Funnel recently conducted an insightful interview with Julian Modiano, the co-founder and CEO of Acuto, a Funnel solution partner. In this discussion hosted by Marc Wortelboer, partner marketing manager at Funnel, and Paul Buccheri, a data engineer at Funnel, Julian shared his expertise on automating processes and cultivating a data-driven approach within agencies.
Understanding the basics: What is a data warehouse?
Paul Buccheri, Funnel's data engineer, shed light on the critical role of a data warehouse in becoming a data-driven agency. Drawing a clear distinction between databases and data warehouses, he emphasized that while databases are transaction-oriented, data warehouses store large volumes of data from diverse sources, primarily for analytical purposes.
Setting up a data warehouse
Paul explained that setting up a data warehouse has evolved significantly, thanks to cloud-based platforms like AWS, Azure, Snowflake, and BigQuery. These platforms simplify the process, allowing agencies to store and analyze data efficiently.
Funnel, as a specialized marketing data hub, further streamlines the integration of various marketing channels and platforms, enabling agencies to focus on analysis rather than complex setup processes.
Related reading: An introduction to marketing data warehouses
Practical applications: 3 examples in action
Julian Modiano delved into practical applications, illustrating how data warehouses, particularly using BigQuery, can elevate agency performance.
Optimizing ad creatives
Acuto leverages BigQuery to analyze display ad data from platforms such as Facebook Ads, Google Display Network, and LinkedIn. By utilizing the Google Vision API, they extract detailed information about colors, objects, text, landmarks, and logos in ads.
This approach provides valuable insights into the elements contributing to ad performance, allowing for data-driven creative optimization.
N-gram analysis for search terms
Julian demonstrated the use of n-gram analysis for dissecting search term data. By employing BigQuery's inbuilt n-grams using SQL, he showcased how agencies can better understand the intent behind a user’s search term, enhancing the efficiency of their search ad campaigns and allowing them to make strategy adjustments.
Agency-wide health check dashboard
Julian emphasized the importance of creating dashboards for agency-wide health checks. These dashboards, powered by data warehouses, consolidate data and enable agencies to track key metrics, identify mistakes, and implement timely corrections across the whole agency.
Examples included monitoring the transition from expanded text ads to responsive search ads and budget pacing alerts tailored to different stakeholders.
The fundamental components for agencies to become truly data-driven
Adopting a data warehouse and using Funnel as your marketing sidekick empowers agencies to break down data silos, take ownership of their data, gain agency-wide insights, and significantly reduce time spent on reporting.
The insights shared by Julian Modiano and Paul Buccheri provide the use case for agencies to harness the full potential of data warehouses, combined with Funnel, and elevate their data-driven capabilities to better serve their clients.
Disclaimer: The featured image for this article was created using generative AI.
