In this final article in the series, we will discuss the second and third concepts of sustainable digital analytics: simplification and adopting a "less is more" mindset. We will explain why it is essential to simplify the current ecosystem and collect less but more actionable data to create greater business impact. We will highlight how a tool-first approach can be detrimental to digital analytics health and provide tips on how to avoid it. Finally, we will discuss the benefits of adopting a "less is more" mindset, which can lead to more valuable data and maintainable MarTech stacks.

In this article, we will delve into the first concept of sustainable digital analytics, which is putting people first. We will discuss the Avinash 10/90 rule and why it is essential to understand stakeholders and customers as people. We will explain how data can be used to make people feel better about their jobs and create more positive customer experiences. We will also highlight the importance of prioritizing employee and contractor hires who think sustainably about analytics and partnering with agencies and consulting firms that value quality over quantity.

In this article, we will explore the current state of digital analytics and why there is a need for sustainability in the field. We will discuss the challenges that businesses face due to poor digital analytics health, such as technical debt and decision-making on invalid data. We will explain the concept of sustainability in digital analytics, which involves designing and deploying analytics solutions in a future-proof way that is easy to maintain and emphasizes clean data. Finally, we will outline the benefits of adopting a sustainable approach to digital analytics.

Let’s use the term Confidence Interval as a case study in how easily it is to use stories to effectively communicate difficult terms.

Hear from 33 Sticks Principal Architect, Jenn Kunz, and 33 Sticks Principal Optimization Strategist, Jason Boal, about how you and your organization should be thinking about MarTech server-side technology.

Vendor kickbacks refer to the practice of vendors paying money or offering other incentives, to agencies, in exchange for favorable recommendations or increased business. While this practice may seem like a win-win for both the vendor and the agency, it ultimately leads to harm for the 3rd participant in this relationship — THE CUSTOMER!

In 2006, Avinash Kaushik, coined the term the 10/90 Rule for Magnificent Web Analytics Success.

The reasoning behind this rule was based on several studies that highlighted that while most large companies have made substantial investments in analytics software, they continue to struggle to make any meaningful business decisions based on the data.

We are quickly approaching 20 years from the date when Avinash introduced the 10/90 Rule and we are not closer to investing more in people than we are investing in software.

This article provides you with a framework that you can leverage to ensure you deliver value and ensure that your group has a great experience each and every time you are in front of them presenting the results of your hard work in building your optimization program.

Hear from 33 Sticks Principal Implementation Architect, Jenn Kunz, on how best to maintain the health of your marketing technology ecosystem.

You have put a tremendous amount of effort into compiling a prioritized list of test ideas for your Optimization roadmap. It’s taken months to build and includes data analysis, coordinating and facilitating ideation sessions across the organization, and ranking test ideas based upon potential impact. Now you are tasked with building out the Optimization roadmap on the calendar for the next several months and now you are to deliver your strategy to your VP……but, you’re not quite sure how to plan all of these test ideas into an integrated schedule on the calendar. Not to mention the complications that come with running overlapping tests on the same site pages. This is where Sample Size calculations come in handy.

Whether your optimization program is just starting and only one employee is involved or if your optimization program has been in place for years and spreads across multiple teams within your organization, it is vital that the program impact is being measured and communicated broadly.

Why you may ask? Well, there are a few important reasons…

Through almost 20 years of experience, one of the biggest problems we’ve observed, not just within companies but within schools, communities, and the world in general, is a frightening lack of data literacy. Not only has this lack of data literacy translated into missed business opportunities to create really positive experiences for customers, but in a more important and serious way, the lack of data literacy has allowed companies, journalists, and politicians to effectively distort data in order to create divisiveness and chaos.

The “thud factor” is a long held practice of consulting firms and agencies in which the value of their engagement is calculated by the client based on the loudness of the final deliverable, contained in an over-sized 3-ring binder, landing on a dusty, outdated conference room table.

Burnout is a serious concern (or should be) for every business. According to the American Psychological Association in their 2021 Work and Well-being Survey of 1,501 U.S. adult workers, 79% of employees reported having had experienced work-related stress in the month before the survey. The survey reported that nearly 3 in 5 employees reported negative impacts of work-related stress that resulted in lack of interest, motivation, or energy.

Over the last 9+ years building 33 Sticks, one thing has become very clear, most people have had more than one negative experience working with an agency. Typically, these bad experiences are caused by one or more of the following common consulting agency tactics…

When we started 33 Sticks, we did so with a promise that not only would we reject the billable hour model but we would become fierce enemies of the billable hour. The model, while long used in the consulting industry, is a broken model that leads to poor results for clients and burned out employees who hate their jobs.

This week, we celebrated 9 years in business at 33 Sticks and as we have been thinking back through the experience of building a brand from the ground up, we have been filled with emotions thinking about the brands and people who have helped get us to where we are today. So today’s article is a bit of a thank you to those companies who helped get our company off the ground.

33 Sticks Co-Founder and Principal Analyst, Hila Dahan, presented an extremely popular session at Adobe Summit 2019 in Las Vegas on leveraging Adobe Analytics Advanced Calculated Metrics. Hila's session focused on using advanced Calculated Metrics to drive deeper insight into consumer behavior.

Adobe’s Dynamic Tag Manager (DTM) had a few different deployment options:

1. An Adobe/Akamai-hosted library (ie, your embed code starts with “//assets.adobedtm.com”)

2. An FTP self-hosted library (DTM would push changes through FTP to a location on your own servers)

3. A downloaded self-hosting option (you would manually download after changes and put onto your servers).

Technically, all three of these options also exist in Adobe Launch, though the approach is slightly different. Since I ended up having to get some clarification from Adobe on how to use Launch to copy these methods, I figured I’d document my findings here . When creating an adapter, you have the option of Managed by Adobe or SFTP.

Adobe’s Dynamic Tag Manager has always given developers a chance to define exactly when a rule was called, by firing _satellite.track("insert rule name here"). This is called a Direct Call Rule (or DCR). They didn’t always get a ton of product love- after all, Event Based Rules don’t require work from developers and have so many more options- but many DTM users used them heavily because of the control they provided and how incredibly straightforward they were.