Marketing thrives on data. It helps us understand campaign effectiveness, pinpoint issues, and prioritize our efforts. However, not all data holds the same value. Recognizing the key metrics to track can be the difference between a successful campaign and a flop.
A plethora of marketing analysis tools are available, catering to diverse needs. Some are free and specialized, while others offer a broader range of features on a subscription basis. They all promise that valuable data needed for impactful campaigns, but which ones are truly worth your investment?
This post delves into eight marketing analysis tools, exploring their functionalities, target audiences, and potential benefits.
1. Mixpanel – Deep Dive into Web and Mobile Analytics
Leading our list of marketing analysis tools is Mixpanel, a robust analytics suite offering invaluable insights into audience behavior.
Image via Mixpanel
What It Offers:
Mixpanel provides a treasure trove of information on how users interact with websites and mobile apps. Monitor user engagement with your platform as a whole, or delve into individual elements to see how users are interacting with your product. All this, without writing a single line of code, making crucial data accessible even to non-technical individuals.
Who Should Use It?
Mixpanel boasts impressive clients like Autodesk, Salesforce, and Twitch. However, its competitive pricing (detailed below) makes it accessible even for small businesses. Users with intricate websites or mobile apps stand to gain significantly from the insights offered by Mixpanel.
Pricing:
Mixpanel offers a free plan for analyzing up to 25,000 data points monthly (a data point represents any defined user action, such as clicking a button or specific actions on your website or app). The monthly subscription varies based on the volume of data being analyzed. Visit the official pricing page for detailed pricing information.
2. The AdWords Performance Grader – Your 60-Second PPC Audit
PPC is an effective way to attract new customers and fuel business growth. However, numerous variables can impact your success. For those new to paid search, even identifying the right areas to focus on can feel overwhelming, leading thousands of small business owners and advertisers to turn to the AdWords Performance Grader for guidance. It’s essentially an agency-level PPC audit delivered in a minute.
What It Offers:
The AdWords Performance Grader swiftly and securely evaluates your Google Ads account (formerly AdWords) in 60 seconds or less. The Grader then generates a comprehensive report highlighting your account’s strengths and weaknesses based on 10 crucial metrics, including mobile optimization, ad text optimization, and impression share.
This information allows you to pinpoint areas needing improvement within your account, potentially leading to immediate performance enhancements.
Who Should Use It?
Any business running an active Google Ads account, from small ventures to mid-sized agencies, can gain valuable insights from the AdWords Performance Grader.
Pricing:
The AdWords Performance Grader is entirely free to use. Assess your account today without any cost!
3. Formisimo – Unmasking Web Form Abandonment
Web forms are ubiquitous online, yet they still pose conversion challenges. This is where Formisimo proves invaluable for marketers.
What It Offers:
Formisimo provides actionable data on why users abandon web forms. It analyzes real-time data from your website and generates user-friendly reports based on 54 distinct metrics. These insights can pinpoint form elements that deter conversions and much more.
Who Should Use It?
Any website or app utilizing web forms can benefit from Formisimo. Similar to Mixpanel, major brands and websites like Toyota and Uber use Formisimo, but small businesses might find even greater value in its actionable data.
Pricing:
Formisimo offers a “Startup” package at $50 per month and an “Agency” package at $180 per month.
4. CrazyEgg – Heat Maps Perfected
Heat map data offers some of the most valuable insights in marketing analytics. Seeing where users focus their attention on your site (among other uses) provides remarkable insights into their behavior.
What It Offers:
CrazyEgg tracks and analyzes user behavior on websites, creating heat map visualizations of user interactions with different page elements over time. It also measures webpage scroll depth, revealing where visitor attention wanes (an “attention metric”).
Another remarkable feature is its ability to track the origin of your clicks. You can also enrich your existing audience profile data with insights from CrazyEgg, offering granular data and reporting based on your chosen plan (more on that below).
Who Should Use It?
If you’re ready to move beyond guesswork and understand your users’ actions with real data, CrazyEgg is for you. Heat maps can dramatically improve conversion rates by visually representing user behavior and highlighting neglected areas.
Pricing:
Impressively, all CrazyEgg plans are completely free for the first 30 days. Beyond that, the Basic plan starts at $9 per month (billed annually at $108) and includes data for 10,000 monthly visits across 10 active pages with daily reporting.
On the higher end, the Pro plan costs $99 per month (billed annually at $1,188) and covers 250,000 monthly visits across 100 active pages, with hourly reporting, advanced filtering, and numerous other features.
