Eric Peterson's Blog at Web Analytics Demystified

When I first saw the news of Google’s opt-out browser plug-in spread around Twitter I thought “hmm, I wondered when we’d see this” and moved on since opt-out is more or less an non-issue — basically because in the grand scheme of things nobody really opts-out. For all the hand-wringing and navel-gazing people do on the subject of privacy online, I have never, ever seen any data that indicates that web users actively opt-out of tracking in significant numbers.

Never.

If you have it, bring it on as I’d love to see it. But in my experience the only people really truly and actively interested in browser- or URL-based opt-out for tracking are privacy wonks, extreme bit-heads, and some Europeans. The privacy wonks and bit-heads are who they are and are unlikely to ever change; the Europeans have privacy concerns for other reasons but I will defer to Aurelie to try and make heads or tails of what those reasons are.

Still, it has been interesting to see some bright folks like Forrester’s Joe Stanhope offer some explanations about why Google might be doing this and what the ramifications might be. And it has been less interesting to see some of the fear mongering and hyperbole offered by Marketing Pilgrim’s Andy Beal in his post “Why your web traffic is going to nosedive thanks to Google” although I found Econsultancy balances things out with their straightforward and tactful post “Will opt-out threaten Google Analytics?”

What Andy, Patricio, and to some extent Joe, apparently didn’t notice is that Google Analytics is about to make a big, big push into Federal Government web sites, and this browser-based opt-out is just a check-box requirement to satisfy the needs of said privacy wonks who for better or worse have the Administration’s ear (or some body part, you choose!)

Yep, the browser opt-out isn’t actually for anyone … except for perhaps the Electronic Freedom (sic) Foundation and their ilk. Google is somewhat brilliantly checking a box now so that when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) releases all new Federal guidelines for browser cookie usage later this year any Federal site operator who wants can immediately dump their existing solution and go directly to Google Analytics.

You do remember that Google Analytics comes at the amazing deficit reducing price of ABSOLUTELY FREE. Even a Republican can get his or her arms around that price tag, huh?

You betcha.

“Hey wait,” you say, “what about the fact that Federal web sites will probably never get permission to track visitors over multiple sessions?” Good point, except did you know you can override Google Analytics _setVisitorCookieTimeout() and_setCampaignCookieTimeout() variables and set their values to zero (”0″) which effectively converts all Google Analytics tracking cookies to session-only cookies?

Yep.

Not to mention that the little birds who sing songs in only hushed tones suggest that OMB is about to take a much more reasonable stance on visitor tracking anyway. This is not a done deal, but the situation that most Federal site managers work under today — one where many sites are more or less forced to use out-of-date log file analyzers and most are hamstrung in their ability to analyze multi-session behavior — seems to fly directly in the face of President Obama’s efforts to make government more transparent and effective.

I said as much just after he was elected, and then I said it again when I pointed out that Barack Obama should not fear browser cookies! Federal managers need modern, easy-to-use tools to improve the overall quality of government web sites.

Now, I could be wrong about all of this — I am human, and like Joe Stanhope I have not heard word-one from Google about the opt-out app — but I am pretty good at connecting dots and these are big, obvious dots:

1. Google loves data
2. Feds have tons of data
3. Feds have requirements necessitating privacy controls
4. Google builds privacy controls
5. Google gets Feds data

This is actually pretty brilliant of Google if you think about it. Assuming you’re with me in my belief that Google Analytics isn’t about AdWords or Analytics or anything other than Google’s desire to have all the world’s data, then you’ll surely see that providing Federal web site operators a web analytics solution that simultaneously solves a multitude of analysis problems AND saves money is, well, pretty freaking brilliant.

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s a list of sites in the .gov domain that people are tracking using our free, browser agnostic web analytics solution discovery tool. We have about 100 sites total, the majority of which don’t appear to have any kind of tracking code at all, and of these:

• 12% are using Google Analytics exclusively already
• Another 3% are using Google Analytics with Omniture (1%) or Webtrends (2%)
• 6% are using Omniture (one, GSA.gov in tandem with Webtrends)
• 15% are using Webtrends (including GSA.gov in tandem with Omniture)
• 63% appear to have no hosted analytics of any kind

If I’m right the evidence will be obvious as more of these “no hosted analytics” sites begin to have Google Analytics tags. Sites like Census.gov, the EPA, FCC, FEMA, HUD, and even FTC might all start to take advantage of Google’s largesse (and willingness to provide a browser-based opt-out, don’t forget that!)

