1. Web analytics and social media
monitoring in industrial marketing:
Tools for improving marketing communication measurement
Authors:
Joel Järvinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Aarne Töllinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Heikki Karjaluoto, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Elisabeth Platzer, Evolaris next level GmbH, Austria
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans 2012

2. What the study is all about?
The study...
◦ investigates how the online environment allows
industrial companies to overcome traditional
marketing communication measurement
challenges
◦ examines the perceived benefits of web analytics
(WA) and social media monitoring (SMM) with
regard to solving the measurement challenges
◦ compares the results with findings from within
the financial services industry in order to
illustrate the challenging operational environment
encountered by industrial businesses
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

3. Study background
 Persistent challenges related to showing
the contribution of marketing actions to
business performance
Weakened stature of marketers within firms
Increasing pressure to make marketing more
accountable
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

4. Study Background (continued)
 Digitalization has brought new opportunities
to make marketing more accountable
◦ User behaviour can be traced on websites
◦ Firm-related online discussions can be monitored
 Various requests for more research on the
possibilities of marketing measurement
empowered by digital solutions
“Everything can be tracked”
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

5. Study Background (continued)
 Clearly, in many industries marketing
measurement has become significantly
more accurate in the online environment,
but it is not so clear...
 ...how industrial companies with
fewer customers, fewer transactions
and longer purchase decision cycles
are able to improve their marketing
measurement accuracy via online
measurement solutions
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

6. Conceptual model

7. WA & SMM
 Online environment solutions to overcome
the measurement challenges
◦ WA = „the measurement, collection, analysis and
reporting of internet data for the purposes of
understanding and optimizing web usage‟ (Web
Analytics Association 2011)
 tracking customers’ online activity on the company
website and linking specific online marketing
communication actions to sales or customer leads
◦ SMM = Tracking and analysing electronic word-of-
mouth (eWOM) information regarding specific
keywords (Sponder 2011)
 to monitor online discussions related to the company
or to particular marketing campaigns.
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

8. Conceptual model (continued)
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

9. Methodology
 Exploratory case study with qualitative
approach
 Three industrial firms + one financial
services company investigated
◦ firms selected by purposeful sampling
◦ industrial firms investigated as a single entity
◦ cross-case analysis conducted between the group
of industrial companies and financial services firm
 11 face-to-face interviews conducted
◦ interviewees selected by purposeful sampling
◦ 9 interviewees from industrial firms
◦ 2 interviewees from financial services company
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

10. Results
 Major sources of measurement challenges
identified in industrial companies
Lengthy selling process (purchase decision
never solely based on a specific marketing
communication action)
Long-term impacts investigated by surveys,
but no ideas how the survey results correlate
with long-term financial outcomes
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

11. Results (continued)
 Short-term measurement with WA
◦ WA has enabled industrial firms to...
examine how much attention and traffic a specific
online marketing communication action attracts to
the company website
track the purchase intentions and sales leads
generated through specific online campaigns
◦ Financial services firm was able to link an
online campaign all the way to the actual
transaction
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

12. Results (continued)
 Long-term measurement with WA
◦ WA has enabled industrial firms to...
perceive the interest, reactions and viral effects
gained with a specific online marketing action
◦ However, the WA data...
does not reveal if the message was received by
those who it was targeted to and understood in a
way it was designed to be understood
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

13. Results (continued)
 Long-term measurement with SMM
◦ SMM has enabled industrial firms to...
monitor and discover company-related discussions
◦ However, the SMM data...
has not essentially helped in overcoming long-term
measurement challenges
◦ No major differences were found between
industrial and financial services sector in
terms of long-term marketing measurement
opportunities with WA and SMM
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

14. Conclusions
 Online environment has significantly
improved industrial companies’ ability to
show the contribution of short-term
marketing outcomes
 Despite the advancements of WA and SMM,
industrial companies will continue to
struggle in their efforts to show the long-
term financial value of marketing activities
 Operational environment seems to have a
major influence on the perceived usefulness
of WA and SMM
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

15. Conclusions (continued)
 Industrial companies could significantly
improve their marketing measurement
accuracy by developing effective process for
tracking sales leads and calculating average
life-time value for a customer lead
 It seems that industrial companies must still
depend largely on surveys to find out long-
term impacts of marketing actions, although
the advancements of SMM may change this
in the future
AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012

16. Questions and Discussion
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2012

17. AMS Annual Conference - New Orleans
2012