There are many marketing pros out there who always insist on improvement, so fortunately, they have marketing analytics to guide them on their paths. Analytics give marketers important information that can reveal the spots that require improvement. The beauty of marketing in the Internet, unlike traditional forms of marketing, is that the return on investment for each marketing venture can be determined. So what do you do if a specific campaign has a big positive ROI? Retain it. A small positive ROI? Modify it so that its ROI increases – in other words, do it better. A negative ROI? Change it.

Now, the big problem with marketing analytics is that many Internet marketing pros aren’t particularly skilled in crunching numbers. While they may be good at proposing intricate plans regarding Internet marketing, when it comes to determining the quantity of returns that they can get in US$ with these plans, they are at a loss. But Internet marketing is highly results-driven and highly competitive. If a marketing plan isn’t projected to have good results, then it isn’t worth putting up. Given the competitive nature of Internet marketing, you can’t waste time on anything without the necessary foresight.

Many Internet marketing pros are enthusiastic about Google Analytics, a free tool provided by Google which can give you many important marketing numbers. Many pros even want something better. But just think about this: if many of them can’t extract full value from Google Analytics, then it will be a waste for them to spend money on tools that are more sophisticated than Google Analytics. Google Analytics alone is a challenge to learn, but given the right mindset, learning it can be fun. Just go to a website, use Google Analytics there, and play with all the numbers that emerge.

But don’t worry; there are many books and websites from which you can learn about the finer aspects of analytics. A good piece of advice regarding analytics is that you should master Google Analytics first before you proceed into other software that gives you the numbers.

Because only a few percent of all Internet marketing professionals take marketing analytics seriously, you will gain an edge over the competition once you have the skills to analyze metrics related to Internet marketing. You can crush the competition because even if they insist that they are superior to you, they don’t know about it (after all, what are their bases for saying so). And you can make reporting any details to your company easier, because you’ve got hard data to back up your words.