The Top Marketing Analytics Tools, Ranked and Reviewed

Marketing analytics is a vital part of any digital marketing strategy because it gives you a deeper understanding of your audience and the best ways to capture it. However, manual research only provides a partial picture, which is why most marketers use specialized analytics tools.

Today, there are hundreds of tools dedicated to marketing analytics, and we can argue that they all do the same thing, more or less. However, if you want accurate KPI tracking and results that actually make a difference, there are 5 tools that are globally recognized as the best.

Today, we’ll take a look at these tools and highlight their best features along with pricing.

List of the Top Marketing Analytics Tools

For each marketing platform, we’ve included a quick overview of its top features, pricing plans, and options for free use. We’ve also included their biggest pros and cons to help you come to a decision:

1. Google Analytics: Best Free Marketing Analytics Tool

   Google Analytics gives you a deep dive into marketing data, from data collection to reporting. The more you use it, the more intuitive it gets, giving you more precise insights about your behavior.

   If you’re just starting out with a marketing project, you can use Google Analytics to map out your entire strategy. It lets you create ad-specific audiences (e.g. users from LA who’ve clicked on your newsletter in the past week), which you can optimize the more data you collect. From there, you can monitor each audience’s behavior – how active they are, the actions they take, etc.

   With Google Analytics, marketing attribution becomes super easy. Precisely attribute each click or sale to a particular user to further build on your strategy and get better results. You can track lead gen, online sales, app growth, etc.

   Finally, Google Analytics will create comprehensive reports generated based on marketing data. There are two types of reports – overview and detail. The former refers to individual KPI tracking (number of app installs), while the latter gives you in-depth data about a specific area of interest (e.g. data about e-commerce sales).

   Pricing

   Google Analytics is a free tool from Google. The goal is to be used by everyone who wants to better their marketing efforts, so it costs nothing to get started. There is also no trial period – once you create your account, it’s free forever.

   For large enterprises, Analytics 360 lets you create a custom pricing plan with more precise insights. However, the average user can get enough value from the free version.

   Pros

   • Free forever

   • Intuitive dashboard

   • Custom reporting

   Cons

   • Steep learning curve

   
   

2. Semrush: Best for Competitor Research

   Semrush is a well-familiar marketing analytics tool mostly used by SEO specialists with clients who want to grow their presence online. It offers in-depth Traffic Analytics and, unlike many other analytics tools, lets you scan any website’s traffic. This makes it the best competitor research tool on our list.

   Then, there is the Backlink Analytics feature, which gives you an overview of the backlink profile of any website, along with referring domains, anchor text, and link quality. This can help you understand how to build your own site’s backlink profile and what links to use.

   Semrush covers both on-page and technical SEO and can do a complete site audit that reveals all technical issues. As such, it offers everything you need to create an SEO strategy from scratch, including keyword gaps, strategy builder, link building tool, etc.

   Finally, the AI features of Semrush are unbeatable – you can create SEO content templates with target keywords for specific locations in mere seconds. Semrush offers highly automated solutions that truly simplify the SEO process and carefully aid you through the implementation stage.

   Pricing

   Semrush offers some free features for a certain period of time or number of searches. For example, free users can view 10 Traffic Overview reports daily, which should be enough to complete your daily research. However, some features can only be accessed via a paid plan.

   Semrush offers three plans – Pro ($139.95 monthly), Guru ($249.95 monthly), and Enterprise ($5,000 monthly). If you’re just getting started with marketing analytics, the Pro plan covers everything you need. Still, it’s recommended that you only pay for Semrush if you already have some experience and enough work to cancel out the costs.

   Pros

   • Free daily prompts

   • Lets you analyze competitors

   • Phone, chat, and email support

   Cons

   • Steep pricing

   
   

3. HubSpot: Best for List Building

   HubSpot is a CRM software with powerful marketing analytics features in a single dashboard. You can easily measure how all your marketing campaigns are performing with a special focus on data analysis. For example, you can see multi-touch attribution insights, top revenue sources, top-performing blogs, etc.

   Because it’s a full-stack software, all the data you need can be found in one place. This makes overseeing your strategies so much easier than shifting between different platforms for different data.

   For marketers, it’s crucial to have insight into the customer journey step by step. HubSpot shows you how your users shop, what motivates them to take action, and what ultimately leads them to click Buy. This also means your e-commerce store must be optimized for your audience, so HubSpot lets you analyze various website performance metrics, such as traffic quality.

   Finally, you can build custom reports for every stage of your marketing strategy. So, if you’ve created content for a site blog, you can track the performance of that content in a separate report and fill in your client with your success metrics.

