Lately I’ve been re-reading Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik (thanks to the tip by Dr. Pilling, GSU). Some good stuff here (although I wish it had the clean elegance of books such as Marketing Metrics by Paul Farris, emphasizing the bold simplicity of visual formula after formula). Kaushik talks about the breadth of available web-based data today, yet users rarely apply insights. And he talks of: “In the traditional world of enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management (CRM), and deep back-end enterprise systems, all you had was your data. You had very little information about your competitors. On the Web, though, you can gather tons of information about your direct or indirect competitors! And usually that info is free!
At www.compete.com, you can type in the URLs of your competitors and within seconds compare your performance with theirs. …
That’s the power of Competitive Intelligence data. Knowing how you are performing is good. Knowing how you are performing against your competition is priceless…”
In the world of Web Analytics 2.0, clicks don’t rule; rather, the combination of the ‘head and the heart’ rules. When you are ruled by the head and the heart, you care equally about what happens on your website as you do about what happens on your competitor’s. Your world is one of continuous actions (that is, surveys, testing, behavior targeting, keyword optimization) and continuous improvements, where customers, not HiPPOs [Highest Paid Person's Opinion], rule.” (p. 10).
Kaushik goes on to say “I have come to believe that Multiplicity is the core reason for the awesomeness of the Web. You have a wealth of effective tools to do jobs that you have never thought possible.” (p. 11). I personally like the multiple tools’ approach – although more data means more work in divination. And different tools use different algorhythms and filters to pull their data. For example, Google Trends qualifies its demographics analysis of website visitors by serving only data on visitors who stayed longer on the site, visited similar sites or searched relevant keywords. OpenSiteExplorer reveals demographics for site visitors without all this filtering. Therefore, one or the other, or an average of the two, might fit most appropriately for one’s targeting.
Alternatively, some web analytics pros say it’s necessary to pick one primary tool and stick with it undistracted; they say that consistency wins in the long run. Others emphasize expensive paid tools (such as Omniture or Radian6) over the freemium tools which I favor (such as those offered by SEOBook Tools, or iSpionage.com). Personally, I still like Kaushik’s approach, and my variety of tools.
Another web analytics element I often run into as a consultant, is people asking for “the standards,” or expressing how “social media has no basis for comparison measurements.” My reply is that everything digital is measurable; you just have to go in the door knowing what you want to measure. Identify your digital or social media measurement plan upfront with your primary objectives and marketing plan. Then implement the tools and KPIs to fit those. In fact, I’ve written whole blog posts and slide decks (see slideshare.net/jakeaull) on aligning social media KPIs with objectives and traditional marketing approaches. Or, as Kaushik puts it, “A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric that helps you understand how you are doing against your objectives. That last word – objectives – is critical to something being called a KPI, which is also why KPIs tend to be unique to each company.” (p. 37). Well said Kaushik.
How about you? What tools and approaches do you like for Web analysis? Respond and comment below!
Jake Aull | Zen Fires | Websites, SEO, SocialMedia & Design
email | 404.259.5550 | @jakeaull | Facebook.com/ZenFires
