Google
Analytics (GA) is a free, (relatively) easy to use tool for measuring Web
metrics. Some say that it’s the best
option for measuring Web traffic, but are there any other Web analytic tools
out there? The answer is yes; in fact
there are a lot of Web metric tools out there.
Some of them match Google Analytics in features while some match their
exceptionally low price point. The right
tool for any company hinges on what the company’s goals are and which tool
provides them with the ability to measure those goals.
Something
to keep in mind when evaluating Web metric tools is that it’s dangerous to
compare metrics between two platforms, no matter how similar they might
be. Even evaluating metrics between
Google Analytics and Blogger (owned by Google) can yield different
results. Knowing how each tool measures
Web traffic is essential to selecting a tool that works best for the company.
Google
Analytics is a great tool for a number of reasons, but partially because many
individuals and companies use other Google tools to help run their lives and
their businesses. Many companies email addresses
can be configured to work with Gmail, companies can collaborate on documents
and share storage through Google Drive, and employees can share schedules and
calendars through Google Calendar.
Another company that has woven itself into the fabric of companies all
over the world is Adobe. Programs such
as Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver help companies
create innovative, interactive products everyday. As part of the Adobe Marketing Suite, Adobe
Analytics (formerly Omniture and SiteCatalyst) aims to help businesses
understand “the whole customer journey better by effectively using your data
with the latest Adobe Analytics capabilities (Adobe Systems Incorporated,
2015).
Adobe
Analytics Overview
“Adobe
Analytics capabilities help you better leverage powerful insights across
marketing channels and your organization” (Adobe Systems Incorporated,
2015). Adobe Analytics aims to provide companies
with a complete data perspective in order to help maximize marketing and
digital efforts. Adobe Analytics is one of
the many solutions available in the Adobe Marketing Cloud and available as a
subscription with the Adobe Digital Publishing suite. As an industry-leading solution, Adobe
Analytics offers reporting structures that help businesses optimize marketing
efforts, deliver personalized experiences, better determine advertising
budgets, monetize content, and identify problems and opportunities in a company’s
digital and marketing tactics (About Analytics, n.d).
Adobe
Analytics has three different options available; Adobe Analytics, Adobe
Analytics Premium, and Adobe Analytics – Mobile apps.
Let’s
take a look at Google and Adobe Analytics.
What do they
have in common?
Dashboard and
Features: Both GA and Adobe Analytics have easy to use,
drag and drop dashboard interfaces that allow users to customize them based on
their needs. Additionally, both tools
provide users with access to all industry standard Web analytics.
Social
Features:
GA and Adobe Analytics offer insight into social media referrers. Adobe also allows businesses to see how
social media helps contribute to the “bottom line” and gives a perspective on
user-generated content (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2015).
Reports: Both GA and
Adobe Analytics offer users the ability to customize reports based on
needs. GA has more than 80 reports to
help determine the site’s success.
Additionally, GA gives users the ability to create individualized
profiles to better help members of the company understand essential pieces of
data (Reed College of Media, 2015). Both
GA and Adobe offer the ability to export report information into an Excel (or
other) document.
Resources: Both GA and
Adobe Analytics come with essential tools, classes, and resources to make the
most of each product. Google has an
Analytics Academy and Google Analytics IQ while Adobe has resources such Adobe
University and individualized classes.
Mobile: Adobe Analytics has the ability to dive into
the effectiveness of mobile campaigns and mobile data in order to best analyze
customers’ mobile trends. Both platforms
also have mobile information that allow businesses to gain a better
understanding of how their site is viewed on a mobile device and which platforms
are the most popular within their audience.
Real-Time
Data:
GA has approximately a 24-hour “lag time” with their standard data collection,
but does offer real-time insights. Adobe
Analytics can also measure Web traffic in real-time, which allows businesses to
“react instantly to visitor trends with real-time reports that give you a
second-by-second view of customer engagement” (Adobe Systems Incorporated,
2015).
What’s
different?
Cost: With all of
the features and capabilities of Adobe Analytics, it’s no surprise that the
cost exceeds $5,000 per month. The cost
for GA is free.
Set Up and
Learning Curve: Setting up Google Analytics takes a matter of a few minutes
and up to 24 hours before analytic information begins to appear. Additionally, elements of GA can be quickly
understood without years of in-depth analytics experience. For some individuals, it may take up to five
days to start receiving information in Adobe Analytics and the software overall
may be more enjoyable for an experienced analyst (Adobe Systems Incorporated,
2015b).
Event
Tracking: Adobe
offers two types of custom variables (traffic and conversion), each of which
allows up to 75 variables to be reported.
Google Analytics only offers 5 custom variables and are more restrictive
than those offered by Adobe (Gabriele, 2014).
Campaign
Tracking: Similarly
to Event Tracking, GA is limited in what can be captured. The list consists of:
·
Campaign Source
·
Campaign Medium
·
Campaign Term
·
Campaign Content
·
Campaign Name
Adobe
Analytics has increased options and flexibility to customize more campaign
features (Gabriele, 2014).
Predictive
Marketing: Adobe
Analytics incorporates a Predicative Marketing component that allows businesses
to detect anomalies, correlate analysis, cluster audiences, analyze audience activation
and implement customer propensity modeling (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2015c).
Additionally, Adobe Analytics can be
set up to take specific actions when key metrics are missed by a user-defined
margin. This level of automation is not
available with Google Analytics (Demers, 2013).
Selecting
the “right” Web analytic tool can be a very time consuming process. Avinash Kaushik recommends spending two to
four months selecting, implementing, testing, and evaluating Web tools (as
cited in Reed College of Media, 2015).
It’s important to “test drive” the tools and find the one that best
works for the company’s goals, budget, and interests.
References:
About
Analytics (n.d.) Adobe Analytics (site catalyst). Retrieved February 14, 2015
from http://www.aboutanalytics.com/adobe/adobe-analytics-site-catalyst
Adobe
Systems Incorporated (2015). Capabilities. Retrieved February 14, 2015 from: http://www.adobe.com/solutions/digital-analytics/marketing-reports-analytics.html
Adobe
Systems Incorporated (2015b). Digital publishing suite analytics tutorial. Retrieved February 14, 2015 from: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/digitalpublishingsuite/articles/dps-analytics-tutorial.html
Adobe
Systems Incorporated (2015c). Predictive marketing. Retrieved February 14, 2015
from: http://www.adobe.com/solutions/digital-analytics/predictive-analytics.html
Demers,
T., (2013 May 10). Guide to analytics
software platforms: 25 analytics tools compared. Search Engine Land. Retrieved from http://searchengineland.com/web-analytics-software-comparison-identifying-the-right-web-analytics-tools-for-your-business-149373
Gabriele
(2014, August 27). Comparing adobe analytics to google analytics. Retrieved
from http://www.endressanalytics.com/2014/08/comparing-adobe-analytics-to-google-analytics/
Reed
College of Media (2015). Lesson 5: Google Analytics. [Log In Required]
Retrieved February 14, 2015 from www.ecampus.wvu.edu