What do you think?

As always I welcome your thoughts, observations, reaction, and even anti-tracking-pro-privacy rants. If you are you a Federal site manager with insight to share but unable to voice your position publicly then out of respect I am happy to have you post anonymously as long as you provide a valid email address that I will confirm and then convert to “anon@anonymous.gov” to protect your identity.

Posted Saturday, March 20th, 2010 | 7 responses | Add a Comment | Share, Save or Email

You know how sometimes in life a plan looks good on paper but when you put it into action things don’t work out? That happens to me sometimes … but I gotta say that is not happening with The Analysis Exchange! Our Alpha testers are starting to complete their projects and I am so excited I wanted to share the feedback I got this morning from our mentor + student + organization trio.

First, from the mentor:

“My student presented her initial findings today to the organizational partner and our project lead was THRILLED. She loved the initial findings and asked if we could present the final deliverable to her CMO! I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome of the first alpha project. The student discovered some very compelling findings and she’s getting access to the c-level to showcase her analysis skills and discoveries. It will likely guide the way that they develop for their mobile users.

Congratulations! I’m so looking forward to helping you build a high impact final presentation and hearing you deliver.”

The student responded with this:

“I can’t tell you what a great feeling it is to have someone genuinely get excited about my findings and recommendations, especially on my very first project since finishing the UBC program. The reassurance that what I learned in school is transferable to the real world is invaluable.

My mentor was a great mentor and teacher, taking the extra time to educate me on Google Analytics, what data to focus on and where to find it. I am excited about the presentation we will present to our client. This Analysis Exchange experience has been extremely rewarding and educational. I feel that students will get the experience they need to enter the analytics world and be an effective and relevant contributor. I am looking forward to my next project!”

(You can perhaps imagine that I personally am floating on cloud nine at this point!)  The organizational lead wrote in and said:

“I am just so excited about the things our student discovered. I can’t wait to share it with my team here, and see if there’s anything, no matter how small, we can do to improve the site. Doing this kind of analysis was something I just never had the time for, and I knew that it was important to find out more about our mobile audiences. The student is going to prepare a brief presentation that she is going to share with the team here, hopefully next week. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the data!

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to participate in this project. It has been a very valuable use of time for me, and hopefully for the mentor and student as well.”

Will someone pinch me please!! We have two more Alpha projects due to complete this week and, assuming I’m able to get their feedback coded into the site, we should be ready to launch into a more widespread BETA effort staring right around April 1st.

Thanks to everyone who is signing up and helping to spread the word about The Analysis Exchange. Keep up the great work!

Posted Thursday, March 18th, 2010 | One responses | Add a Comment | Share, Save or Email

If you are one of the thousands of people who have attended one of our Web Analytics Wednesday events over the past few years, well, thank you! Thank you for showing your support of the web analytics community, your local community, and the practice of web analytics in general. I had no idea that our execution of June’s idea would progress to near the point it has … touching so many people and providing a gateway to jobs, employees, and all kinds of new ideas.

That said, two challenges have emerged recently and I felt like a quick blog post that everyone could reference would be the best way to deal with each. In no particular order:

1. Web Analytics Wednesdays are designed to be a free event. It has come to my attention that some local chapters of WAW are charging people to attend events. In most (probably all actually) cases these fees are designed to offset the cost of food or drinks, but here’s the thing: we have tons of money for Web Analytics Wednesday and we can almost certainly get more if we need it! If you find yourself in the position of having to ask local members for $10 for an event … please please please email me directly and lets find you money! I am pretty creative, and the 2010 Global Sponsors have already donated very generously, so let me help you make a totally free event if at all possible, please!
2. Web Analytics Wednesdays need to be run thoughtfully when held in conjunction with Web Analytics Association events. This gets back to  the open-to-all atmosphere of Web Analytics Wednesday, but it has been brought to our attention that some WAA country hosts in Europe have been holding joint WAA + WAW events. This is excellent and wonderful, except if it happens at the expense of A) the global agreement between the WAA and Web Analytics Wednesday and B) the ability for anyone — WAA or not — to participate.

