The Google Analytics update: Thoughts and Implications
By now you are all well aware that the nice folks at Google wowed the web analytics world last week by announcing a suite of upgrades to Google Analytics at Emetrics. Google’s “Analytics Evangelist” Avinash Kaushik — who was otherwise a no-show at the conference — made the flight out in Brett Crosby’s place to deliver a very energetic presentation describing the new features. More than anything after the talk I was left with this impression:
Google is serious about Google Analytics. Period.
This is great news, at least for most of us, and I have to say after playing with some of the new features I am very impressed. Not that I didn’t expect to be — Brett and Paul’s team at Google has repeatedly demonstrated that they get it and that they have the programming talent to back them up. With the addition of Kaushik as a full time product evangelist, especially given Avinash’s intensely competitive nature, the question wasn’t “will they improve the product” but rather “how much will they improve the product?”
This is a conversation I seem to have with folks who are tangential to the industry quite a bit, mostly because people who have invested a bunch into OMTR are justifiably nervous about whether Google Analytics has the potential to slow SiteCatalyst sales. All along the arguement for OMTR was “Google Analtytics is nowhere near as powerful as SiteCatalyst and Google has no reason to improve Google Analytics, adding missing functionality like segmentation, customization, and data export functionality given the associated costs and the fact that Google Analytics already dominates the web analytics landscape with an over 65% marketshare across all sites with tag-based analytics deployed.”
Except it appears that nobody told Google this. Or, if they did, Google didn’t listen.
Now don’t get me wrong, the new features are not totally perfect. The segmentation feature which is receiving the most hype within the web analytics community is not true visitor-level segmentation but rather session-based segmentation which severely limits an experienced practitioner’s ability to drill-down into the data. But I suppose this is a perfect example of “you get what you pay for” and since we’re not paying having multidimensional session-level segmentation that can be immediately applied to all historical data is pretty sweet.
On the upside, I was actually pretty surprised about Motion Charts which to me seemed like a tchotchky but after playing with it for just a little bit I’m inclined to agree with Yahoo’s Dennis Mortensen that Motion Charts have potential. I especially like the “Link to Chart” option that seems to allow us to share the visualizations we create with other Google Analytics users.
Here’s a Motion Chart that I’m rather enjoying the use of: Keywords by goal conversion rate by bounce rate sized by Percent New Visits colored uniquely with trails turned on.
The other features (AdSense integration, Management Console upgrade) are nice but decidedly less sexy. Oh, except for the Data Export APIs which is easily the most exciting feature announced, and the one that has the greatest potential to reshape the web analytics landscape forever. As I recently commented when talking about Yahoo Web Analytics, the availability of API-based access to web analytic data is the feature that has the greatest potential to change the way larger and more sophisticated companies think about free tools like Google Analytics.
Judah Phillips commented as much back in May of last year when Google updated Analytics the last time. Bright guy that Judah. Now he can use Google Analytics in his new position to pull freely collected data into the corporate Intranet … niiiice!
I suspect that before long we’re going to see some pretty cool applications taking advantage of the Google Analytics APIs which will erode the immediacy of need to invest in for-fee solutions. When I ask my magic eight-ball if someone will develop something like HBX ReportBuilder for Google Analytics to allow companies to create custom reports in Excel and schedule delivery, or if we’re going to see vertical-specific web analytics applications like “Google Analytics for Real Estate Sites” and “Google Analytics for Law Firms” the response is always the same:
“Signs point to yes.”
It’s not that there isn’t still a gap between functionality provided by Google Analytics and that provided by Yahoo Web Analytics, SiteCatalyst, Coremetrics, WebTrends Web Analytics, etc., there definitely is. Custom data collection, data integration into the visualization interface, visitor-level data collection and analysis, custom dimensions and metrics, and the like are all features more-or-less required for advanced analytics. But I think the fact that so few companies are doing truly advanced analytics coupled with the inevitable ecosystem that will spring up around the Google Analytics APIs will create some pain within the sales organizations among the for-fee vendors.
