The walled gardens of different social media networks can make for confusing stories when it comes to metric. As the article below shows, which features various marketing strategists sounding off, it's tricky to decide whose data story you trust. If Facebook says 50 people clicked your promoted link, but only 4 people show up on Google Analytics as having come from Facebook, who is right?
I remember watching a Google Analytics webinar by the analytics guru (a term I employ rarely), Andy Crestodina in which he said (I paraphrase): 'the data will always be wrong, but it doesn't matter'. A shocking but powerful statement aimed at reminding us that data is fallible, but still useful.
The key then is to:
- Ask your data the right questions
- Interpret the data you have, rather than just keep amassing more of it
Here is my report of his webinar with a few ideas for asking your Google Analytics the right questions.