The second point merits additional explanation. Web Analytics Wednesday, as many of you are already aware, is an independent entity created by Web Analytics Demystified, not the Web Analytics Association. Because it is a “community event” many people mistakenly assume it is WAA but it is not and never has been. We maintain WAW as a private entity because A) we believe it needs to remain open to all, not just those folks able to justify and afford the Association’s $199 annual fees and B) honestly, it’s a lot easier to get financial support for these events as an independent entity.

To clarify this, a few years back June and I hammered out an agreement between the Association and WAW. Without boring you with the details, the agreement specifies that “Web Analytics Wednesday” is an independent brand, that all WAW registrations will occur on our web site and system, and that WAW will be open to all comers, not just WAA members. It’s an awesome agreement because it allows the Association access to WAW events around the globe without needing to have any infrastructure.

The agreement also totally, totally supports local WAA events that want to have a social function as well! If a WAA coordinator or country manager wants to have a “social event” after a sanctioned WAA event that requires registration they have two very simple options:

1. Call the event Web Analytics Wednesday, create the event on our platform, advertise the event for anyone and everyone who wants to attend, and ask people to sign up to participate at the official WAW web site;
2. Call the event anything other than “Web Analytics Wednesday”

Easy, huh?

All we are seeking to do is ensure that “Web Analytics Wednesday” continues to be known as a totally free event, open to all comers regardless of financial disposition and willingness to support any association, vendor, or technology. And to that end we are working as hard as possible to provide resources — financial and otherwise — to event planners across the globe, working with great organizations like the WAA, and working with the brilliant and wonderful WAW hosts who have made Web Analytics Wednesday the amazing event it is.

Personally I’m looking forward to getting to know the new WAA Executive Director and working to ensure bidirectional compliance with the long-standing agreement between WAA and WAW. I know the agreement has the board’s support, and we hope the spirit of the agreement continues to maintain the community’s support as well.

I welcome questions, comments, and concerns, and with the Association’s permission I am happy to provide or publish a copy of the agreement between WAA and WAW (but do need the Association’s permission as it is a valid legal document.)

Posted Monday, March 8th, 2010 | 3 responses | Add a Comment | Share, Save or Email

Whoa I cannot believe it is nearly March already, can you? Seems like 2010 took off like a rocket and is only moving faster and faster every day, which is great if you’re like me and you prefer “hectic” to “easy going” and are happiest when you’re fully engaged. And speaking of being busy … my travel schedule in the next few months looks awesome and will let me meet even more great companies working to take a more strategic approach towards web analytics. If you’re going to be at any of the following events, email me directly and we can arrange a time to chat!

Here are some details about where you can meet me in the coming months:

• March 2nd to 4th, Omniture Summit, Salt Lake City, Utah. Next week I will be attending what has become the biggest party in all of web analytics, the Omniture Summit. Say what you want about Omniture, these guys know how to put on an amazing event, chock full of content, presentations, and amazing “extras” (for example, last year they had Maroon 5 play and Glenn “Big Baby” Davis hanging out at the concert, talking about the Internet and web analytics. How cool is that?)
• March 9th, SearchFest, Portland, Oregon. On Tuesday, March 9th I will be here in the Rose City presenting with Aaron Gray in the afternoon. Our presentation is “Measuring Online Success: Top Down and Bottom Up” in which Aaron will examine success from a more tactical perspective (his forte!) and I will focus on the strategy and governance issues that all companies need to consider. If you’re in Portland and haven’t registered for SearchFest 2010 you can use the promo code: SPKR-SEMPDXSF1020 and save a little green.
• The week of March 22nd I will be in Austin, Texas with a client and am hoping to cajole the local crew into having a Web Analytics Wednesday, Texas-style. I know Jennifer Day in Dallas will be mad that I’m not getting to Dallas first (since I owe Dallas after their amazing photo contest win … did you all see this?) If you’re in Austin STAY TUNED!
• Moving into April, John and I will both be going to the Coremetrics conference, also in Austin, Texas during the week of April 26th. Details about our participation are still being finalized but suffice to say we will be there for the Armadillo races, the awesome BBQ, and to learn more about Coremetrics momentum in the market. If you are a Coremetrics client please contact the company for details about their conference.
• The first week in May John and I will be at Emetrics in San Jose. I will be delivering a keynote speech with Bryan Eisenberg similar to the “Top Down/Bottom Up” presentation I will give with Aaron Gray at SearchFest (and to be fair, the idea was Jim Sterne’s in the first place, since he is the “idea guy!”)  I will also be presenting something at the concurrent Conversion Conference put on by Tim Ash so look for details on that.
• Also in May I will be at the Unica conference in Orlando, Florida during the week of May 17th. I’ve not been to a big Unica event and am pretty excited about this one. Details are still being worked out and if you’re a Unica customer you should reach out to the company directly for details on the conference.

Phew, huh? Between that, client work, our Analysis Exchange efforts, and oh yeah, being a dad I’m more or less busy until summertime … which is not to say we’re not still open to new clients. We’re always happy to talk with companies about how John, Aurelie, and I can accelerate business successes through web analytics. If you’re ready to take a more strategic approach towards digital measurement, we’d love to talk to you!

Finally, I wanted to mention a conference that many of you might not know about but your peers in the marketing group definitely do: The Online Marketing Summit. I have been a speaker at OMS for several years and have always been impressed but this time I was absolutely floored by the event. Over 800 B2B and B2C marketers from around the country converged on San Diego this week to hear some amazing content. If you do online marketing you really need to have a look at what OMS has to offer.

Posted Friday, February 26th, 2010 | One responses | Add a Comment | Share, Save or Email

When John was with Forrester Research last year he had the opportunity to do some work for Google that published some pretty bold claims. Among these was his reporting that “a staggering 53% of enterprises surveyed currently use a free solution as their primary Web analytics tool, and 71% use free tools in some capacity (PDF from Google). At the time I commented:

“When [John] first told me that over half of Enterprise businesses were using free solutions I have to admit I didn’t believe him. In a way I still don’t, but perhaps that’s only because I work with a slightly different sample than he presents. Regardless, John’s report paints a picture of an increasingly challenging market for companies selling web analytics and a new sophistication among end users.”

Increasingly my new partner is looking like some kind of prescient seer, although perhaps not for the reason some of you expect. Without a doubt Google is pushing hard to improve their analytics application, and by nearly all measures they are doing a phenomenal job. As I said back in November I personally believe their “Analytics Intelligence” feature is brilliant, and I have little doubt that we’ll continue to see little improvements here and there over the coming year.

But as much as I love Google Analytics for what it does, I am also willing to be honest about what it does not do and what it is not. Google Analytics alone is simply not enough for truly sophisticated web analytics.

Despite John’s findings at Forrester, and despite the fact that Google Analytics is easily the most widely deployed web analytics solution ever built, there are clearly limits to what Google Analytics is capable of today. What’s more, there is nothing wrong with having limits … what is wrong is trying to be all things to all people, which is what this post is really about.

At Web Analytics Demystified we have been talking over the last six months to an increasing number of companies that are considering dropping their historical vendor, almost always in favor of Google Analytics. And at Web Analytics Demystified we don’t do that much work with small, mom-and-pop shops … these are global organizations, name brands, and market leaders in their respective categories. Most of these companies are spending well-over $500,000 per year on analytics technology, and a handful are spending double that.

What’s more, all of these companies have multiple dedicated resources for web analytics. These companies, in many cases, are freaking awesome at putting their tools to work, and in all cases understand that web analytics is a “people” thing, not a “technology” thing. So what the heck is driving them towards Google’s waiting arms?

Limits.

