---
title: "People Lie, But Analytics Don’t"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/82cf1cff-9f9b-4fed-a313-bb345d5ce0b8
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/people-lie-but-analytics-dont-2711913
category: "General"
published: 2020-01-16T19:14:02.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T01:21:46.643Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/c5043b19d8020cb3359692ecc78d8a8d1080.jpg
---

# People Lie, But Analytics Don’t

**TL;DR:** Analytics and data are making it harder for brands to lie about their performance, and are changing the way marketers and advertisers measure success. The use of data and analytics is forcing brands to be more honest about their operations and customer expectations.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2020-01-16. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/people-lie-but-analytics-dont-2711913).*

## Story

While exposure and access to data, both business and personal, may be scary, it may also start giving us real answers about performance. Grey areas are quickly becoming more black and white. This, I believe, is a good thing.

Take newspaper advertising, for instance. In years past, brands would buy an ad in the newspaper hoping to spark a radical result – a game changer, they’d call it. Then, three people would come into their bagel shop, buy a bagel and the owner would claim that it was a waste. “Three freaking bagels,” he would say. And then the ad would stop running.

Then, marketers and advertisers got smart. Insert buzzword: Impressions.

“Keep buying those ads. Consistency is king,” they’d say. And they weren’t wrong. They simply didn’t have the data to back it up – or, they had it and just didn’t know how to read it.

Today, the impression is becoming less valuable than the results. The definition of results is also changing in front of our eyes; soon, it won’t be about leads, it will be about applications, then deals.

However, those shifts won’t create more pressure for agencies; rather, it will be the brands that feel it, especially since the insight will become more than the ad. It will be what the campaign is sending the buyer to. Ads, data and analytics won’t put lipstick on brands with holes in them. The leaky buckets will develop bigger leaks.

Only then will brands stop lying. “It’s the agency’s fault,” will change to, “We didn’t meet the expectations of our customer through operations.” Data will call out lying operations folks who blamed marketing.

This is already happening. The shift can be seen deep within Google Analytics and cross-domain tracking – and even reviews and data. Analytics are shortening noses all over the world, forcing truth to be king, not lies that buy time.

But, there is still a great insight in this process: What you ultimately do with this data. Data is data – but it will only ever be as good as what you do with it.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- General (sector)
- Google (company)
- marketing (topic)
- data analytics (topic)
- brand performance (topic)
- advertising (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/people-lie-but-analytics-dont-2711913). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/82cf1cff-9f9b-4fed-a313-bb345d5ce0b8).