New data on the state of web analytics in 2009

Those of you who were unable to attend the webcast I did with Coremetrics and the Direct Marketing Association in December titled “Create Your Web Analytics 2009 Action Plan” are in luck — the nice folks at the DMA recorded this web analytics event and it is freely available for your listening pleasure.

Click Here to Watch the Webcast!

Also, we conducted a poll on the call asking about planned 2009 investment in technology and human resources for web analytics, in part because of the amazing response to my post about Web Analyics being recession proof?  For the 251 responses we got, here is what we heard:

Regarding investment in technology and tools:

• 36 percent said they planned to spend more in 2009 than they did in 2008
• 50 percent said they would be spending about the same in 2009 as they did in 2008
• Only 14 percent said  they would be spending less in 2009 than they did in 2008

Regarding staffing and resources for web analytics projects:

• 26 percent said they would be increasing staffing levels in 2009 compared to 2008
• 70 percent said staffing levels would stay about the same in 2009 as they were in 2008
• Only 4 percent said they would be decreasing staffing levels in 2009 compared to 2009 (phew!)

Finally, regarding web analytics in general in their organization:

• 47 percent said that senior management considers web analytics a priority investment
• 29 percent said that senior management considers web analytics a discretionary investment
• 24 percent said that senior management had poor visibility into their web analytics efforts

Now I’m a little suspicious of these numbers, especially the 47 percent saying that senior management considers web analytics a priority investment which sounds high to me by about half.  Keep in mind that there is clearly bias in this sample since respondents were DMA members with an expressed interest in web analytics …

If you believe these numbers it certainly sounds like 2009 will be somewhat stagnant in the industry compared to the last few years of rocket-like growth.  And while reading that 47 percent of senior managers “get” the value of web analytics, the reality is that 53 percent don’t which is still bad news no matter how you spin it.

What do you think?

Do you believe that senior managers in nearly half the companies out there consider web analytics a priority investment? Does your management team consider web analytics a priority investment? Or are you still trying to explain to the bosses what web analytics is capable of doing for your organization? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and feel free to use a pseudonym and “anon@anon.com” as an email address to post without your boss knowing how you really feel ;-)

Thanks again to everyone who attended the webcast and participated in this informal poll.

Posted Friday, December 26th, 2008 | 5 responses | Add a Comment | Share, Save or Email