• DE&I Commitment
  • Careers
  • SIGN IN
  • Book a Meeting
    Book a Meeting
  • Company
    Learn a little more about us, our values, and our team
    Our Values
    We don't just talk the talk; we live by our core values
    About Us
    Empowering brands to realize their potential with data, insights, and technology
    Leadership
    Meet our leadership team
    Secure Data Architecture
    Our promise of data security and privacy. We keep your data safe from publishers, competitors and bad actors
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    We are committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet
  • Platform
    Plan, manage, optimize, and measure your campaigns with our omnichannel platform
    Omnichannel Advertising
    A platform that connects all walled garden media for more effective campaigns
    Data Connectivity
    Make data-driven decisions as you plan and strategize
    Product Capabilities
    Take your campaigns to the next level by enhancing your platform capabilities
    See the industries we serve
    Learn how our customizable solutions can help with your unique needs
    Explore our partner integrations
    See the media, retailer, and data partners we work with
  • Case Studies
  • News and Events
    Check out recent announcements and see what we’re up to
    Newsroom
    Check out our recent media mentions and announcements
    Events
    Join us for our next conference or webinar
    Omnichannel platform launch
    Read the press release to see how we're helping marketers win the walled gardens
    Cannes Lions 2023
    Don't miss your chance to meet with Skai leadership in Cannes
  • Resources
    From new releases, to industry trends and best practices, Skai has you covered
    Marketer Insights
    Read the latest blog posts and thought leadership from Skai and other industry experts
    Skai Research
    Explore our studies, reports and whitepapers so you can keep up on the latest industry trends
    The State of Retail Media 2023
    Learn how industry experts are approaching retail media
    The Breakthrough
    The only resource hub built for marketers in the new era of omnichannel
Back to Blog

What Data to Use for a Data-Driven Marketing Decision? Marketing Experiments Can Tell You

Tom Affinito, VP Corporate Development @ Skai™

September  06, 2019

Marketing experiments can benefits brands in many ways. Not only can they help advertisers to navigate their data-driven marketing, but they can also be used to figure out the right data to use for a given challenge. In this post, Skai’s Tom Affinito explains how validating and calibrating your dataset via marketing experiments is foundational to best-in-class data-driven decision making.

digital marketing experiments

In my previous post, Data-Driven Decision Making: How Good is Your Marketing Org at It? Without Experiments, You Will Never Know, I discussed the conundrum that while data-driven decision making is expected in marketing, most marketers haven’t been rigorously trained in this process. Most decisions made each day—where to invest the marketing budget, how to invest it, which ads are working, which bids are the best, etc—could be flawed.

What percentage of your marketing organization’s decisions would you say is rooted in sound data-driven decision-making?

The marketing experiments value proposition

The only way to truly validate and calibrate your data-driven decision process is through marketing experiments. Ideally, an ongoing test-and-learn culture is the best approach and I even hypothesized that marketing experiments could eventually become part of every marketer’s job.

From my last post:

“Based on just how much emphasis marketers put on data-driven decision making, it’s not that hard to imagine that one day every functional group in every marketing organization will always be testing. The creative teams will be testing messaging and visuals, the media team will be testing ad formats and spend, the channel specialists will be testing optimization and automation, the CMO will be testing channel and publisher mix…the future of marketing is marketing experiments.”

Understanding whether a decision that was made was a good or bad one is just one benefit that marketing experiments can help to accomplish. 

But how do you know which data to use to base your decision on? Marketing experiments can be used to help in answering this as well.

The foundation of great data-driven decision making is the right data

“Data” might be the vaguest term in our industry. marketing experiments examples

Data can be almost anything: facts, stats, charts, graphs, etc. But there are no standards here. Do you use one stat? Two stats? More? For example, if a digital marketer is analyzing an ad to decide whether or not to pause it or let it keep running, just a few of the available metrics might be:

  • Costs
  • Click-through rate (CTR)
  • Conversions & conversion rate

What is the right data needed for this data-driven marketing decision? In the example above, one marketer may compare CTRs of other ads and decide it’s not working well and pause it. Another marketer might look at the conversion rate and keep the ad running. Still another may look at both the CTR and the conversion rate and come up with another course of action.

What about the time range? Should a marketer look at just the previous 30 days? Year-over-year comparisons? Each metric changes based on the time range chosen and could absolutely push a decision in different directions.

Marketing experiments are the answer. A test-and-learn marketing organization can validate and calibrate which datasets drive the best and most accurate decision-making. For example, several rounds of experiments using different combinations of data each time would reveal the best data to drive a decision. Over time, it would become clear which data should be used in each situation. 