Especially in this uncertain economy, if I have to choose between spending between $20K to $50K on an entry-level SiteCatalyst/Coremetrics/WebTrends/Unica/Nedstat deployment or spending nothing to explore the use of segmentation, report customization, and Motion Charts while waiting for someone like DataLinks to port their application to the Google Analytics APIs so you can spend $995 to build totally customized key performance indicator reports in Excel … well, as a small business owner the choice is pretty clear.
WebTrends recent announcement about moving increasingly into BI, essentially as middleware between web data and traditional business analysis applications, is typical of the response I expect we’re going to see from the for-fee vendors. Some type of move up-market to continue to justify the expense of data collection, which will further limit opportunities for growth since I expect the end-user market to continue to mature at a much slower pace than the available technology set.
I mean, why pay for data collection and storage if Google and Yahoo are going to give it away? Especially in the context of those APIs and the low-cost applications we’ll inevitably see, I suspect the management teams at Omniture, Coremetrics, WebTrends, Unica, and Nedstat are looking suspiciously at their Q4 and Q1 2009 projections for SMB sales and global expansion trying to figure out exactly how much free web analytics will ultimately impact the business.
I know I would be.
It’s not to say they won’t figure it out — all of these guys are tough competitors with a lot of experience growing their business in an increasingly volatile market — but it will certainly be interesting to see how they go about it. And I personally think it’s going to be a lot of fun to see how the market changes. The best companies are doing absolutely outrageous things with web analytics, the mid-market is maturing more than ever thanks to an understanding of the right relationship between people, process, and technology, and the number of viable solutions is now approaching a very reasonable set reflective of the market’s maturation.
In summary:
- The new Google Analytics features are totally awesome and the crew at Google should get some kind of altruism award for making this level of functionality available for free;
- Once and for all we can agree that, without any doubt, Google is serious about Google Analytics and web analytics in general;
- While GA’s segmentation is limited to session data only, the implementation is brilliantly intuitive to use, especially at the best of all price points;
- Motion Charts are far cooler than I expected them to be, custom reporting is as brilliantly intuitive as I expected it to be;
- I still don’t think Google Analytics is appropriate for advanced practitioners, at least not as a system of record, but the number of truly advanced practitioners working out there today is still relatively small;
- I think the Data Export APIs are the most exciting aspect of this announcement and I’m looking forward to all the cool, new applications that will inevitably spring up based on these APIs;
- I think that Google has sucked the wind out of Yahoo’s sails, whether they intended to or not, but I still don’t think that Google Analytics and Yahoo Web Analytics are directly competitive;
- I think the vendor folks most impacted by this announcement are the teams responsible for SMB sales, the expansion into Europe and Asia, and anyone selling web analytics solutions at a sub-$50K price point;
- I expect the for-fee vendors to respond to Google Analytics not by picking on the features (remember: voters don’t like negative campaigning!) but rather by working to more aggressively take their existing suites and platforms up-market;
- I don’t expect this announcement to be a death blow to anyone. Rather it serves as yet another reinforcement of the inevitable commoditization of the web analytics data collection market and a wake-up call to any company with a ten-year plan to continue to make money counting page views.
Okay, thanks to Brett’s generosity I’m going to go back to playing with segmentation and Motion Charts. As always I welcome your feedback on my commentary and would love to hear from those of you also playing with the new features about your experience.
Søren Sprogø added the following ...
Oh gosh, I really can’t wait to get my hands dirty with the API! I’m already considering several products to launch, or maybe starting a whole business unit based on it.
Which is silly, because nothing has been published anywhere on what you can actually do through the API :-)
I just got all the other features on my GA account yesterday, and they are truly amazing to work with. Well done Google!
Pascal added the following ...
Eric, this is a very interesting post.
