Web Analytics Jobs Trends – 2007

Web Analytics is one of the hottest career fields these days. Organizations are realizing that web analytics can no longer be a part time work and requires full time dedicated staff thus pushing the demand for web analysts.

This year, since making my Web Analytics jobs predictions in Januray, I reported on open job positions every month till August of this year. After August I stopped reporting on the jobs because I did not see any major changes and there was nothing exciting to report. Since the year is coming to an end, I thought I will close out the year with another report to show where we are and what to expect in 2008.

Before we look at the numbers please note that the Dec numbers are taken today i.e. 28th while the rest of the number reported were taken on the 1st of the month. As you know I use two job aggregator sites Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com for the data. Both of these sites collect open job positions from individual company sites and from job boards such as HotJobs.com. SimplyHired.com also provides job boards called job-a-matic, like the Job Board I have on my blog. SimplyHired.com job board allows individual bloggers or site owners to quickly create a job board specific to their site’s content.
Note: Those who are curious to know what to expect in terms of salary, I will be posting the results of Job Survey on 1st of Jan 2008.

Let’s take a look at the numbers.

When I first reported the open Jobs in January, there were 1024 open positions that had the word “Web Analytics” in them. In the very first month the open jobs were up to 1711, a jump of 67%. It is quite possible that due to holidays not many positions were advertised and when people were back from holidays they started advertising open positions and hence we saw this big jump. Well this year, as of Dec 28th, there are 2068 open positions, that is 102% increase from January this year. I don’t see much change happening in next 3-4 days so January 1st numbers will be about at the same level.
Looking at the trend in 2007, we can expect a big increase in open positions in February and the whole year



Note: Month in the above graph represents the month when the data was gathered. A lot of job positions are never listed on any job board or company sites. These jobs are filled by networking and referrals. So key to finding a job is increasing your network. Let people know that you are interested in Web Analytics.

If you want to start a career in web analytics and don't know where to start, check out my article starting a career in Web Analytics and my Web Analyst interview series to see how others got started in web analytics.

Which tool experience is in demand?

Omniture remains the most sought after tool experience, followed by WebTrends.
In this month, Google Analytics displaced Coremetrics from 3rd spot and is behind Omniture and WebTrends.

In 2008 I expect Google Analytics to be in hot demand. As Google releases new features and opens up the APIs it will become more complicated to implement and use.


Stay tuned for the Salary Survey results to be published on January 1st.

2007 Web Analytics and Behavioral Targeting Predictions Follow-up

In January of this year I made five predictions about Web Analytics and Behavioral Targeting for year 2007. Since the year is coming to an end, I feel it is time to do a recap of these predictions and see where I stand with these predictions. Let’s take a look at one prediction at a time.

1. Prediction: Web Analytics- A Great Career Field– There will be a lot more jobs in this field in 2007. A great year for those who are planning to enter this field or looking to move into better jobs in this field. Most marketing jobs will have web analytics as a requirement. Currently there are 1024 open job on Indeed.com but I expect this number to rise as there will lot more openings than qualified candidates.
   
   Follow-up – This was an easy one, I was hiring at that time (and currently too) and based on my discussion with various folks in the industry it was clear that more and more companies were starting to use Web Analytics and it was becoming difficult to find web analyst. When I made this prediction on January 3rd there were 1024 open “web analytics” positions listed on indeed.om, a job aggregating site. Since making this prediction I did a monthly follow-up on open jobs from Jan – Aug, you can find the last (Aug) follow-up at http://webanalysis.blogspot.com/2007/08/web-analytics-jobs-trend-aug-2007.html
   On Nov 20th there were 2045 open positions listed on indeed.com, 99.7% increase since I made this prediction in January. Open positions have been up every month and Oct was the highest month ever with 2085 open positions on Oct 1st. So with this I can say that my prediction number one has come true.
   If you are trying to get into web analytics field I recommend reading interviews I did with various web analysts in the field (Yes I am still doing these interviews, if you want to participate please email me at batraonline at gmail.com)



2. Prediction: Lot more new writers – There will a lot more bloggers and writers in this field. Can somebody count how many blogs on Web Analytics are currently? This will help me set the baseline.
   