Clorox chooses the right data for the job and learns that ‘less is more’ in their data-driven marketing plan

In the Gartner article Data Dimension Prioritization Process in Marketing, the Clorox marketing team discovered through testing that using fewer data points actually yielded better results in their personalization program. 

“Clorox conducted market research across a wide range of diverse consumer products and target markets to test the incremental impact of each added data dimension for any given campaign. Clorox’s marketing teams were surprised to find how consistently a small number of data dimensions generated a far better return than using many data dimensions; the optimal number of data dimensions was between three and four.

marketing experiments ideas

“Clorox, therefore, limits marketing teams to using three or four data dimensions in their campaigns. Before, teams would have sought to use as many data dimensions as possible, especially with targeted products. Now, rather than thinking of data dimension selection as a brainstorming activity, marketing teams must think of it as a business decision.

[This process]“ enables teams to seek maximum impact while preventing them from falsely believing ‘more is always better’. By limiting the number of data dimensions used in its campaigns, the marketing organization at Clorox significantly reduced the costs and complexity associated with personalizing content. In one year, Clorox has seen a 5% increase in sales directly attributable to this practice.”

marketing experiments value propositionMarketing experiments to discover the data for decision-making

It’s hard to be confident in your decision-making unless you are confident in which data to use to make the decision. Maybe your decision-making process is absolutely world-class but the recommendations can still be flawed if they are rooted in the wrong datasets. 

Marketers have to be experts at both data-driven decision making and evaluating data. With global media spending at $665 billion this year (and growing to $855 billion as soon as 2023), marketing leaders are going to come under more scrutiny for justifying their investment choices, especially in the highly disruptive and dynamic markets we are facing across today’s automotive, financial services, retail, ecommerce, CPG and travel verticals. An optimal use of the right data, and increased marketing insight for validating which data is the right data, is becoming essential.

Whether a CMO is making channel-level budget allocations or a practitioner is optimizing media buys—no matter how smart or experienced they are—no one can consistently and accurately make great data-driven decisions without marketing experiments to validate and calibrate the data-decision process itself.

Book a Meeting of Skai

Related Posts

  • One of the four paper airplanes takes a different flight path.
    Marketing Experiments: Leading the Way to Transformative Marketing
    Read More
  • Team members collaborating at the desk
    Data-Driven Marketing: The Secret is a Test-and-Learn Culture
    Read More
  • The Next Wave of AI Data Analytics Will Revolutionize Marketing
    Read More
  • Shopper-Centricity Through Data & Intelligence
    Read More
  • Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – April 2021
    Read More
  • Monthly Paid Media Spend Snapshot – September 2021
    Read More
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email
  • Copy Link
    Copied!
Tags: Create, Data, Data & Insights, Measure, Optimize, Plan, Target, xTLx

    Subscribe to Updates

    Media that matters.
    Marketing that works.
    © 2023 Kenshoo, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
    Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Recruitment Privacy Policy.
    • Connected Strategy
      • Dynamic Marketing Mix
      • Budget Forecasting
      • Strategic Consulting
    • Connected Media
      • Overview
      • Retail Media
      • Paid Search
      • Paid Social
      • App Marketing
      • Auditing
      • Expert Services
    • Measurement
      • Incrementality
      • Experiments
      • Cross-Channel Attribution
    • Resources
      • Blog
      • Glossary
      • Case Studies
      • Training & Enablement
      • Developer Hub
      • The Breakthrough
    Privacy Preference

    We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience.

    Privacy Preference

    Save All

    Save

    Accept Only Essential Cookies

    Manage Cookie Preferences

    Cookie Details Privacy Policy Imprint

    Privacy Preference

    Here you will find an overview of all cookies used. You can give your consent to whole categories or display further information and select certain cookies.

