When to use paid and free analytics services
| Webtrends - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 10 Comments |
Guest Author: Justin Kistner, Webtrends
Recently there have been several stories trying to understand when to use paid solutions over free solutions like Google Analytics. One post was talking about Google's Achilles Heel referring to the fact that they don't identify individual visitors. Another was a question asking "When is Google not enough?" From our most recent launch we saw two stories comparing us to Google: Google Eat your Heart Out and Webtrends steals Google's lunch money and spits in its face.
We wanted to take a moment to offer some insights into the decision on whether to use a free or paid service. The truth is, it's not us vs. Google. We like Google! Their free service has spread the power of analytics to a much broader audience, which has helped businesses understand more about what analytics is and how it can help them. While we're both in the analytics market, we don't necessarily serve the same customers. To help clarify, let's take a closer look at some of the factors that determines whether or not to use a paid analytics service.
Recently there have been several stories trying to understand when to use paid solutions over free solutions like Google Analytics. One post was talking about Google's Achilles Heel referring to the fact that they don't identify individual visitors. Another was a question asking "When is Google not enough?" From our most recent launch we saw two stories comparing us to Google: Google Eat your Heart Out and Webtrends steals Google's lunch money and spits in its face.
We wanted to take a moment to offer some insights into the decision on whether to use a free or paid service. The truth is, it's not us vs. Google. We like Google! Their free service has spread the power of analytics to a much broader audience, which has helped businesses understand more about what analytics is and how it can help them. While we're both in the analytics market, we don't necessarily serve the same customers. To help clarify, let's take a closer look at some of the factors that determines whether or not to use a paid analytics service.
Tracking visitors
All analytics tracks visitors in aggregate, but it's tracking them in detail that is the deciding factor. If you're wanting to connect an individual's site behavior with your CRM profile, you'll need to look at paid solutions. If you want to integrate with your data warehouse or a marketing automation solution, then you'll need a paid solution. If you're just getting started in analytics and don't have budget, time, or program maturity to track individual customers; then Google Analytics might be right for you.
Privacy
Some companies (and government) want to keep their data inside their firewall. Google Analytics is a SaaS offering and isn't available as an on-premise software solution, which is also true for most of the paid solutions in the analytics space. If data privacy is a requirement for your business, you'll need to look at on premise software solutions, some of which are free. Google does offer Urchin Analytics, which is available for download and installation on premise.
Data sampling
Google is used to handling large amounts of data. Gmail, for example, has a 7GB limit. Most users won't use that much space. Shoot, many users can't dream of how you could use that much space. Similarly, Google Analytics has data threshold limits and then starts to sample data. If capturing all of your data is important and you have a high volume of data, then you should look at solutions that don't sample data. Many paid analytics services sample data as well, so this factor isn't about paid vs. free.
So why are people recently comparing Webtrends to Google then?
Comparisons to Google make sense because we both offer analytics. More recently, the comparisons have been drawn because of our new interface. Clean, intuitive interfaces in analytics were a standard set by Google. Now that enterprise vendors like us are developing better UIs, it makes sense that people would draw comparisons to the standard.
Final thoughts
It bears mentioning here, that most people just want basic stats for their blogs or small business websites. Even some larger businesses that do not use the web as a primary business driver might not need more than Google can offer. If someone is trying to figure out if a free service will work for them, they probably aren't a good fit for Enterprise analytics. For reference, our customers are looking to build an enterprise measurement strategy that scales and meets sophisticated business needs. It isn't technology issues, it is sophistication/maturity of your needs and being able to get the high touch services you need to grow your business. If that sounds like your needs, then you should consider paid Enterprise analytics.
Labels: analytics, free, Google, paid
You said, "Google is a SaaS offering and doesn't offer an on-premise software solution..." This is untruthful. Unfortunately, it either paints you as:
1) A liar.
...OR...
2) Uninformed about the analytics world.
Two aspects that I hope are untrue and that there is a third reason for the oversight.
Google still offers Google Urchin, a downloadable and on-site installable analytics solution.
It's because I'm a liar. :) But, now that I've been caught, I will update the post with a clarification. FWIW, the reason for the oversight is that Urchin is not the same product as Google Analytics.
Does web trends sample data?
Hi Nivi, Webtrends does not sample data.
While I agree with many of the comments made here, there was one particular that is a bit off base. You can integrate Google Analytics with a CRM or a data warehouse of some form. While it's not documented, it is entirely possible. Also, taking it a step further, Yahoo Analytics is deserving of some recognition as it does allow very in-depth analysis and segmentation on the fly.
Hi Bill, what I wrote wasn't based on whether or not it was technically possible to pass data to a CRM from Google Analytics. I understood that doing so violated their Terms of Service. Section 7 of the Google Analytics TOS says,
"You will not (and will not allow any third party to) use the Service to track or collect personally identifiable information of Internet users, nor will You (or will You allow any third party to) associate any data gathered from Your website(s) (or such third parties' website(s)) with any personally identifying information from any source as part of Your use (or such third parties' use) of the Service."
I took that as saying you can't associate data collected by GA with personally identifying information on another system. For example, passing data GA collects like page views or goal conversions into your CRM that has account info making them personally identifiable would be a violation of their TOS. Do I understand that wrong?
While there are definitely limitations due to the TOS for GA, you can still track offline conversions and tie them back to the web visit, and you can do so with encoded characters that includes the cookie value (encoded). Then, it's not identifiable.
Another option is to double tag your pages such that you send data to your own systems and use Urchin to process the same data GA does. In this case, you are not held to the same TOS and can report on visitor data. You simply don't report on it within GA. Then, it's just a matter of keeping your Privacy Policy up to date.
Bringing Yahoo! Analytics into the conversation is very important as well. While they are "free", it is by invite only or directly from the partner network. In addition, Yahoo! does not have the same TOS as GA and allows you to collect PII provided you have the appropriate privacy policy. When you look at the functionality the tool possesses, you will see that it can be integrated to help you re-market more effectively.
Good comments here Bill.
What do you mean by offline conversations? Are you referring to phone calls?
Double tagging a site and using two analytics systems adds an additional layer of complexity. Urchin is certainly not the ease of use and elegant UX that people choose GA for. To get everything set up correctly, most businesses would need to hire a company like yours, Stratigent. Similarly, since Yahoo! Analytics is only available by invite or directly through the partner network, then the most accessible path for a business to get access to the tool would again be to hire a company like Stratigent, right?
I'm glad you weighed in here because it does look like this post doesn't fully describe the options. It doesn't cover the options available with consulting. While the tools are free, engaging with consultants isn't free. Businesses have the choice of:
- Free tools
- Free tools with consulting
- Paid tools
- Paid tools with consulting.
I think it would be awesome to develop a matrix of these options for businesses that compares their offerings. It would be a great resource to aid businesses in knowing which mix is right for them. Would you be up for co-authoring a follow up post to this one with that matrix?
So, is Urchin free? It doesn't look like it on Google's features page.
Offline conversions could be described as anything that happens off the website but could be attributed to the web visit. For example, filling out a contact request.
I definitely agree that the Double Tagged solution isn't necessarily the easiest to manage without assistance. Also, Yahoo! would require consulting and support as well, given that it is very robust. I'd definitely be open to working on a blog post with you to create a matrix and expand on this conversation further.
With regards to Urchin, you're right, it isn't free. But, it's a very different model than the traditional paid vendors. $2995 to purchase the license and own internally.