One Prediction and Five Web Analytics Tips for 2012

For past few years I have made several predictions about Web Analytics. This year I am going to make only one prediction but will provide five tips for 2012.

Prediction

This year the push will be towards “Multichannel Analytics”. Integration of various data sources, e.g. email, CRM, social media, call center etc. , with Web Analytics will take center stage.

Five Tips for Web Analytics

1. Expand your web analytics to consider other data sources
   We all know by now that no one channel exists in isolation. Web, email, mobile, social media, catalog, stores, call centers etc. all impact each other. Web is a just one part of the customer’s experience and journey towards purchase. To fully understand customer behavior and optimize your marketing you have to go beyond web analytics and look at data from other channels.
2. Move from “How Many” to “Who”
   Majority of the web analyst today analyze “How Many” e.g. how many people landed, how many bounced, how many converted etc. “How many” is a great start but it is time for you move to “Who”, e.g. who bounced, who did not convert etc. and then think about how to engage with those “Who” did or did not do something. (if you need help with this then ping me)
3. Understand the data structure behind your web analytics data
   I am surprised that many web analysts today don’t understand how the web data is structured, how it is collected, where all the variables that are passed in your JavaScript end up at and how various data elements are related to each other. If you are one of those analysts, take some time to understand the data structure. Open a raw web server log file and start from there. If you company is porting the web analytics data into a database then open up that database and look under the hood.
4. Learn SQL
   This is going to be critical. You can only do limited segmentation and optimization with aggregated data that is provided in the web analytics tools interface. To really understand customer behavior and capitalize on that you should be able to extract the data from the backend. Even if you are not going extract the data yourself, having an understanding of SQL will give you tons of ideas on segmentation, optimization and targeting.
5. Make friends with “HiPP” (Highest Paid Person) and say goodbye to “HiPPO”
   HiPP is your friend, not foe. If you really want to create a culture of analytics in your organization then make friends with HiPP, get them on your side. You need their support. Stop using the term “HiPPO”.

Comments? Questions?

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Web Analytics Jobs

• Web/Digital Analytics Auditing at Audit Bureau of Circulations (Arlington Heights, IL)
• Senior Web Analyst at Pop (Seattle, WA)
• Online Analytics Specialist, Communications, Brookings at Brookings (Washington, DC)
• Director, Brand & Multiplatform Research at Turner Broadcasting System (Atlanta, GA)
• Web Analytics Analyst - Business Intelligence Group at Cmn.com (Houston, TX)
• Senior Manager, Digital Research at NBC (New York, NY)
• Senior Analyst, Modeling, Segmentation, and Forecasting at ARC Worldwide, An Affiliate of Leo Burnett (Chicago, IL)
• Senior Analyst, Digital Measurement | Optimization at ARC Worldwide, An Affiliate of Leo Burnett (Chicago, IL)
• Senior database developer (Sr. SDE) at Optizent (Redmond, WA)
• Associate Games Analyst at Arkadium (New York, NY)
• Director of Analytics at Arkadium (New York, NY)
• Web Analytics Engineer - Contract (POP) at Pop (Seattle, WA)
• Website Analyst at Simplexity (Reston, VA)

Long Live Web Analytics

Ian Thomas, the man behind Microsoft Gatineau is making some bold predictions about the future of web analytics in his post titles Web Analytics is Dead. Long Live Web Analytics blog. He made two predictions:

1. In three years there will be no Web Analytics vendors, but Web Analytics will be everywhere.
2. In five years, all Web Analytics software will be free.

It is a great post and I like the way he is thinking. However I do not agree with him, here is my reply to his predictions:

1. In three years there will be no Web Analytics vendor, but Web Analytics will be everywhere - I completely agree that Web Analytics will be everywhere in next few years. This is already happening, as he mentioned and provide several examples. However, I disagree that there will be no Web Analytics Vendor. Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Atlas, Doubleclick etc. will (or already do) provide web analytics as an add on to their products but there will still be a need for one web analytics product you can rely on to make strategic decisions. Can you imagine having 15 different web analytics solutions that all give you different numbers? There will still be a place for deeper and strategic web analytics tool. I agree that the functionality of web analytics tool will change and they will continue adding more products. They might not be known as web analytics vendor but web analytics will be a core product that they will provide. They will be providing more than web analytics and they are already moving in that direction.
   (Side note: I also agree that Omniture will buy an ad serving company, I made the same prediction last year . I also predicted that Oracle will get into Web Analytics, because I believed that web analytics will become essential part of marketing automation, Online advertising, CRM etc. and Oracle won’t want to be left behind. And actually about 10 days after making the prediction they did buy a company that has web analytics product).


2. In five year, all Web Analytics will be Free – There is no free lunch, we all know that. As John Levitt commented on his post, most of the tools that provide web analytics as an add-on product, provide very light analytics and reporting. Their web analytics offering is to support or enhance the value of their products and offerings, so that they can keep up with competition. There will still be a place for deeper and strategic web analytics and that will come for a price. Web Analytics maybe subsidized if you buy other products from a company like Omniture but it won’t be free (bundle discount).
   A lot things can change in less than 5 year, Omniture can start using the web analytics data collected on the sites to create an online advertising network (they have pixels everywhere, they can buy an ad serving company, use touchclarity and offermetics to deliverer right ad to the right person at the right time) and then I can see that they can provide free web analytics tool if you let them aggregate user behavior and do targeted advertising. (My suspicion is that Google will be doing that soon too).

What do you think?