What’s Working in Digital Marketing Right Now (and Why Data is Leading the Charge)

The Digital Landscape Is Noisy, But Data Cuts Through It

Digital marketing is bursting at the seams. There are enough new channels, constant algorithm updates, and buzzwords to make your head spin. It’s a lot. And if you’re leading a small marketing team or running a business, it can feel like you’re expected to master it all and show results overnight.

Here’s the good news: You don’t need to do everything. You just need to do the right things. The data can tell you what those right things are.

At Lightburn, we’ve been helping marketing managers and business owners cut through the chaos with strategies grounded in real insights. We’ve seen what works, what fizzles out, and what can seriously move the needle — especially when data leads the charge.

In this article, we’re sharing what’s actually working in digital marketing right now. No hype. Just proven strategies, powered by analytics, that help teams like ours and yours make smarter decisions and see better results.

The Shift Toward Smarter Spending

Why Every Dollar Now Demands Justification

Marketing budgets aren’t what they used to be, and frankly, that’s not a bad thing. Today, teams are expected to show impact, not just activity. That expectation is pushing more businesses to embrace performance marketing: where every campaign, piece of content, and channel investment is tracked, measured, and optimized for ROI.

Here’s where data steps in as your best budget buddy. By analyzing past performance and current behavior, you can prioritize efforts that are proven to drive conversions and cut the things that don’t. Think of it as Marie Kondo-ing your marketing spend, where sparking joy becomes sparking conversions (which feels like joy! No?).

For example, rather than spreading your ad dollars thin across multiple platforms, a solid data audit might reveal that 80% of your revenue comes from just one channel. Or that certain types of blog posts consistently outperform others. When you have that intel, decisions stop being guesses and start being strategic.

SEO Is More Strategic Than Ever

Modern SEO = User Intent + Smarter Tools

Once upon a time, SEO was all about keywords, backlinks, and hoping Google would throw you a bone. Today? It’s a much more refined game, and data is what’s leveling up the play.

Modern SEO isn’t just about rankings; it’s about relevance. Search engines are getting better at understanding user intent, which means your content strategy needs to follow suit. Are you:

• Answering the right questions?
• Serving the right format? (This is a big one – Get your UX & Content Design teams in here stat!)
• Satisfying the right stage of the buyer journey?

That’s where data shines. 

Tools like GA4, Search Console, and Microsoft Clarity (a Lightburn fav) let you see how users are engaging with your site — where they’re landing, where they’re dropping off, and what they’re searching for that you’re maybe not delivering. That kind of insight goes beyond “what’s your bounce rate?” and into “why aren’t they converting?”

For example:

• Search Console reveals what terms are bringing users in — and which ones should be.
• GA4 tracks how different audience segments move through your site.
• User Session Recording tools like Microsoft Clarity capture behavior heatmaps and friction points you can’t see in spreadsheets.

This isn’t just a tech stack; it’s a feedback loop. One that lets you constantly refine your site architecture, page performance, and content creation to serve both humans and search engines.

We often layer user behavior data on top of keyword research. Instead of guessing which blog topics will perform, we watch how real people use the site and build from there. That makes SEO less of a gamble and a lot more effective.

We partnered with Destination Door County to uncover new digital opportunities. By aligning their content strategy and SEO efforts with real user behavior data, we helped increase their organic traffic by 31%. View our work to see how it all came together.

PPC That’s Powered by Patterns, Not Hunches

How to Spend Smarter Across Google, Meta, and Beyond

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising isn’t getting cheaper. Competition is fierce, targeting is shifting (thanks, privacy changes), and algorithms can feel like black boxes. The days of “set it and forget it” are long gone — which is why leading PPC strategies are now fueled by data-driven patterns, not gut instinct.

So then...what’s working right now? It starts with deeper insight into your audiences and what they actually do once they click.

The best-performing campaigns we’ve seen combine:

• Real-time performance tracking from platforms like GA4 or Looker Studio
• Audience segmentation informed by on-site behavior (think cart abandoners vs. loyalists)
• Smart A/B testing that goes beyond ad copy to include landing page experience and even page speed

And increasingly, success depends on first-party data — your own treasure trove of insights from user behavior, CRM systems, and sales data. This is especially crucial in a post-cookie world, where precision targeting relies on what you know about your users.

For instance, if you know that returning users are 3x more likely to convert than first timers, you can design a retargeting campaign with tailored messaging and incentives. That’s not just efficient, it’s effective.

We often help clients build full-funnel PPC strategies that connect the dots from awareness to conversion. That means different campaigns for different stages, each optimized with insights from how users interact with the site, not just how they click on an ad.

We saw this firsthand in our work with Lakefront Brewery. By uncovering untapped data insights, we were able to optimize their PPC ad spend and help expand their market share. You can read the full case study for more details.

The Tools (and Habits) Behind High-Performing Teams

Marrying Human Insight with Machine Power

You can have the best analytics tools on the market, but if no one’s looking at the data—or worse, no one knows what to do with it—you’re just collecting numbers.

Successful marketing teams don’t just install dashboards. They build habits around data. They regularly review performance, ask the right questions, and use insights to guide decisions—not just confirm gut feelings.

Here’s what we’re seeing in the wild with high-performing teams:

• GA4 for tracking meaningful conversions across web and mobile
• Looker Studio for visual, customizable reports that everyone on the team can actually understand
• User Session Recording tools like Microsoft Clarity for uncovering micro-frictions in the user journey
• Klaviyo or HubSpot to connect marketing efforts across email, SMS, and automation

But more important than the toolset? The mindset. These teams are:

• Reviewing dashboards often – weekly, not quarterly
• Making data accessible to decision-makers and creatives
• Prioritizing experimentation over assumptions
• Treating content, campaigns, and UX as interconnected—not siloed efforts

At Lightburn, we help clients close the “insight-to-action” gap. That might mean cleaning up tracking in GA4, building a custom report to show true ROI, or coaching internal teams on how to make data part of their process—not just an afterthought.

Don’t Just Collect Data — Activate It

In today’s marketing landscape, doing more isn’t the goal. Doing what works is.

Whether it’s refining your SEO strategy, improving your ad performance, or understanding why users abandon your site before checkout, the answers are in the data. The real challenge is turning that data into action.

That’s where smart teams win. Not by chasing trends or relying on gut instincts, but by building marketing strategies rooted in insights, not assumptions.

At Lightburn, we help teams make that shift. We bring the right tools, the right questions, and the right experience to turn complex data into clear direction — and deliver real results.

Feeling stuck in your marketing strategy? Let’s talk. We’d love to help you cut through the noise, clarify your approach, and make your next move your smartest one yet.