Checklist: How to Standardize Data for Effective Multi-Channel Campaigns
Author: Tim Daloisio, VP of Strategy & Agency Operations, Eyeful Media
Running marketing campaigns across Google Ads, SEO, social media, and email can get overwhelming. Without a standardized approach, your data and insights can become scattered, leading to poor decision-making and wasted resources.
Data standardization fixes this. By aligning your data structures, naming conventions, and platforms, you gain faster access to insights, improved reporting accuracy, and better collaboration across teams.
EJ Freni, Chief Revenue Officer at Claravine, a data standardization technology provider, explains the impact that good data practices can have on the bottom line.
"I cannot stress the importance of Data Standards and the impact it can have on a marketing organization. In a recent study we commissioned (link to study), US advertisers report an average increase in ROI of 33% from implementing data standards strategies across functions, including privacy compliance, brand safety, and marketing campaign ROI. Whether you are a multi-billion dollar global marketer or an emerging brand trying to get the most out of every dollar you spend, that's a material impact to the bottom line."
This checklist breaks down the essential steps to streamline your data for more impactful, efficient marketing performance.
How to Standardize Marketing Data
1. Audit Your Current Data Structure
Before making changes, audit how your data is collected across all platforms—Google Ads, SEO, social media, email marketing, and CRM systems. Identify inconsistencies in naming conventions, tracking methods, and reporting formats.
Review All Channels: Check Google Ads, SEO, social, CRM systems, etc.
Spot Inconsistencies: Identify fragmented data and irregular naming conventions.
Map High-Impact Areas: Focus on areas where data standardization will have the most immediate impact, such as high-traffic campaigns or top-performing channels.
How it Helps: Marketing audits provide a clear baseline, showing where data is fragmented or inconsistent. This data helps you prioritize what needs to be fixed first.
2. Create Unified Naming Conventions
Once you’ve audited your data, create a unified naming convention for campaigns, ad groups, creatives, and tracking codes. The structure should include essential details like platform, product category, and campaign type to facilitate reporting.
Establish Clear Rules: Develop a repeatable structure for naming conventions.
Simplify Comparisons: Ensure consistency to compare results across platforms easily.
Enforce Consistency: Ensure all teams follow the new naming conventions across every channel.
How it Helps: A unified naming system allows for seamless reporting and clearer insights. It ensures everyone is on the same page, leading to quicker and more accurate analysis.
3. Integrate Data Across Platforms
After standardizing naming conventions, it’s time to integrate your data. Use tools like Looker Studio or Funnel.io to centralize data from platforms like Google Ads, Google Analytics, and CRM systems into one dashboard.
Choose the Right Tools: Use tools that integrate data from various platforms.
Automate Reporting: Set up automated data pulls to eliminate manual errors.
Cross-Platform Insights: Ensure the dashboard provides a clear view across SEO, paid ads, and social channels.
How it Helps: Integrating data provides a comprehensive view of campaign performance. Real-time updates allow you to see how each channel contributes and make adjustments quickly.
Tools like Funnel.io allow you to connect data from different sources to deliver a unified view of performance
4. Set Up Data Validation Processes
Standardizing data is only the first step. It’s essential to validate the data regularly to catch errors or inconsistencies. Schedule weekly or monthly data reviews to ensure everything aligns with the set naming conventions.
Regularly Check for Errors: Conduct routine checks for misaligned or missing data.
Ensure Alignment: Confirm that campaign data follows your new standardized structure.
Monitor for Gaps: Identify any untracked campaigns or data that could skew your insights.
How it Helps: Consistent validation prevents errors from building up, ensuring the accuracy of your data over time. Without this, even standardized data can become unreliable.
5. Train Your Team on Data Best Practices
Standardization will only work if your entire team is aligned. Provide training on implementing and maintaining the new naming conventions and show them how to use integrated dashboards.