   Follow-up - I don’t know how many total blogs on web analytics were there last year but know for sure that a lot of new blogs on web analytics have started since I made that prediction (If I can locate all the blogs then I will publish a list in near future). Three new books on Web Analytics were published this year. Web Analytics Books by Avinash Kaushik (Web Analytics: An Hour a Day ) and Jason Burby and Shane Atchison (Actionable Web Analytics: Using Data to Make Smart Business Decisions) were planned before I made my prediction so can’t take credit for those. Justin Cutroni also wrote a book on Google Analytics, a great resource and a must read for all those who are using Google Analytics.



3. Prediction: Web Analytics won’t be standing alone - Marketers will want 360 view of the customers. Integration of various data sources and tools will be expected from web analytics and other supporting tool vendors. Omniture started the trend with Omniture Genesis and this will continue we will see more acquisitions and partnerships similar to Omnitures.
   
   Follow-up – WebTrends had similar integrations, the latest one is with SilverPop, an email provider. Another example is WebTrends Marketing Lab integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM to provide online marketers a consolidated, real-time view into both online visitor activity and offline customer information..
   Omniture’s acquisition of Offermetica and TouchClarity and integration with Salesforce is yet another step in this direction.
   I expect to see this trend continuing in the next year.
   (Also see my recap of this and following predictions.)



4. Prediction: Web Analytics will be about taking actions – More and more marketers would like to take actions and not just report the findings. It just won’t be about what happened, it will be about taking action to drive sales, user satisfaction, lead generation etc. Incentives and bonuses will be tied to the online KPIs. Optimization and Behavioral Targeting will become a common term used by marketers.
   
   Follow-up: Megan Burns of Forrester Research echoed the same thing in her Report: Web Analytics Market Pumped for Growth. She said “Many Web analytics companies started collecting data about Web site visits and providing reporting tools to analyze that data," "Now they're moving to the next level of value, which is enabling people to act on that data and becoming a platform for managing interactive marketing activities." (Also see the follow-up I did earlier this year).
   Acquisition of Offermetica (Optimization) and TouchClarity (Behavioral Targeting) by Omniture are strong testament of my above prediction. Marketers are demanding a seamless way to not only learn from data but also to take actions to improve site performance. Some web analytics experts are now calling this Web Analytics 2.0. Here is what Josh James CEO of Omniture had to say when they acquired Offermetica
   “The acquisition is a key part of Omniture’s strategy to deliver the most comprehensive solution for optimizing online business. Offermatica leverages Omniture’s recent acquisition of Touch Clarity as the two are highly complementary and together address the spectrum from A/B testing and multivariate testing to behavioral targeting. Offermatica enables companies to define and test the structure and elements of their sites, and Omniture TouchClarity™ enables companies to deliver the optimal content to any individual at any time….This combination, with Omniture’s analytics as the underlying foundation, provides the industry’s first and only integrated site optimization suite.”..A year ago it became very clear to us that our customers wanted to leverage their data through a range of testing and optimization tools. Once we acquired the leading behavioral targeting technology, our customers continued to validate our thinking that in addition to behavioral targeting, A/B testing and multivariate testing were distinct and critical components of their long-term online strategy. Combining these capabilities into a single, integrated offering, built on patented behavioral targeting and testing technology, answers the market need for a complete optimization solution,”


5. Prediction: Behavioral Targeting – Only few main behavioral network players will be left and some of the existing ones with poor networks will either go out of business or be sold. See my previous article on why size of network matter. Behavioral Targeting won’t exist in isolation. Web Analytics tool will have to support behavioral targeting and visa versa. Also, on-site behavioral targeting will become very common.
   