For me the biggest difference is that when using GA, Google owns my analytics data. More and more companies are not happy with Google owning their analytics data (and emails, web history…), their adsense data, and the idea of google monetizing their traffic.
This is why we are sticking with solutions that make our data only available to us :)
Chris Grant added the following ...
This post was worth waiting for.
Your distinction about advanced analytics is the key point for me. Seems to me that Google Analytics is now going to indirectly help that advanced product group just as it did with the mid-level group — by reaching lots of people and getting them up the learning curve, ready for advanced products and features (which GA still doesn’t provide, at all).
I think it’s now necessary for the so-called “advanced” products to work on the next level of analytical solutions, which is over current horizon of tabulations and, yes, “integration”.
And it’s especially necessary that they get advanced analytics ideas into general awareness.
Chris Grant added the following ...
P.S. You mentioned DataLinks. Have you seen DataLinks’ latest price structure? $995 is now just the dashboard utility. The lower level connector/query tool is now $2,500!
Jeffrey Eisenberg added the following ...
Bryan and I were discussing many of these things along similar veins. This post helped me get clarity. Thanks for this excellent analysis.
El blog de Elena Enriquez » Cambios en Google Analytics- Dennis R. Mortensen de YWA comenta added the following ...
[...] Si quieres ver los comentarios de Dennis R. Mortensen (Director of Data Insights en Yahoo! ) lee el siguiente post: http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/2008/10/the-google-analytics-update-thoughts-and-impl... [...]
Rob Ainbinder added the following ...
Eric-
Thanks for your insights and commentary. I am hopeful Google will continue to add muscle to this tool. It’s a valuable first step for businesses of all sizes.
How will GOOG enhance the server version to differentiate it for those VARs and client base? Do you think the server version of GA has it’s days numbered?
Jacques Warren added the following ...
Yep, now that you are saying it, the market will finally have to acknowledge that Google is in the Web Analytics market. Not that it’s necessarily bad, I enjoy using it, but you can’t have an elephant in a closet and still think there’s room for everybody. It’s not the intention that counts, it’s the sheer size, and once Goolge is in motion, why would it stop? Who’s gonna say “OK, enough features, stop there”?
As a *silo*, the Web Analytics market is about to end being one; give it two years max. Then, as middleware (I like your choice of word here) for BI, how much is worth collecting the data, aggregating it, and sending it to more powerful Datawarehouse/BI systems? The market will decide.
At the end, what’s important is that companies do truly adopt analytics. We can only hope GA will really help growing adoption, and change Web Marketing culture for good.
Alex B added the following ...
We’re on the same page here Eric, and an HBX report builder clone for GA would be like a dream (especially if it can get rid of some of the annoying quirks of HBX builder that keep me up at night).
As you say, I’m not surprised (recall when you asked who we’d put money on of the free wa vendors on Twitter that I was all in for Google for the very reasons you mentioned).
Google knows data, and, as you say, they are serious. Further, they will have some juicy integration opportunities in the future. The most obvious being things like Youtube and the recently launched fricken Satellite for TV metrics, along with Android and other taking over the world metrics goodness.
All in all, I can’t help but be a bit scared of Google, but I also can’t stop using their products. Curses. At least I don’t use Chrome. I took a stand on that one!
eric added the following ...
Pascal: I understand your point, but I’m still waiting to see conclusive proof that Google is actually doing anything that would harm you or your business with the data. Do you have that proof, or is your decision more made based on a non-specific concern?
I guess for a lot of companies this issue is one of value exchange — how much do you have to ** potentially ** give up and what do you get in exchange? The Google benchmark opt-in is a pretty good example of the exchange in value, and I suspect we’ll see other examples over time.
Don’t get me wrong … if you’re in Financial Services or other sectors where privacy is a paramount concern then you should probably be considering in-house software (WebTrends, Unica, etc.) and not a hosted or managed application. But I think this concern is an exception when you look broadly across the Internet, not the rule.