According to Freni, the team includes both agency and marketer. "One of the most important aspects of a great Data Standards program is collaboration between agency partners and marketers. With more than half of marketers using agencies but just two in five involving them in their data standards practices, there’s a huge opportunity to bring greater efficiency, transparency, and standardization to the advertising process. We see this time and time again: When there are mutually agreed upon Data Standards, everyone gets faster time to insights, better measurement and campaign performance increases. We also see a material impact on the relationship between the Marketer and their Agency Partners because all parties don't have to worry about trusting the data they use to make decisions and the reports being produced.”
Explain the Importance: Help your team understand the value of data standardization.
Provide Clear Documentation: Share step-by-step guides for maintaining consistency.
Use Real-Life Examples: Walk your team through actual data to demonstrate how standardized practices improve reporting and decision-making.
How it Helps: When teams understand how standardized data drives better insights, collaboration improves, and decision-making becomes faster and more strategic.
6. Focus on High-Impact Data First
You don’t need to track everything. Prioritize the metrics that matter most to your business goals—conversion rates, cost-per-click, or customer lifetime value. Start with high-volume data sources and refine as you go.
Prioritize Key Metrics: Identify KPIs that are crucial to your strategy.
Refine Based on Results: Focus on high-impact areas before moving to secondary data.
How it Helps: Focusing on the most important data ensures you work with insights that drive real value instead of getting lost in unnecessary metrics.
7. Avoid Common Pitfalls
Keep your data structure simple and effective. Avoid the temptation to over-complicate your naming conventions or analysis methods. Regularly audit your data and ensure cross-channel insights are part of your evaluation.
Don’t Overcomplicate: Keep the structure simple and focus on what matters.
Maintain Regular Audits: Schedule ongoing reviews to ensure consistency.
Analyze Across Channels: Evaluate data holistically across SEO, PPC, and other channels.
How it Helps: Standardization should make things easier, not harder. Over-complicating your structure can lead to confusion and missed opportunities for optimization.
8. Leverage the Right Tools
To standardize data effectively, you need the right tools. Platforms like Looker Studio or Funnel.io can centralize reporting. Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and CRM systems like HubSpot or Salesforce ensure comprehensive data tracking.
Looker Studio or Funnel.io: Use these tools to centralize reporting.
Google Analytics & Search Console: Track web performance and integrate with Google Ads.
CRM Systems (HubSpot, Salesforce): Integrate your CRM for full customer journey tracking.
How it Helps: Having the correct tools ensures that your data is integrated and accessible, giving you a complete picture of your campaign’s performance across platforms.
Single source dashboards that allow marketers to see performance in aggregate across platforms and drill into each platform specifically are invaluable
9. Measure Long-Term Benefits
Standardizing your data leads to faster reporting, better collaboration, and more accurate budget allocation. You’ll quickly see which campaigns are underperforming and where to focus resources for maximum return.
Faster Insights: Standardized data enables quicker, more accurate reporting.
Better Collaboration: Teams work more effectively when data is consistent.
Optimized Budgets: Easily identify underperforming campaigns and reallocate budget accordingly.
How it Helps: The long-term impact of standardization is clear: more efficient use of time and resources and a clearer understanding of what’s driving results.
10. Iterate and Improve
Don’t wait for perfection—roll out dashboards at 85% completion and refine them over time. Regularly test and optimize your data structure as your marketing strategy evolves.
Launch at 85%: Start early and refine with feedback.
Review Often: Continuously optimize your data structure as your strategy evolves.
How it Helps: Data standardization isn’t a one-time task. It’s an ongoing process that needs regular updates to keep pace with changes in your strategy and goals.
Next Steps: Unlock the Full Potential of Your Data
Data standardization is more than just a technical task—it’s the key to unlocking clearer, faster insights and informed decision-making. By aligning your data structure, integrating platforms, and training your teams, you’ll set your business up for long-term success.
Whether it’s better reporting or improved collaboration, the benefits of standardized data will show up across your entire marketing operation. Start implementing these steps today to optimize your data and see improvements in everything from campaign performance to resource allocation.