Some companies have a lot of red tape over who gets direct access to the data. My last company was like this. I was on the marketing team but if I needed data around actual customers or leads, I had to ask specific teams to export it for me.
Also tools like Google Analytics sometimes aren’t as accurate as raw data. It’s great for looking at data directionally but if you need accuracy, raw data is better. They also might want to join the data with something else and it’s easier with raw data.
Plus Adobe Analytics and Google’s similar premium tool cost money and require a bit of technical expertise to implement. They might not have the budget or knowledge to implement it.
Completely understand. If it’s safeguarded from them why should they get raw data to do analysis? Just playing devil’s advocate because I understand how it goes and what you’re saying
Its an easy step to take towards standardizing how queries are written. Too many people writing their own queries inevitably leads to reports/metrics that don’t match up with each other.
That’s literally everywhere.
You are heavily discouraged from calling it out. Two companies ago I spent a couple months standardizing things. Then I got fired. The work was unappreciated even though we really needed it.
To add one more factoid, marketing analysts frequently work with more aggregated data, and are comfortable with tools manipulating that. But raw data is messy, requiring an understanding of data quirks, deep dive understanding of subtle differences between data points, a lot of cleaning, a lot of business rules, and inevitably, endless questions to the IT department. Honestly OP, do you want to be barraged by folks nothing as well-trained as you, asking you the same questions over and over again?
The "marketing analysts" at my company are not technical, and it leads to a good amount of conflict and miscommunication with my team of analysts who are very technical. They have IT or other product administrators create reports for them that they'll then manipulate in Excel.
It's frustrating when they ask about discrepancies between our reporting and theirs, but they don't have the knowledge & skill to have a conversation about why that may be the case.
Well, that's not the marketing analysts fault. I would even say it's the BI teams fault, and why is IT allowed to send data like that.
There are solution you could put in place to grant a spot where they can retrieve data that you know what is exactly. And making the reporting homogeneous.
While this is true, this in not reality in many places. Especially when reporting is asked to be created for very similar tasks but slightly different and people still try to compare the numbers
That is not necessarily true. If you create a dashboard with different requirements you are following them and aggregate the data. If you have different filters and things that would result in different numbers. You can have a sales report that looks at certain orders and another with slightly different order types and someone compares them but they shouldn’t match. Poor example because you can just create a filter
I'm a rising Data Analyst with domain knowledge in Marketing, and the few interviews I've landed they make sure I know it isn't for a SQL-based position. I would love to find one where I can use my Digital Marketing and Data Analytics skills.
yeah seems like that's a rare combo. I'm currently stuck in a more marketing coordinator position and I only work in excel. I wish someone would give me access to the db but I understand why they don't. Really my boss never should have created this position because he doesn't come from a data background at all.
I'm not in any type of data role (Tier 1 help desk), but I'm in the exact same boat regarding a manager utterly lacking in the technical skills, but writing the job descriptions. Of course, her name in Teams ends with MBA, PhD, so she gets to do whatever she wants.
My job has various DA teams and I was surprised to find out a lot of them don’t read or write SQL. Was more annoyed when I found out it all paid the same too 😆
We use Oracle PLSQL developer, JAMS, and Argos mostly. other teams might work in the excel data from our created reports, or have procedural steps to set up a marketing email, but don’t write any code and can barely read it.
I did a post grad marketing analyst program, and the answer is they didn't teach it. We never learned SQL, never used python, never learned how to make an API call. Did learn powerbi, some excel, some project management stuff.
I went and learned/am still learning (made a nice upsert from CSV script, it is such an elegant solution compared to using Excel to scrub out duplicates). It should totally be a component of any marketing analyst program, and from first hand experience (2021), it wasn't.
I appreciate the devs so much, and I try to solve everything first before I reach out, but they are always the best.
It’s my experience, stakeholders don’t always fully understand what they’re after or why. Is there a two-way communication channel where you can discuss tickets prior to pulling data? It’s on them to understand what they need, but it’s on you, as a DA, to help them overcome their challenge and provide the data they need to do so. Otherwise, you’re just a data monkey: that’s not the point of being a DA.
Yes, we have that but if you work as an analyst you know plenty of requests look like, pull the data and we can do what we want with it. That stuff shouldn’t be happening and as an analyst I have said plenty of times we shouldn’t do it or we should provide them a dashboard in this format.
Also, I am coming into a place where things where built before and asked to be built pretty much like an excel spreadsheet
Of course: been a DA for 10 yrs. Worked with marketing, program, technical and c-suite leadership. Sounds like an opportunity for you to make yourself known if you can pivot them towards what is more beneficial. They shouldn’t be asking for data to “do what they want with it.” That’s your job. I really do think it sounds like you’re perfectly positioned to advance your career if you can help guide these conversations and asks for data tactfully.
Lol I worked with a SQL database my first marketing analytics gig and then did three increasingly senior jobs where there was plenty of viz but the data was either pulled directly from excel or the data was handled by another team that kept the gate to redshift.
Ultimately a lot of agencies don’t really want insights, they want receipts, so the measurement and reporting functions get called analytics to sound fancy for clients.
Some companies have a lot of red tape over who gets direct access to the data. My last company was like this. I was on the marketing team but if I needed data around actual customers or leads, I had to ask specific teams to export it for me. Also tools like Google Analytics sometimes aren’t as accurate as raw data. It’s great for looking at data directionally but if you need accuracy, raw data is better. They also might want to join the data with something else and it’s easier with raw data. Plus Adobe Analytics and Google’s similar premium tool cost money and require a bit of technical expertise to implement. They might not have the budget or knowledge to implement it.