Thanks for your comment!
eric added the following ...
Chris: We are once again in heated agreement, sweet! I hadn’t heard about DataLinks new pricing but A) $2,500 is still a pretty good price to be able to totally customize reports against ** free ** data collection and B) I actually saw something ** waaaaaaay ** better than DataLinks last week that will likely be transformed into the tool I described, hopefully at a lower price point as well.
As usual thanks for your comment and thanks for reading my blog Chris!
Aaron Gray added the following ...
Great analysis, Eric. I think there’s an additional facet to this disucssion that will impact the future of the for-fee vendors, and the growth of GA as a system of record.
That is suitability for enterprise deployment. As the for-fee vendors move up-market toward enterprise software, successful implementation of data collection becomes more complex, and the ability to be extremely flexible with how data is collected and robust in defining who has access to it become critical decision factors.
These aren’t necessarily practitioner issues, but issues of governance for the enterprise.
I blogged about it on the WebTrends blog here:
http://blog.webtrends.com/2008/10/27/what-is-enterprise-class/
eric added the following ...
Jeffery: Thanks for your feedback! I look forward to hearing what you and Bryan have to say and more importantly how FutureNow is able to leverage the APIs to continue to evangelize for better experiences online.
Rob: How Google will support the software version of Google Analytics respective of the upgrade is an interesting question, one that I honestly have no insights into. I suspect the company is cognizant of the need to continue to support the software product but it is less clear how easily they can port the hosted application into standalone software.
Jacques: Excellent points. Per the elephant in the room, I was surprised to see the coverage that Nuconomy got yesterday (NYT, Washington Post, etc.) with the announcement that they were going head-to-head with Google in the “free analytics” market. I looked at Nuconomy awhile back and just didn’t see anything to justify the hyperbole and hype … maybe there is something new that I haven’t seen but I’m absolutely convinced that between Google, Yahoo, and the market leading for-fee vendors (Core, Omni, WebTrends, Unica, Nedstat, a few others) that the market for “pure web analytics” applications is more or less closed.
Not to say that the mobile analytics guys and the video analytics guys don’t have at least a short-term opportunity, but if I were trying to get a small web analytics company started in this economy against the established players, I’d definitely be worried about my long-term prospects.
Alex Google knows data, and if Google suddenly starts using that data in an inappropriate way, starts bleeding that data out into the public, or otherwise makes bad decisions that erode the trust their users place in them then we will see a shift away from Google. I think it is that simple.
Thanks to you all for your comments!
eric added the following ...
Aaron: Good point, and I think we’re in agreement in principle if not practice. As I said in D.C. when you, Anil, and I were chatting, I don’t think “free” web analytics, regardless of how “enterprisey” the feature set becomes, will ultimately displace for-fee solutions when the needs are sophisticated and the level of understanding of web analytics is high.
That said, I will watch with great interest to see how you guys and your direct competitors in the U.S. compete with what is an increasingly shrinking slice of the pie. Your new messaging at WebTrends resonates with me and some of the most sophisticated practitioners I consider my friends … but this is a relatively small group and thus the concern is that regardless of how good your product upgrade is you’ll still be competing in a dramatically smaller number of quality deals than you were a year ago.
Put another way, given the high level of satisfaction with “current vendor” John Lovett reported at Emetrics from his Web Analytics Buyer’s guide, you’re basically fighting a war on three fronts: vs. Omni/Core/Unica, vs. free solutions, and vs. organizational momentum against the ability to incorporate web analytics into otherwise established business intelligence efforts.
Trust me, I’m totally ready to be wrong about this, but the proof is going to be a hundred WebTrends customers describing the value they derive from integrated data … not simply telling stories about how page views help plan for print runs (which is a great story, don’t get me wrong, but it isn’t a story about integration IMHO.)
