Last night the Web Guild of Silicon Valley sponsored a panel on web analytics at Google to a standing-room-only gathering of over 300 people. It was an excellent group of web analytics panelists who each spoke for a few minutes and then spent most of the time on Q&A. The panelists were:
Paul Botto, Direct Sales Manager, Google Analytics, Google
Eric Peterson, Vice President, Strategic Services, WebSideStory
Barry Parshall, Director, Product Management, WebTrends
The panelists had a consistent message for the audience: web analytics is getting more complex so you’ve got to stay focused on the business; it’s still hard to analyze web activity even though the tools have improved; and companies that invest in a web analyst see an excellent return on their investment.
Web analytics is getting more complex
It’s getting more complex across a few dimensions:
- New types of content and media formats (video, podcast, games, Flash).
- Visitors are interacting with companies across more channels (web site, phone, email, text messaging).
- Visitors are interacting with companies over a period of time and across multiple visits.
Stay focused on the business and actionable data
This complexity makes it even more critical to focus on data from web analytics that is related to the business and that informs decision-making. What’s a useful Key Performance Indicator? One that, if it changes, causes you to take action.
Web analytics is hard
Despite the efforts of Analytics vendors to provide tools that are easier to use (and they are much easier to use), it’s still hard. It’s hard to know what to measure, to know whether your information is accurate, and to know exactly what data was used to produce a report.
Investment in web analytics time and staff delivers a high return
A Forrester report (The Business Case for Web Analysts) last year by Megan Burns found that companies who use their web analytics data to regularly optimize their campaign portfolios see a 25% better conversion rate than those that don’t. And companies that have invested in a full-time web analytics person have done so because they understand it takes time and focus to dig down and understand their analytics. The report analyzed the value of hiring an in-house web analyst for $100K and found that it more than paid for itself in the first year. Technology B2B companies got a 500% return on their investment and retail companies got a 1000% to 3000% return! If you are looking to justify the cost of hiring a good analytics person, this report will give you the ammunition you need.
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