Why Metrics Matter: Google’s Ten Golden Rules

In an interesting article in Newsweek, titled Google: Ten Golden Rules, Google’s Eric Schmidt and Berkeley Professor/Google Consultant Hal Varian describe Google’s thinking on managing knowledge workers. While a lot of this is common sense (communicate frequently, assign teams to projects and have them sit next to each other, hire by committee, and our favorite cliche “eat your own dogfood”) what stood out to us is the following point:

“Data drive decisions. At Google, almost every decision is based on quantitative analysis. We’ve built systems to manage information, not only on the Internet at large, but also internally. We have dozens of analysts who plow through the data, analyze performance metrics and plot trends to keep us as up to date as possible. We have a raft of online “dashboards” for every business we work in that provide up-to-the-minute snapshots of where we are. ”

It is very easy for marketing staff to get overwhelmed with data and to ignore it. But to do so is perilous. And most marketers understand that… However, what is missing in many cases are clear methods for analyzing the success of a marketing project or program. We are constantly asked to help clients build the types of dashboards mentioned above. When we present the ideas that metrics need to be success metrics and not static measures of traffic, we are often faced with blank stares across the table…After educating our clients, most see the light and begin to use their data as a competitive tool instead of as a scorecard. But it takes time and effort on the client’s part to get there.

Think about the success that Google is achieving in almost every area it undertakes. Do you want your firm to experience the same success? Of course you do. But are you willing to learn the quantitiative side of marketing in order to make better decisions? That is the million dollar question. Everyone has a story about their company throwing millions of dollars away on a project that didn’t produce expected results. Was that due to poor planning or poor execution? The only way to know and then get better is to use quantitative analysis up front and then measure, measure, and measure again throughout the project.

Those that follow the trend of “that’s a cool idea” or “I saw that competitor A did this” will lose. Only those who can use their data to drive results higher will win. Which group does your team belong to?

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