I can understand the theory that doing “something” is better than doing nothing. The brand is at least getting some level of awareness that it wasn’t getting before. And, historically, such a small percentage of traditional marketing was trackable that some marketers have grown accustomed to assuming success or failure for particular campaigns without having the data to back it up.

However, it’s the marketers that recognize the measurable results that can come from search that are truly cashing in. The ROI that can be traced to key phrases, ad copy, landing pages, site copy revisions, etc. is just remarkable. Good firms know how to track it. And, you’re missing out if you’re not taking advantage.

We still find B2B, B2B2C, and B2C remain quite relevant because each requires unique persuasion architecture, conversion paradigms, demand generation strategies and web analytic models.

But, please, if you have more thoughts on this…would love to have you weigh in!

The chart strongly suggests that the people represented by the delta between 62% neutral and 27% neutral–that 35%–probably have no idea if/when their campaigns are working. They’re probably hands off. They’ve outsourced to a vendor who gives them razzle dazzle but not the beef, and they don’t demand it for some reason. There could be many different reasons, but they’re making the same mistake any marketer makes when they outsource a function, whether SEO or social media or PR, and don’t sweat the details right alongside the vendor. In the long run they’ll get suboptimal results.

I’m sorry but if you want to be in the game, you have no choice but to make the effort to keep score.

As to one-click reporting that fully demonstrates the results? Without someone paying attention to the reports at an analytical level, high-level reports will most likely be all that can be delivered.

While it’s true that PPC can let you track almost everything, it can’t account for users who turn off javascript and disable cookies. So just from those people alone, the data will NEVER be 100% accurate. Then, take into account that the analytics software interpret the log files differently.

Webtrends processes the exact same log file differently from Google Analytics. Knowing this, the best way to know if something is working is to look for trends and patterns that match up over time.

Depending on how your site is constructed, you’d be amazed what people are willing to share – both good and bad. I don’t need a report telling me my site is bad based in my bounce rate.

Ultimately, it’s up to person charged with reviewing the reports to get out of it what they need. All the reporting in the world makes no difference is the people receiving them never look at them!