   Follow-up: Several acquisitions happened in Behavioral Targeting since I made the above prediction. Recent acquisition of Tacoda by AOL and BlueLithium by yahoo proved me right. I think Revenue Science is next in line and will be sold in next few months.
   Also acquisition of Touch Clarity by Omniture proves that web analytics tools have to support behavioral targeting and visa versa. It also proves my point that on-site behavioral targeting is becoming very common. (http://webanalysis.blogspot.com/2007/09/convergence-of-web-analytics-and.html see my post titled Convergence of Web Analytics and Behavioral Targeting.
   

Yes, I am 5/5 on my 2007 predictions.

What do I see next? I will be making my prediction soon, but this is what I see coming next

1. A tighter integration will happen between ad serving and Web Analytics. Maybe Omniture will buy an ad serving company.


2. Oracle gets into Web Analytics. Yes I think this is going to happen soon.(more on this later)


3. Google Analytics becomes a strong competitor in enterprise Web Analytics space.

WebTrends Engage Conference

Earlier this week, I attended WebTrends’ Exchange conference in Las Vegas. Here are some highlights of the conference.

Evening before the conference

On Monday evening, WebTrends provided us a chance to see Live Diet Coke and Mentos show by Eepybird.com, you can see these guys in action here:



Expert Panel on Engagement


Picture courtesy June Dershewitz of Semphonic.

As the name suggest the theme of the conference was visitor engagement. I had a privilege to be on a panel with Gary Angel, Andy Beal, Manoj Jasra, Jim Novo and Jim Sterne. All of us, except Andy Beal, came from Web Analytics background and were in agreement that Engagement was not an excuse, it is a metrics. Andy Beal brought some interesting points about how we should look at engagement not from just web point of view (which was mostly the focus of this conference) but should take other channel e.g. offline into consideration when measuring customer engagement.


360 degree view of the customers

Remember the Predictions I made in January of this year? (Yes they have all come true, 100% on the mark; I just have to do a follow-up post). I wrote
“Web Analytics won’t be standing alone - Marketers will want 360 view of the customers.”.
Guess what? 360 view of customer was another of the subject that was discussed in this conference. Another validation of my predictions.

WebTrends Gone Wild!!!

On Tuesday evening, WebTrends threw a great party at the Palms hotel. The view of Vegas strip from the club was excellent, great choice of venue. It was interesting to see these web analytics folks “engaged” in dancing, free drinks and with each other.

New Products from WebTrends

I was very impressed with Visitor Intelligence and WebTrends Score. I have to say Visitor Intelligence is a great tools for doing advanced segmentation. A very easy to use interface, just drag and drop dimensions and measures and build your segments. It also has the ability to exports the cookie ids so you can take action on your segments, yes I am talking about targeting (behavioral targeting in particular).
Visitor Score allows you to score visitors engagement with the sites, product, attribute scores to various actions that a visitors takes on the site. Visitors Scores will allow you to measure visitor/customer engagement with a very simple interface. However the challenge most of the business will face it to determine what score to assign to which activities (and this is where I can help you). As I wrote last week,
If defined properly (that’s the key) engagement metrics can be good measure of past and predictor of future. Here is tool which can help you in defining engagement. Also, score provides a way to segment your users and then do on-site Behavioral Targeting.
According to my friend Jacques Warren
“Score will need to run on Visitor Intelligence, which will in turn need to run on Marketing Warehouse. This means that you will need to get new money to pay for them, whatever you have spent on the regular product.”

My New Prediction
WebTrends is on the right track with their new products and you will see them giving Omniture run for their money. Omniture get ready for some stiff competition. The more I think the more convinced I get that Webtrends is making the right moves. Howvere WebTrends has to make some more moves to get these products adopted by the market. I have my opinions on how Webtrends can make these products a success, and I already talked to them about it. Thank you for listening, I hope you will also act on what I said. If you are from Webtrends and want to listen to those again I would love to talk with you(Note: I will be at eMetrics next week). I have talked to several people about my concerns and they all agreed, so this is not just me.