   Pricing

   HubSpot has pricing plans for different marketing sectors, such as content and sales. Specifically for marketing, you can choose between a regular and Marketing+ plan.

   The regular plan can be Professional ($800 monthly) or Enterprise ($3,600 monthly) with the option to add more users for a certain price. The same goes for the Marketing+ plans – the Professional one starts at $900 monthly and the Enterprise one at $3,800 monthly.

   You can also use HubSpot for free forever, but the features will be quite limited.

   Pros

   • Pricing plans include marketing contacts

   • 1,726+ app integrations

   • Free-forever option

   Cons

   • Very limited pricing plans

   • Not suitable for beginners

   
   

4. Ahrefs: Best for Keyword Analysis

   Similar to Semrush, Ahrefs gives you an in-depth dive into core marketing metrics related to your marketing campaigns. However, its keyword-researching abilities are much more precise and powerful. Add individual keywords you want to track and stay on top of your more important queries.

   Ahrefs also has a detailed Rank Tracker that lets you compare your performance to your competitors. And since mobile searches are on the rise, it’s important to get ranking updates for both desktop and mobile.

   Search engine ranking is crucial in digital marketing, so Ahrefs lets you analyze 15 Google features, including featured snippets, top stories, and image packs. All of this can be found in Ahrefs’ dashboard where you can track all metrics in one place.

   Ahrefs lets you connect to GSC and analyze data older than 16 months, which is the default for the Console. Any insights you want to get in real time you can choose to turn notifications on for so they’re sent straight to your email.

   Pricing

   There are four pricing plans – Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise, which cost $129/mo, $249/mo, $449/mo, and $14,990 annually, respectively. If you’re a website owner, you have the option to use a selection of the Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free.

   Pros

   • All-inclusive keyword research tool

   • Shows data older than 16 months

   • Detailed rank tracking

   • Very few integrations

   
   

5. Sprout Social: Best for Social Media Analytics

   Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management tool with powerful analytics features. It’s great for freelancers working with clients because it visualizes data for easier understanding, simplifying the reporting process. You can use graphs and charts to highlight current trends and the most important changes.

   Sprout Social can help your site grow both organically and through paid ads. Since its focus is on social media, you get a hashtag tracking tool along with paid performance reporting across all your social profiles.

   You can get data on any social media channel you use, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, X, and YouTube. And since all these channels operate differently, you have the option to analyze performance at the post level.

   With Sprout Social, you can also track your competitors’ social media to see the latest trends that you might be missing. Everything is included in a simple dashboard – all you have to do is connect your profiles and start generating data.

   Pricing

   Sprout Social has four pricing plans – Standard, Professional, Advanced, and Enterprise, which cost $199, $299, and $399 per seat/month, respectively. The Enterprise plan features custom pricing.

   While Sprout Social is a paid tool, you can still use a selection of free tools. Or, you can start a free trial for the Standard, Professional, or Advanced plan to see if it works for your needs.

   Pros

   • 30-day free trial, no credit card required

   • Selection of free tools

   • Granular social data analysis

   Cons

   • Per-seat pricing model

Should You Use One or a Mix of These Tools?

If you’re a beginner in marketing analytics, a free tool like Google Analytics can work well to start. However, if you have an established page with high amounts of traffic, Semrush or Ahrefs might be the best solution for you.

Your budget also plays a role. The tools we listed above all offer a free plan or a selection of free tools. However, they can be quite limited, so a paid plan might have a better payoff.

Offer18: Top Marketing Analytics Tool for Affiliates

The global affiliate market size is predicted to reach $39,251.94 million by 2028, making it one of the most profitable marketing strategies today. The tools above may not provide an affiliate marketing dashboard, but we at Offer18 have powerful affiliate marketing analytics tools to realize your campaigns.

With Offer18, you get:

• Accurate attribution for each stage of the marketing funnel

• Cookieless tracking

• KPI tracking

• Exportable reports

• Metric templates, and more.

Start your free trial today, no credit card required. Or, contact us for a personalized affiliate marketing consultation for your business.

FAQs

What is a marketing analytics tool?

A marketing analytics tool lets you analyze website traffic as well as traffic you generate across social media. It can help you build a marketing strategy and set target KPIs to follow, and through real-time insights, adjust it to match the latest industry trends.

What are 5 digital marketing analytics that actually matter?

There’s no set number of marketing analytics you should track, but some of the most important ones include clickthrough rate, conversion rate, traffic sources, bounce rate, and ROI.

What is the most popular marketing analytics software?

Google Analytics is by far the most popular marketing analytics software because it’s free and yet offers a wide selection of features. It’s also the number one choice for those who use the Google tool pack to grow their online presence.