How to measure marketing ROI with HubSpot analytics

Marketing ROI – the holy grail of marketers.

And still a major challenge to achieve for many.

According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2017 report, 40% of marketers say that proving the ROI of marketing activities is their top marketing challenge.

In the past, marketers might have been forgiven for their inability to measure the influence of marketing on the business’ bottom line; after all, measuring the ROI of marketing activity was difficult due to a lack of sophisticated analytics tools.

Marketers would conduct activities both online and offline which may have led to an uptick in business, but as they lacked the tools to pinpoint which activity was responsible for that uptick, they could not justify their marketing expenditure - which sucks!

However, with the analytics tools that are available today, measuring the ROI of marketing activity is completely possible. Of course, the complexity of the multi-channel digital landscape we operate in does make it a challenge for the modern marketer - but don't panic, we're here to help!

In an ideal world, you must be in a position where, at a minimum, you can accurately report on the conversion ratios at every stage of your marketing funnel. By this we mean that you should be able to accurately identify on average, exactly how many web visits are needed at the top of the funnel, to create one piece of business at the bottom. 

And yet, despite the growing number of powerful analytics tools, marketing departments around the world are routinely confronted by their Marketing Director – who in turn is pressured by the Board and CEO – asking, “what’s the ROI for our marketing activity?” and the response from some of these departments might be “we don’t know”.

So what is holding you back?

If you are using HubSpot’s analytics tools and still struggling to see the ROI of your marketing activity or compile reports for your Marketing Director, Board or CEO to justify your expenditure, we can help.

With HubSpot’s analytics and reporting tools, you have complete end-to-end visibility of data and interactions across your marketing campaign, from a prospect’s first touch to the moment they become a paying customer. With HubSpot’s analytics and reporting tools, you can make informed decisions on what marketing efforts are driving ROI.

But we understand that, while HubSpot has a variety of analytical tools, from the evaluation of website metrics to comprehensive reporting, with all the information HubSpot collects at your disposal, it can be hard to get at the real information you need.

Paralysis by analysis is a very real concern; as marketers, we like to have information – and lots of it. The more information we have, the better insights we can generate.

And of course, all that information can be used in one way or another – but does it coincide with what you and your business needs? Why monitor and report on the number of likes a social post gets, if your main goal is to drive conversions?

Tip: Don't report for the sake of reporting. 

Setting up comprehensive reports that monitor and compile the data you need in HubSpot is no simple task; there are a number of variables that need to be considered and added to ensure you get the right data you need.

Consequently, you might be struggling to create reports that deliver clear ROI.

At Huble Digital, we work with both small and medium-sized businesses and large business enterprises, helping them to build detailed ROI reports that clearly convey the efficacy of their marketing and sales activity.  

We know just how complex compiling ROI reports can be. HubSpot is powerful, no doubt – but you need to know how to set up your reporting to ensure you can get the information you need, when you need it. Working with a team of HubSpot experts that routinely manage reporting for businesses of all sizes will undoubtedly help!