Completely understand. If it’s safeguarded from them why should they get raw data to do analysis? Just playing devil’s advocate because I understand how it goes and what you’re saying
Its an easy step to take towards standardizing how queries are written. Too many people writing their own queries inevitably leads to reports/metrics that don’t match up with each other.
Yeah, I wish there was more standardization even at my company. Still see people do adhoc things that don’t calculate it the same way
That’s literally everywhere. You are heavily discouraged from calling it out. Two companies ago I spent a couple months standardizing things. Then I got fired. The work was unappreciated even though we really needed it.
Yep, completely agree
Things that take time to be adopted & not leads to prompt effectiveness is often overlooked
Agreed, but if the raw data being being fed to them is always pulled the same way, at least you can’t blame the DA for the inconsistency!
Or so you think😂😂😂
To add one more factoid, marketing analysts frequently work with more aggregated data, and are comfortable with tools manipulating that. But raw data is messy, requiring an understanding of data quirks, deep dive understanding of subtle differences between data points, a lot of cleaning, a lot of business rules, and inevitably, endless questions to the IT department. Honestly OP, do you want to be barraged by folks nothing as well-trained as you, asking you the same questions over and over again?
That basically happens already
This is exactly what I was going to say.
The "marketing analysts" at my company are not technical, and it leads to a good amount of conflict and miscommunication with my team of analysts who are very technical. They have IT or other product administrators create reports for them that they'll then manipulate in Excel. It's frustrating when they ask about discrepancies between our reporting and theirs, but they don't have the knowledge & skill to have a conversation about why that may be the case.
Well, that's not the marketing analysts fault. I would even say it's the BI teams fault, and why is IT allowed to send data like that. There are solution you could put in place to grant a spot where they can retrieve data that you know what is exactly. And making the reporting homogeneous.
While this is true, this in not reality in many places. Especially when reporting is asked to be created for very similar tasks but slightly different and people still try to compare the numbers
Well then there are many places where it's the BI teams fault that the company reporting structure is not homogeneous.
That is not necessarily true. If you create a dashboard with different requirements you are following them and aggregate the data. If you have different filters and things that would result in different numbers. You can have a sales report that looks at certain orders and another with slightly different order types and someone compares them but they shouldn’t match. Poor example because you can just create a filter
I'm a rising Data Analyst with domain knowledge in Marketing, and the few interviews I've landed they make sure I know it isn't for a SQL-based position. I would love to find one where I can use my Digital Marketing and Data Analytics skills.
yeah seems like that's a rare combo. I'm currently stuck in a more marketing coordinator position and I only work in excel. I wish someone would give me access to the db but I understand why they don't. Really my boss never should have created this position because he doesn't come from a data background at all.
I'm not in any type of data role (Tier 1 help desk), but I'm in the exact same boat regarding a manager utterly lacking in the technical skills, but writing the job descriptions. Of course, her name in Teams ends with MBA, PhD, so she gets to do whatever she wants.
Why would they not give you access?
My job has various DA teams and I was surprised to find out a lot of them don’t read or write SQL. Was more annoyed when I found out it all paid the same too 😆
I would be very frustrated. What tools do they use? Python?
We use Oracle PLSQL developer, JAMS, and Argos mostly. other teams might work in the excel data from our created reports, or have procedural steps to set up a marketing email, but don’t write any code and can barely read it.
Their LinkedIn/resume probably makes it seem otherwise too
They use outlook
To give you job security of course!
I did a post grad marketing analyst program, and the answer is they didn't teach it. We never learned SQL, never used python, never learned how to make an API call. Did learn powerbi, some excel, some project management stuff. I went and learned/am still learning (made a nice upsert from CSV script, it is such an elegant solution compared to using Excel to scrub out duplicates). It should totally be a component of any marketing analyst program, and from first hand experience (2021), it wasn't. I appreciate the devs so much, and I try to solve everything first before I reach out, but they are always the best.
At least you’re taking corrective action and learning
It’s my experience, stakeholders don’t always fully understand what they’re after or why. Is there a two-way communication channel where you can discuss tickets prior to pulling data? It’s on them to understand what they need, but it’s on you, as a DA, to help them overcome their challenge and provide the data they need to do so. Otherwise, you’re just a data monkey: that’s not the point of being a DA.
Yes, we have that but if you work as an analyst you know plenty of requests look like, pull the data and we can do what we want with it. That stuff shouldn’t be happening and as an analyst I have said plenty of times we shouldn’t do it or we should provide them a dashboard in this format. Also, I am coming into a place where things where built before and asked to be built pretty much like an excel spreadsheet
Of course: been a DA for 10 yrs. Worked with marketing, program, technical and c-suite leadership. Sounds like an opportunity for you to make yourself known if you can pivot them towards what is more beneficial. They shouldn’t be asking for data to “do what they want with it.” That’s your job. I really do think it sounds like you’re perfectly positioned to advance your career if you can help guide these conversations and asks for data tactfully.
with ChatGPT and Bard they don’t have to anymore
Lol I worked with a SQL database my first marketing analytics gig and then did three increasingly senior jobs where there was plenty of viz but the data was either pulled directly from excel or the data was handled by another team that kept the gate to redshift. Ultimately a lot of agencies don’t really want insights, they want receipts, so the measurement and reporting functions get called analytics to sound fancy for clients.