Other reads:
Jacques Warren
June Dershewitz

What’s Next for me
I have a lot to write, two main ones are

1. A follow-up post on my Predictions


2. My view of the future and how cookie deletion won’t matter, yes, you will have to wait for it. I have discussed my views with two fellow bloggers and they have promised not to reveal it.

Next week, I am going to eMetrics, where I will be speaking about Behavioral Targeting
Then I am off to India for a week.

Web Analytics Jobs on March 1st 2007

Here is an update on “Web Analytics” jobs prediction that I made on Jan 7th.

Last month I reported that the web analytics jobs jumped up 67% from Jan to Feb. You can read this article at http://webanalysis.blogspot.com/2007/02/follow-up-on-my-web-analytics_09.html

According to indeed.com the number of open web analytics jobs have now dipped to 1525 (March 1st), a decline of 10.87%, that is still 48.92% higher than Jobs listed on January 7th.

Part II Web Analytics Predictions for 2007- Follow up

In January I wrote my web analytics predictions for 2007. I wrote about the current status of two of my predictions in my previous post

In this post I will cover another of my predictions, prediction number 1:

A Great Career Field– There will be a lot more jobs in this field in 2007. A great year for those who are planning to enter this field or looking to move into better jobs in this field. Most marketing jobs will have web analytics as a requirement. Currently there are 1024 open job on Indeed.com but I expect this number to rise as there will lot more openings than qualified candidates.


Today I checked indeed.com and found that there are 1711 jobs listed under “Web Analytics”. This is a jump of 67% just in a month. I declare that my 1st prediction has also come true. Stay tuned for an update every month.

How about a little prediction game? Send me you prediction on how many jobs there will be on March 1st.





Note: Jan numbers were taken on 7th Jan, Feb numbers were taken on Feb 8th. I plan to take these numbers on 1st of every month.

Follow-up on my Web Analytics Predictions for 2007 Part I

In January I wrote my web analytics predictions for 2007. Two of my predictions were

Web Analytics won’t be standing alone - Marketers will want 360 view of the customers. Integration of various data sources and tools will be expected from web analytics and other supporting tool vendors. Omniture started the trend with Omniture Genesis and this will continue we will see more acquisitions and partnerships similar to Omnitures.
Web Analytics will be about taking actions – More and more marketers would like to take actions and not just report the findings. It just won’t be about what happened, it will be about taking action to drive sales, user satisfaction, lead generation etc. Incentives and bonuses will be tied to the online KPIs. Optimization and Behavioral Targeting will become a common term used by marketers.
Today I read an article Report: Web Analytics Market Pumped for Growth which hits on the same points that I predicted.
Here are two quotes from this article
"Many Web analytics companies started collecting data about Web site visits and providing reporting tools to analyze that data," Megan Burns, Forrester Research senior analyst told CRM Buyer. "Now they're moving to the next level of value, which is enabling people to act on that data and becoming a platform for managing interactive marketing activities." This is exactly what I predicted “ Wen analytics won’t be standing alone and it will be all about taking actions on the data.
Here is another quote from Jason Palmer of WebTrends
“As an application category, Web analytics is evolving beyond data collection and reporting, claimed WebTrends' Jason Palmer. "Traditionally, Web analytics has been about performance management, tracking Web site behavior and usage," he said. "Four or five years ago, it began evolving into campaign reporting and most recently, campaign management and optimization."”
It is nice to see the validation by industry experts and leaders. The year has just begun I am sure by end of this year we will see similar quotes from a lot of industry leader and experts. I would like to declare that my prediction number 4 has already come true and number 3 is on its way to become true.

As always, I would love to hear your comments and feedback.