    Save All Save Accept Only Essential Cookies

    Back

    Privacy Preference

    Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website, Imprint
    PurposeSaves the visitors preferences selected in the Cookie Box of Borlabs Cookie.
    Host(s).skai.io, skai.io
    Cookie Nameborlabs-cookie
    Cookie Expiry1 Year
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    PurposeThis cookie stores selections made by the user in the Accessibe tool in order to maintain those settings on future visits. These cookies help us make our website compliant with our obligations under US law.
    Privacy Policy https://accessibe.com/privacy-policy
    Cookie NameacsbState, acsbReset
    Cookie Expiryn/a
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s)skai.io
    Cookie Namewordpress_sec_,wordpress_test_cookie,wp-postpass_*, wordpresspass_*, wordpressuser_*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year

    We use these cookies to enhance functionality and allow for personalisation, such as live chats, videos and the use of social media.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s).chilipiper.com, skai.chilipiper.com
    Cookie Namefs_uid, CHILI_PIPER_CLUSTER, guest-session, _sp_ses*, _sp_id*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s).comeet.co, www.comeet.co
    Cookie Namevisid_incap_, nlbi_#######, incap_ses_, referrer22_00a, incap_ses_1364_2167377
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s)skai.io
    Cookie NamemoduleFormPardotDownload
    Cookie Expiry30 days

    Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Google used for website analytics. Generates statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
    Cookie Name_ga, _ga_*, _gat,_gat_*,_gid, GOOGLE_ABUSE_EXEMPTION, AEC, __Secure-ENID, SOCS, CONSENT
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderHotjar Ltd., Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta
    PurposeHotjar is an user behavior analytic tool by Hotjar Ltd.. We use Hotjar to understand how users interact with our website.
    Privacy Policy https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy/
    Host(s)*.hotjar.com
    Cookie Name_hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid, _hjRecordingLastActivity, hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjptid, _hjSessionUser_2229986, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjIncludedInSessionSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjFirstSeen
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year

    Marketing cookies are used by third-party advertisers or publishers to display personalized ads. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderLinkedin
    Cookie Namelidc, li_gc, lang, AnalyticsSyncHistory, UserMatchHistory, li_sugr, bcookie, TDCPM, TDID, bscookie, ln_or
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderSkai
    Cookie Nameken_gclid
    Accept
    Name
    Provider6sense
    Cookie Name_gd_session, _an_uid, _gd_visitor, _gd_svisitor, 6suuid
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderPardot
    PurposeCookie name associated with services from marketing automation and lead generation platform Pardot. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code.
    Host(s).pardot.com, pi.pardot.com, skai.io
    Cookie Namepardot, visitor_id*, lpv*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 10 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Google used for conversion tracking of Google Ads.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
    Cookie NameIDE, 1P_JAR, NID, _gcl_au, OTZ, test_cookie
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Cookie NamePHPSESSID, sid, okto-autoposter-XXX, oktgid, oktsid, oktlogid-XXX, oktolead-XXX-Email, oktolead-XXX-Company, oktolead-XXX-FirstName, oktolead-XXX-LastName, oktolead-XXX-Phone, oktolead-XXX-Country, oktolead-XXX-Url, oktolead-XXX-State, oktolead-XXX-Comment, optout
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderMeta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Facebook used for website analytics, ad targeting, and ad measurement.
    Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
    Cookie Name_fbp,act,c_user,datr,fr,tr,m_pixel_ration,pl,presence,sb,spin,wd,xs
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year

    Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If External Media cookies are accepted, access to those contents no longer requires manual consent.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderWistia
    Host(s).wistia.com
    Cookie Namecb_anonymous_id, _sp_ses.2b40, _li_dcdm_c, __hssrc, _gcl_au, _clsk, hubspotutk, _sp_id.2b40, __hssc, __hstc, _uetsid, _uetvid, _gid, _ga, _ga_GQR109DZ3Y, _lc2, fpi, _ex-pricing-cta, _fbp, cb_group_id, cb_user_id, _clck
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderMeta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock Instagram content.
    Privacy Policy https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/
    Host(s).instagram.com
    Cookie Namepigeon_state
    Cookie ExpirySession
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOpenstreetmap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom
    PurposeUsed to unblock OpenStreetMap content.
    Privacy Policy https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
    Host(s).openstreetmap.org
    Cookie Name_osm_location, _osm_session, _osm_totp_token, _osm_welcome, _pk_id., _pk_ref., _pk_ses., qos_token
    Cookie Expiry1-10 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderTwitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock Twitter content.
    Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/privacy
    Host(s).twimg.com, .twitter.com
    Cookie Name__widgetsettings, local_storage_support_test
    Cookie ExpiryUnlimited
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderVimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA
    PurposeUsed to unblock Vimeo content.
    Privacy Policy https://vimeo.com/privacy
    Host(s)player.vimeo.com
    Cookie Namevuid
    Cookie Expiry2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock YouTube content.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en
    Host(s)google.com
    Cookie NameCONSENT
    Cookie Expiry6 Month

    Borlabs Cookie powered by Borlabs Cookie

    Privacy Policy Imprint