It turns out there are limits to the amount your average business user is willing to invest in learning web analytics tools. As more companies begin to truly take a strategic approach towards web analytics, many of them are realizing that their business users are simply not “getting” the fee-based solution they’ve invested so heavily in. The business users have more or less found their limit, and hit the wall, and are balking at the amount of time it actually takes to learn and become proficient with these tools.

Apparently in an effort to further differentiate themselves from Google Analytics, the paid guys have inadvertantly made their technology so complex that few people in the business are actually willing to use it.

Oops.

Having worked at WebSideStory in the past I have to admit I cringed when one business user complained that [market leading vendor X] “was just too complicated” and that she “really, really missed using HBX because it was simple.” But this is a story we are hearing over and over and over … to the point where I am having to revise my entire opinion about Google Analytics place in the true Enterprise, which I’m happy to do …

… except.

A problem with the wholesale shift to GA arises when we go to the dedicated analysts and consulting teams who actually do get and use the paid solutions, pretty well in most cases. Suggesting to them that they might try and get by solely on Google Analytics is kind of like telling LeBron James that he needs to do his job with only one leg, one arm, and a blindfold on if he wants to keep playing ball.  He’d probably still be able to drop 30 on the Knicks, but he certainly wouldn’t be happy about it.

I don’t personally know a single analyst worth their weight in salt who would be happy and willing to standardize completely on Google Analytics, at least not today. Despite awesomeness galore, the decreasing list of things that GA doesn’t do is pretty important to these sophisticated users. True visitor-level segmentation, real flexibility in reporting on custom data, the ability to define custom metrics and dimensions, true data integration … it’s not an infinite list, but it’s still pretty long by my estimation.

And while the list of third-party applications to provide additional functionality to Google Analytics — for example ShufflePoint and their wonderful use of the GA APIs — we have still not seen a solution emerge that confers all of the necessary functionality that “professional” web analysts need to do their jobs well. In my experience there is nothing worse than knowing how to answer a question but not have the tools in place that you need to make the necessary connections.

Notice that I’m not saying that the alternatives to Google Analytics necessarily have these features. You don’t have to spend much time following the Web Analytics Forum or the Twitter #measure tag to see complaints about how hard it is to do stuff that should be pretty simple. But for the most part this rich functionality can be found in the add-on ad hoc exploration tools (e.g., Omniture Insights, Coremetrics Explore, Webtrends Visitor Intelligence, Unica NetInsight, etc.), and it turns out that when you’re competing on web analytics these features are pretty important.

So what am I saying, and what did I mean by “bifurcation” in this post’s title?

I believe that we are about to see an increasing number of companies in the coming year drop their paid vendor’s “basic solution” in favor of Google Analytics and, at the same time, seriously consider adding their vendor’s high-end offering. More specifically thanks to advances in “universal” (sic) tagging, the increasing cry from business users to “get us something simple that we can use”, and the true and present need for experienced operators to have a robust data exploration tool at their disposal, I think we’ll see an increasing number of “Google Analytics + Omniture Insights” implementations.

Some caveats:

• I am not saying that all companies will drop their paid vendor in favor of Google Analytics, mostly because “all companies” never do anything;
• I am not saying that all companies should drop their paid vendor in favor of Google Analytics, or even that companies should drop their paid vendor at all, especially if you have a pretty solid web analytics strategy in place;
• I am definitely not saying that I believe companies can manage a sophisticated web analytics operation using Google Analytics alone, although this statement hinges on the definition of “sophisticated”;
• I am not evangelizing for Omniture Insights, even thought I used to work at Visual Sciences and continue to use OI thanks to the good graces of Omniture/Adobe;
• I am not evangelizing for Google Analytics, even thought I do think the GA team has made amazing advances over the last 12 months;

The final caveat is that I am only using Omniture Insights in the description below as an example — you can substitute any of the solutions I listed above just as easily, or even use SAS if you’re ready for the coming revolution in web analytics. Heck, if you’re super-motivated, you can take Hiten Shah of KISSmetrics suggestion and build your own clickstream data warehouse and analyze the results using Tableau.

