How data consistency can improve your KPIs

Did you know that harnessing the power of consistent data can significantly impact your business outcomes? It’s true, consistent data practices are essential for reliable insights, improved key performance indicators (KPIs) and long-term success. 

In this article, I’ll explore the importance of consistent data, its key benefits and how to keep your data connected and consistent.

Consistency in data practices forms the foundation for reliable and actionable insights. 

Just as a healthy tree relies on a robust root system, your data requires a strong foundation to reach its full potential. Consistent research practices ensure that your data is reliable, predictable and capable of driving informed business decisions.

Here’s just some of the major benefits of consistent data: 

Key benefits of consistent data

1. Agility: Consistent data inputs and settings reduce the risk of human error and streamline your processes. This agility allows for quicker adjustments and more responsive decision-making.

2. Simplicity: Standardizing your data practices simplifies both the configuration and analysis phases. With fewer variables to account for, you can focus on extracting meaningful insights.

3. Comparability: Standardized research practices makes it easier to compare results across different projects and time periods. This comparability is crucial for identifying trends and drawing deeper insights.

To ensure your data remains connected and consistent, consider implementing the following best practices:

1. Leveraging tags and attributes

Tags Tags are keywords attached to pieces of content that help categorize and find projects easily. They allow for better benchmarks, meta-analyses and extend your return on investment. 

For example, if your brand used celebrities in a handful of ads, you can tag those with “Celebrity” for instance. This allows you to easily compare and contrast the advantages or disadvantages of using celebrities in your advertising over time.   

Using strategic tags based on your business objectives can transform isolated insights into connected learnings.

Attributes 

Attributes are characteristics that consumers associate with your concepts or advertisements. 

For example, imagine you’re testing a series of video advertisements for a new beverage. The attributes you might track could include:

• Refreshing - Does the ad convey that the beverage is refreshing?

• Natural - Is the product perceived as made from natural ingredients?

• Healthy - Does the ad make the beverage appear healthy?

• Trendy - Is the product seen as trendy or modern?

• Fun - Does the ad portray the beverage as something fun to drink?

• For everyone - Does the product appeal to a broad audience?

Consistency in attributes helps ensure your product meets consumer expectations and allows for more in-depth comparisons. Plus, using a consistent set of attributes across your data helps reinforce insights and identify driving forces behind performance.

2. Standardizing audiences

Consistently using the same audience for your research extends the utility of your data. 

While investigating specific demographics can provide valuable insights, standardizing your audience allows for direct comparisons between projects and helps track trends over time. But you can also look at different audiences in the data when you get a broad sample. 

Overall, this practice reduces the need to control for demographic variables in your analysis and ensures that your insights are reliable.

3. Developing repeatable analysis plans

Creating a structured analysis plan tailored to your objectives and solutions is crucial for maintaining consistency. This plan should include:

• Defining your objectives

• Setting the cadence, volume and variety of data needed

• Standardizing inputs

• Developing an assessment protocol to differentiate winners from the pack

Overall, having a repeatable analysis plan helps to reduce bias, enhance efficiency and ensure transparent and reliable insights.

Consistency in data practices is vital for achieving agility, simplicity, comparability and deeper insights. It enables you to track progress and better understand the why behind your KPIs. 

By leveraging tags and attributes, standardizing audiences and developing repeatable analysis plans, you can keep your data connected and consistent, driving better business outcomes.

For more on this topic, check out our report on the state of connected insights and why connecting insights is now a business imperative.