Want smarter marketing decisions? Learn to use these analytics tools

May 12

You don’t need to become a data analyst to make data-driven marketing decisions.

But if you’re a marketer who wants to stop guessing and start making smarter, faster decisions – then yeah, you need to learn some marketing analytics tools.

It’s about knowing which ones matter, what they do, and how they work together to give you a full picture of your marketing performance.

Let’s break it down.

‍Core website tracking

These tools are the backbone of your website analytics setup.
They tell you what’s happening on your website – who’s visiting, what they’re doing, and where things fall apart.

🔹 Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Your website’s performance dashboard. GA4 tracks:

Where your traffic is coming from
What pages users visit
What they click on
How they convert (or don’t)

💡 We use GA4 to find out which content leads to the most conversions, how users navigate a landing page, and where drop-off happens in the funnel.

🔹 Google Tag Manager (GTM)

Want to track things like form submissions, scroll depth, or how much of a video someone watched? GTM is how you set that up – without begging a developer.

GTM lets you:

Set up custom tracking events
Push those events into GA4
Stay flexible and in control of your tracking

💡 No GTM = no tracking beyond the basics. It’s the difference between seeing “visits” and knowing what people actually did.

Important PS about built-in analytics: If your website platform (like Wix or Squarespace) gives you built-in analytics, that’s fine for now – but the moment you switch platforms, that data’s gone. Using GA4 and GTM means your tracking stays with you, no matter where your site lives. Think of it as setting up your analytics to grow with you – not just your site today, but whatever comes next.

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Organic channel insights

Web data is not everything – what about the other tools you use like socials and email marketing platforms?

That’s where native insights from your organic channels come in. These tools give you deeper, platform-specific visibility that GA4 alone can’t offer. Like what’s your email open rate and video watch time?

Here are a few key examples (but not the only ones):

🔹 YouTube Studio‍

Track how your videos perform beyond just views:

Viewer retention
Traffic sources (external vs. suggested)
Click-through rates on thumbnails

💡 We use this to find out which videos hold attention, what traffic sources bring the most engaged viewers, and which thumbnails actually earn the click.

🔹 Instagram / Facebook Insights‍

See how your content performs organically, with data on:

Reach and impressions
Saves, shares, and profile actions
Story exits and drop-offs

💡 These insights help us understand which content is sparking action – whether it’s driving profile visits, getting shared, or causing people to exit a story early.

🔹 Email platforms (e.g. ConvertKit, Mailchimp)‍

Understand your audience’s behaviour inside the platform:

Open and click-through rates
Performance of individual broadcasts vs. automations
Subscriber growth and engagement patterns

💡 We use these insights to improve subject lines, strengthen calls to action, and build smarter segments based on what’s actually getting clicks.

PS: You can also pull some of these organic insights into Looker Studio using third-party connectors (like Metricool or Supermetrics). That way, your YouTube, Instagram, and email data can live in the same dashboard as your website and ad metrics – so you’re not jumping between platforms just to see the full picture.

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Paid ads platforms

If you’re spending money on ads, the ad platform tools show you performance metrics which can help you strategize, and avoid wasting budget.

🔹 Meta Business Suite‍

This is where you manage Facebook and Instagram ads.

You’ll see:

Ad engagement (likes, clicks, shares, saves)
On-site actions (if your Pixel is set up right)
ROAS (return on ad spend)

💡 Set up Pixel events to track purchases, leads, or donations – and mirror them in GA4 for deeper insights.

🔹 Google AdSense‍

Not just clicks and impressions – Google AdSense can show you:

Which keywords are driving results
Which campaigns are underperforming
How on-site behaviour connects back to ad spend

💡 Always link your Google Ads to GA4 so you can track the full customer journey.

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Visual reporting tools

Once your data’s flowing, you need to actually use it. That’s where reporting tools come in.

🔹 Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio)‍

This free tool from Google turns your raw data into visual dashboards that are actually readable. Use it to:

Combine data from GA4, Google Ads, YouTube, email, etc.
Build date-filtered dashboards that auto-update
Share reports with your team or clients

💡 We build custom dashboards for websites, paid ads, social media, and campaign retros – all in one place.

Now – yes, Google Analytics is technically a reporting tool too.

But most people find it clunky to navigate. It’s not always obvious where to find key metrics or how to apply filters, and you can lose a lot of time hunting down the answers you need.

Looker Studio isn’t necessarily easier to set up – but once it’s built, it’s far easier to use day to day. You can change the date range, filter by campaign, or check performance trends without needing to click through multiple reports or get lost in settings.

✨ Coming soon: pre-built Looker Studio templates ✨

Skip the setup and start with dashboards that make sense from day one. We’re working on templates built specifically for marketers – check back soon.

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Link tracking essentials

This one’s not a platform – but it’s one of the most important parts of your setup.

🔹 UTM parameters‍

UTMs are short tags you add to your URLs to track where traffic comes from. Without them, a lot of your data gets muddied under “direct” or “referral.”

They can help you answer:

Did this newsletter bring traffic to the site? And which one?
Which social posts drove the most clicks?
Is our ad campaign actually converting?

Use Google’s Campaign URL Builder to keep your links clean and consistent.

💡 No UTMs = no campaign attribution. And that means no strategy.

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TL;DR – your analytics stack, sorted

✅ GA4 for tracking behaviour
✅ GTM for advanced event tracking
✅ Native platform insights for organic/email
✅ Ads insights for paid campaign performance
✅ Looker Studio for reporting
✅ UTMs to connect it all

This is the tool stack we use every day – for ourselves and our clients. It’s not just about collecting data. It’s about getting the right data, using it to make decisions, and actually improving performance over time.

Harsh Marketing Co