Lack of standard definitions for the metrics causes people to report different numbers for supposedly same metrics, leading to confusion and total lack of trust in data. No trust in data means that nobody is going to use the data to make strategic decisions and there goes all your efforts to create a culture of Analytics.
Having standard definitions is not as easy as it sounds. It starts from you and your team having a clear understanding on how to calculate various metrics. Some seemingly simple metrics can be calculated in various different ways and all of those ways might be right but getting one standard way of calculating those removes any confusion and gets everybody on the same page.
Let’s take an example and see how many ways you can calculate “COST”. How do you calculate cost?
In case of Search Marketing, I am sure you are taking actual amount paid to Google or Bing. Right? So that is actual media spend. But what about the cost you pay to your agency for running and optimizing those campaigns? Where do they factor in? If all you are doing is Media cost then what about Display Advertising? Is your Agency commission part of your cost? This agency is running and optimizing the campaigns so I am sure you are using that all up cost. What about your internal email lists? What is the cost of that? What is the cost of Social Media campaigns? How do you calculate those? To have one definition of Cost you should calculate it in the same way across all media but most likely you have different way of calculating cost for different media/tactic.
Some more examples:
- Conversion Rate? Is it measured in terms of visits, visitors, new visitors, non-customers or customers?
- How do you calculate a bounce? Is it page views based? Is it action based? Is it time based?
Other posts in the series
