Website Analytics

Blog #3

Analytics are the backbone of a digital marketer’s repertoire. When creating content, be it text, video, graphics, a shopping cart or a combination thereof, it is essential to be able to track traffic, conversions etc. Most people are familiar with the free version of Google Analytics, a tool that allows webmasters to track such data transacted on their websites. There is, however, a premium version that Google charges a flat annual fee of $150,000 for.

The differences between Google Analytics free and Premium are as follows:

“1. Support: you get an account manager, an implementation specialist and training from Google.
2. Data Processing & Limits: you get 1 billion hits processed (as opposed to 10 million on the standard solution) + unsampled reports + 4 hours freshness.
3. Advertising & Multi-Channel: you get attribution modeling, really important for advertisers.
4. 50 Custom Variables: this is really precious! (see why at onbe.co/JKK7TK )
5. Guaranteed freshness, collection and reporting”

YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNIQ7lxIXxg

At Adobe, the analytics solution is called “SiteCatalyst” – a suite known by professionals to be more robust than Google Analytics – and frequently more expensive than even the Premium offering by Google – the reason being that pricing is tied to server calls/volume. See below for a comparison.

source: http://www.neboagency.com/blog/google-analytics-premium-vs-sitecatalyst/

SiteCatalyst is generally accepted as a more robust application with more integration opportunities both through Adobe and other third party developers, however, the integration tends to be more involved. Analytics when properly integrated into the DNA of a website provide a foundation through which website-owners can use data to optimize performance