Today’s topic? Measurement plans! I know I know, doesn’t sound like the sexiest of topics, but think about how much time you can save digging into analytics if you have a plan in place. All I hear is that you would have more time for happy hour if you can avoid the hours you spend in Google Analytics!

Why do you need a measurement plan?

The biggest thing that holds people back from being successful in analytics is structured thinking. Data can seem very overwhelming but that’s only because most people do not sit down and invest some time into creating a plan in place that helps cut down the time spent digging through numbers.

Logging into GA is stressful and you might not know where to get started or what metrics to look at. That’s where the measurement plan comes in! It’s a way to figure out exactly what metrics to look for based on your business objectives. I say this all the time, but it bears repeating, I know everyone knows their business objectives in their mind but trust me, it always helps to write it down! Going through the process of creating this measurement plan allows you to spend some time really thinking about your business and your marketing efforts, not just how you gather data.

This is a very short intro into plans, but if you want to learn more, check out this article on Digital Marketing and Measurement Plan by the man who made this topic mainstream, Avinash Kaushik.

How to get started:

Here are the steps to think through to creating a measurement plan:

Write out your business objectives

This step involves some deep thinking and reflection about your business. Take some time and really ask yourself: why do we exist? what purpose does this website serve?

Kaushik writes about an easy way to see if your objectives are good. Are they D.U.M.B (Doable, Understandable, Manageable, Beneficial)?

Some examples: Create awareness, Increase sales

Set goals for business objectives

Goals are the strategies or tactics you use to achieve your objectives. You want to ensure the goals you list are macro, but are clear enough to link to the objective they are linked to.

Some examples: Increase conversion rate (objective: increase sales), increase customer loyalty (objective: establish brand)

Write out KPIs for each goal

KPI (key performance indicators) are metrics that allow you to see how you are performing against your objectives/goals.

For this step, you want to take some time to think about the goals you have set and to identify what KPIs are going to be best to measure to determine success.

Some examples: Conversion rate (goal: increase conversion rate), Returning visitors vs. New visitors (goal: increase customer loyalty), Avg. Order Total (goal: increase customer loyalty)

Decide success targets for each KPI

This is a critical step so make sure don’t forget it! Setting targets (or benchmarking numbers) for each KPI let’s you know if you have succeeded or not. If this plan is for a campaign, this is a one time number that you set up as a determining factor on if the campaign was a success or not.

It is a bit different for a website because this is constant. For a website, you want to update this number as often as you will be checking the data. If that is once a month, then you want to update the number based on last month’s data so you can see if you are improving month over month.

Creating the actual plan:

Now, for creating the actual plan! Don’t worry if you’re not super creative, this plan is internal so it can be as simple or as creative as you want. I created mine on PowerPoint, but you can use any tool that you feel most comfortable with (Excel, Word Doc, PPT, Canva, etc.).

Since these steps go from macro to micro, it is easiest to go from overall objectives to more specific KPIs and targets. Below are some screenshots of what Avinash Kaushik does:

Source: https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-and-measurement-model/

I have also uploaded here an editable PPT template for your use (see below)! This is a great starting point because it will only focus on a few, critical KPIs. Feel free to edit the number of objectives, goals, and/or KPIS and targets. This was created only as a template that you can adapt to your own business needs.

Measurement Plan Template

Knowing how important analytics are, I always ensure to talk about analytics as part of every client’s launch lesson. We discuss Squarespace analytics, and other tools that you can use based on your personal needs & budget level.