Regardless of the technology you choose, the bifurcated solution looks kind of like this:

• For your business users you simply do an awesome job implementing all the great new functionality present in Google Analytics;
• Using very simple Javascript libraries you “copy” the data you’re sending to Google Analytics and pass it along to Omniture Insights (OI);
• At the same time you add whatever other information you need to pass to OI, either because GA can’t handle it or you’ve filled all your custom variables;
• In OI you transform the data to match what GA is doing as closely as possible, knowing full well the data will never match because of GA sampling and the reality of our industry;
• In OI you add to the data with whatever you need, either via transformation, lookup tables, custom metrics and dimensions, whatever …

With these technologies in place you now have two things:

1. A very appropriate solution for your internal business users, one they will likely embrace thanks to it’s simplicity, it’s beauty, and it’s Googliness;
2. A very powerful solution for your web analysts that is largely based on what your business users are looking at.

The way the solution set works practically within the business:

• Business users get training on Google Analytics, which is surprisingly easy to provide, and if you’re big enough the rumor is that Google’s own evangelist will come visit with you (fun!)
• Business users get used to the idea that the numbers in GA are not 100% perfect, especially in high-volume situations where GA is sampling;
• Business users follow the age old advice to “manage based on trends” and use some of the slickness that is GA to identify problems and opportunities;
• When the business finds something interesting they ask the analytics group to work with them to look more closely and provide analysis (not reports);
• When the business needs “more accurate” numbers they ask the analytics group to provide reporting from the complete set of data (normal accuracy and precision caveats still apply);
• With their newly gained free time, the analytics group can become more of a proactive analytics service organization and less of a barrel full of “report monkeys”;

Yes this involves some internal education, but c’mon people, all web analytics involves internal education. You’ll need a clear explanation about the “goodness” of the GA data in high-volume (e.g., sampling) situations; you’ll need to provide training on Google Analytics, but there are some amazing people out there who can help you; and you’ll need to manage two vendor relationships … although if John’s data from Forrester is correct, 71% of you are already doing that!

Clearly this solution is not without risks, but from where I sit, I am having more and more trouble putting together a viable and workable alternative. Web analytics is becoming an increasingly critical function across the Enterprise and awareness of the solution set is bubbling up more rapidly than ever. As this happens, an increasing number of internal stakeholders are starting to ask for direct access to web data.

But the fee vendors, again for pretty good and obvious reasons, have evolved their base solutions to an unprecedented level of complexity, especially when you look across many vendor’s “complete” base solution (e.g., Webtrends 9 plus the requirement to use Webtrends Live for a lot of stuff, Omniture SiteCatalyst plus Omniture Genesis, etc.) Nobody is blaming them for the push upstream … especially since nobody I know could think of an alternative to differentiate their solutions from the 8,000,000 lb gorilla that Google Analytics has become.

At the end of the day in many, many cases you end up with business users frustrated by their inability to effectively and efficiently self-serve, and analytics professionals frustrated by the amount of time they spend pushing out basic reports. Quickly the situation becomes what is politely described as “inefficient” or,  in more colloquial terms, FUBAR. You choices are  then to A) lump it and suffer or B) do something about it.

I’m not a big fan of suffering.

The bifurcated solution, if you think about it, is actually pretty awesome. You get the best of both worlds, and one of the solutions costs you nothing and so (hopefully) frees up budget to hire more and better people to manage your web analytics efforts. I’d rather see a company put $500,000 equally towards an ad hoc analysis engine and smart people to run it than the case I see too commonly today where the lion’s share of that $500,000 going directly to buy a solution that is not meeting the needs of the business.

What do you think?

If you’re a company of any size and history of investment with any of the big U.S. or European vendors, and if you’ve been considering something similar, we’d love to hear from you. While we’re already providing guidance to some pretty large clients making this move we are always eager to collect additional data as an input to our thinking. We’re also happy to hear from consultants and vendors who have a clearly vested interest in the outcome I’ve described. And yes, if you need to bitch at me for suggesting that Google Analytics is anything short of manna from heaven, I suppose I’ll approve those comments as well.

Posted Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 | 46 responses | Add a Comment | Share, Save or Email