Finally, it was interesting to see Kaushik’s comment on your post, especially his comment that you and he are not so far apart on your definition of “Enterprise-class.” When I looked at your definition and his I can think of no two definitions that would be more diametrically opposed … he cites vendor longevity, scale of ASP infrastructure, and the ability to provide support for a fee … and you’re talking about Open, Flexible, and Powerful.
I’m already on record regarding Avinash’s definition (see http://is.gd/59hK) but I like your definition a lot. I’m just not sure that there really is an “Enterprise” class and whether focusing on a category of features has any real relevance.
Thanks for your comment!
Petri Mertanen added the following ...
Yahoo GA! : )
I’m ot sure if I’ve missed something, but does Google Analytics still have a 6-8 hours delay of reporting the data? With some clients, even SMBs, it might be a huge handicap if you’re not in real-time…Just a thought.
Asociación Española de Analítica Web added the following ...
[...] para dirigiros al post de Eric Peterson mencionado en los mismos [...]
Steve Jackson added the following ...
@Eric;
Good post. We’re also on the beta list for the API and are already looking at developing interfaces like HBX ReportBuilder for GA. I have lots of ideas for customization.
Enterprises have different issues and a different mentality. Their data has to be their own and Google are unlikely to give the data away. Also there are integration issues that custom solutions can help with. Currently the ‘enterprise’ reporting tool of choice is still Powerpoint. I joked in a post about this over a year ago and nothing much has changed since then. Busy people working in large enterprises don’t have time to login to Google and get their hands dirty, at least not in the business ’spokes’. This might change in the future but it will take a lot of internal culture building. Hmm book about that coming soon! :)
If I were Webtrends however I would be worried.
A lot of their client base are not enterprise class as I define them.
Enterprises to my simple mind are companies that have more than 200 employees. That’s when the silos truly start building. That’s the nice problem enterprises face and main reason why web analytics adoption is a challenge (there are lots of reasons but the main one is that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing).
SME’s (businesses below 200 people) are more flexible, by necessity more cost conscious and in an economic downturn it remains to be seen how that will affect WebTrends.
Andrew Rickard added the following ...
Great analysis. As you point out the data export API is probably the biggest feature that can really change things for web analytics. I understand many business intelligence practitioners have been waiting for the day where enterprise and web analytics data co-exist. Perhaps this will come shortly.
But at the moment the data export API is still in private beta and the fate of this API really depends on what you can actually do with the data export API. Data integation projects are tricky and if the API fails to meet the needs of data integration projects you’ll find many projects will not get off the ground.
So anyway I’m not holding my breath until the API is out of a private beta and has been succefully deployed in a few data integration projects. But the potential is certainly there…
eric added the following ...
Steve: I’m not so sure about your “200 people” definition of “Enterprise” but I think more or less the definition of Enterprise doesn’t matter. I especially liked Google’s none-so-subtle tweak on this with the proclamation “Now more enterprise classy” at Emetrics … as my friend John Lovett says, “It’s not the tool, it’s how you use it.”
The challenge in my mind for the for-fee vendors is to sufficiently differentiate their base offerings from whatever tools are freely available. WebTrends is clearly starting to do this already and I have seen similar positioning from the other major vendors. But only time will tell how successful they are.
I would suggest we all keep an eye on the Vendor Discover Tool and watch for changes in the tool deployment landscape.
Andrew: Good point about the API being in beta. I asked for access but don’t really have time to do development projects so I’m happy to hear that folks like Steve Jackson, Craig Danuloff, and the folks at Epik are getting the preview (since they’ll actually make great stuff from the API!)
That said, I have played with Google’s APIs in the past (Graph, Maps) and I expect the Google Analytics API to be every bit as robust and useful, don’t you? Granted this will be a read-only API but if it’s anything like the Clicky API that I have been using for about a year then we’re all in business.
Thanks to you both for your comments!
Judah added the following ...
