Data is being used to showcase that value has been generated. To do this, the most beautiful reports are created. If you follow Avinash Kaushik and dislike data pukes, you would be aghast at some of the reports agencies in India dish out.
I started 13 Llama Interactive out of a desire to improve both data-driven marketing and transparent reporting practices.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
When providing paid marketing services, clients have varying levels of online marketing expertise. Some are experienced account managers; others know the basics; some lack industry knowledge entirely. This creates an uncomfortable dynamic.
“Agency reporting” often means weekly or monthly PDFs and spreadsheets claiming the strategy succeeded — backed by overwhelming data from multiple tools and metrics that lack real meaning. The volume of data serves to obscure rather than illuminate.
Is Too Much Data a Bad Thing?
Yes — particularly when data causes analysis paralysis, or when practitioners prioritise data analysis over actual business outcomes. When organisations collect massive amounts of data without using it to solve problems, that collection becomes a liability rather than an asset.
While abandoning data collection entirely means letting go of possibilities, the business damage from wasting resources on data that is never actioned is far worse.
This creates a fundamental question: what data should you collect, and for what purpose? Start with the decision you need to make. Work backwards to the data that would inform it. Everything else is noise.