketing channels.

ABOUT THE ANALYSTS

ABOUT REGALIX RESEARCH

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we help the CMO organization leverage emerging digital practices for creating marketing leverage as they bring new products and innovation to market. Regalix Research helps marketers through research-based insights, consulting and peer-to-peer programs that guide marketing strategy development and execution. Our focus is helping Technology companies leverage innovation and best practices to create real differentiation. Our analysts are practitioners with a successful track record of delivering real marketing results for both leading Fortune 500 companies as well as venture backed firms.

Regalix is an award-winning Global Innovation company that leverages technology and marketing to help companies grow. We create successful ventures with our clients through co-innovation and idea-driven frameworks that inspire companies to think different. We bring ideas to life by envisioning new companies, developing brands, engineering products, and designing technology platforms. Founded in 1998, Regalix is based in Palo Alto. Our Silicon Valley setting has enabled us to stay ahead of emerging trends in digital technology and marketing.

For over a decade, we have provided complete marketing services – Social, Mobile, Content, Multi-channel Campaigns, Technology Development, and Analytics – to companies such as CA Technologies, Citi, Apple, eBay, Cisco, VMWare, NetApp, Cypress, LSI, Keynote, and MetricStream.

For more information

To find out how Regalix can help you, please contact our office, or visit us at www.regalix.com

Regalix Research

1121 San Antonio Road, Suite #B200 Palo Alto, CA 94303

(US): 1-888-683-4875 (India): +91 80-49445010

Email: [email protected]

Documents

STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS AND ANALYTICS 2015...2015 by B2B marketers (State of B2B Marketing 2015), it isn’t surprising to find the high degree of importance given by marketers