Eric,
I am actually pretty impressed with the new GA V3. The features I’ve seen look like they are easy to use and quite powerful. The price continues to be right. What’s blowing my mind is the scale at which they do it all. I can only imagine how many servers and how much bandwidth they need for capturing all that session level data across hundreds of thousands of installations.
And, hey, didn’t I predict in January that Google would release an API? :)
Judah
Mark added the following ...
Eric,
It would probably be useful for many of us to understand the difference between visitor-level segmentation and session-level segmentation.
Could you shed some light on this please?
Thanks!
Mark
eric added the following ...
Mark: Good question. In web analytics there is a hierarchical relationship between entities that when simplified looks something like this:
Visitor > Session > Page View > Event
The difference between visitor-level and session-level segmentation is one of scope in the context of this hierarchy. Session-level segmentation can ask questions like “did an event that occurred during the session contain X” or “did the session have more than N page views?” and is generally limited to actions that occurred during a single session.
Visitor-level segmentation moves the scope one level higher allowing analysts to ask questions like “did the visitor have at least N page views in at least P of their sessions during the timeframe under examination?” and “create a set of all visitors who had an event matching X during any of their sessions.”
As I look at the text I just wrote I realize this is a kind of abstract concept but it’s pretty important in practical use. For sites that get a lot of repeat traffic there is a tendency to want to work to understand the visitor relationship over time. Google Analytics is limited in its ability to do this because the segmentation releases sense of “time” is limited to single sessions that are not inherently tied together.
Not to say Google’s Advanced Segmentation isn’t cool and very useful … it certainly is!
Let me know if that helped or if it made things worse. I wrote to Brett Crosby at Google to see if he could point me to a more definitive description of Advanced Segmentation’s scope … if I hear back I’ll update the post.
Thanks for writing!
Web Intelligence » Marketing Productivity Blog » Blog Archive added the following ...
[...] show outside the sessions. But I have seen a lot of commentary, notably from Gary, Judah, and Eric, and related, from Christopher, on the overall [...]
Más diferencias entre la segmentación avanzada y los perfiles y filtros | Trucos Google Analytics added the following ...
[...] Peterson ha sido el único hasta la fecha que hablaba de las diferencias entre segmentos por vista y segmentos por visitante o usuario. Y tiene más razón que un santo. Y si éste concepto no se explica y bien, puede llevar a muchas confusiones, a análisis equivocados de datos y hay que dar soluciones. [...]
Daniel O'Neil added the following ...
Hi Erik,
I just got back from the Google Analytics Authorized Consultant meeting, and I’d have to say that your blog post is spot-on with the feeling I got from the Googlers at that meeting. I felt like Scott Crosby in particular was dead serious about creating an enterprise-level, competitive product that would stand with the best that other analytics firms had to offer.
It was very exciting to see an organization with Google’s size and resources really work to get how Enterprise Analytics might work moving forward.
Were I an Omniture consultant I’d be very, very worried.
Google Analytics Hits the Big Time | Own Page One: Search Engine Visibility Blog - Online Marketing Strategy and Tips added the following ...
[...] authors have already written at length about the new implementation, including Eric Peterson. We recommend you start there while considering the possibilities of Google Analytics for your [...]
Marcos added the following ...
YES good post – I am converted
For years now I have battled against Urchin and then Google after the acquisition. Having published many articles against GA, EG… http://www.webtraffiq.com/home/white_paper_google_web_analytics.pdf
I am now changing my tune completely and very excited about the possibilities of the GA API.
NB: sold WebtraffIQ and gone client side
Marcos Richardson
Head of SEO & Analytics
RBI UK
http://www.reedbusiness.co.uk
ramki added the following ...
The Google Analytics new features like Advanced Segmentation & Custom Report helps the users to see not just numbers, but equip them to…
http://digitalmarketingdomino.blogspot.com/2008/10/google-analytics-enterprise-ready.html