5. BuzzSumo – Your Content and Social Analysis Powerhouse
Social media is constantly evolving, and despite the abundance of tools to quantify and measure our content and social media marketing efforts, predicting the next big trend is not always guaranteed. However, we can utilize BuzzSumo to understand what resonates with our audiences and build from there.
Image via BuzzSumo
What It Offers:
BuzzSumo is a versatile social media and content analysis dashboard that provides data on trending topics across major social media channels. You can analyze data from various timeframes, from the past 12 hours to several months, getting a quick overview of the topics gaining traction within your industry.
BuzzSumo offers various features such as advanced keyword search operators, content type filters, backlink information, and even influencer marketing features. The data can be sorted and exported into a spreadsheet-friendly format for in-depth analysis or used as the foundation for your next content project.
Who Should Use It?
While anyone could benefit from filtering online noise, content marketers, social media specialists, and established bloggers stand to gain the most from BuzzSumo. Larry Kim, Founder and CTO of nexus-security, is a proponent of BuzzSumo, using it to stay updated on trending search topics and identify new content ideas. If your work involves content or social media, BuzzSumo is worth exploring.
Pricing:
BuzzSumo offers three tiers of service:
- Pro – $99 per month
- Agency – $299 per month
- Enterprise – $999 per month They offer flexible monthly or annual billing options, with significant cost savings for yearly payments.
6. Convertable – Unveiling the Story Behind Form Data
Form data can reveal a lot about your visitors. However, requesting too much information can be off-putting, potentially harming your conversion rate. If your marketing relies heavily on web forms for data collection, consider Convertable, a tool that dives deeper than standard form data.
Image via Convertable
What It Offers:
Convertable analyzes the metadata of your web forms to reveal more about your users than form fields alone can provide. It provides potentially critical data, such as how a user landed on your site (organic, paid, etc.), relevant keywords used, location, pages viewed (and for how long), and even their operating system and device – valuable information for marketers seeking a deeper understanding of their audience.
Who Should Use It?
Marketers who rely on web form data can benefit from Convertable. Advertisers directing traffic from PPC ads to unique landing pages (ideally, all advertisers) might find even more value due to its keyword functionality and compatibility with search and display campaigns. A handy WordPress plugin extends this data accessibility to bloggers as well.
Pricing:
Convertable is free to use.
7. Crowdbooster – Your Social Media Strategist
While the market is saturated with social media analytics tools, some outperform others. Though many marketers rely on the built-in reporting features of Twitter and Facebook for audience engagement insights, these can sometimes fall short. That’s where Crowdbooster steps in.
Image via Crowdbooster
What It Offers:
Crowdbooster is a social media analytics platform that uses intuitive, well-designed dashboards to track your social media campaign performance. One of its standout features is real-time reporting, providing up-to-the-second data on who engages with your content and how.
But it doesn’t stop there. Crowdbooster also helps identify your most engaged fans and followers, offering recommendations on reaching more of these brand advocates and improving your social media content for greater engagement. Naturally, it also includes scheduling and automation features expected from any social media management platform.
Who Should Use It?
Crowdbooster seems ideal for social media professionals managing multiple branded or corporate accounts. However, even small businesses starting their social media journey can benefit from its insights, especially its emphasis on targeting high-engagement users and audiences.
Pricing:
Crowdbooster plans start at $9 per month for the Bronze package, supporting one Twitter account, one Facebook profile, one registered user, and analysis of up to 50,000 followers. On the higher end, the Gold plan costs $119 per month and supports 30 social profiles, 30 registered users, and analysis of unlimited fans and followers. Customized plans tailored to specific needs are also available.
8. Open Site Explorer – Your In-Depth Link Profile Analysis Tool
Moz stands out for its extensive SEO knowledge and is highly regarded for its suite of software tools, with Open Site Explorer being a top contender – one of the most effective competitive intelligence tools available for SEOs.
What It Offers:
Open Site Explorer (OSE) analyzes the link profile of a provided URL, offering a wealth of data about your website’s link profile, including domain and page authority, total inbound links, top pages, anchor text, and more. OSE provides almost everything you need to know about your link profile, making it an essential tool for SEOs and marketers aiming to boost their website’s visibility.
Who Should Use It?
While beginner digital marketers can benefit from OSE, professional SEOs are its primary target, particularly for its advanced reporting features. However, content managers and even webmasters might find value in its spam analysis, link opportunity identification, and anchor text optimization tools.
Pricing:
OSE offers basic functionality for free. However, its full potential is unlocked when integrated with Moz Pro, Moz’s broader suite of software tools available on a subscription basis. Moz Pro plans start at $99 per month with both monthly and annual billing options.