These tools are essentially used to monitor website traffic in order to discover where visitors came from, what made them visit (i.e., a link to your website from a social media site), what did they do while on the site, etc. With more sophisticated web metric tools, companies can determine ROI based on set campaign goals, evaluate more detailed information like behavior about their audience or users and use these tools to monitor consumer-related activities via social media platforms that also impact conversions.
Pricing for web analytic tools vary from being free to costing businesses thousands of dollars depending on the features and functionality included. One thing that the majority of these tools have in common is that they are web-based applications that allow companies and marketers to collect and analyze meaningful data and gain insight into consumer behavior across multiple channels, including email, mobile, advertising and social.
When it comes to choosing a tool, it really depends on the marketer’s or business’s budget, any specific requirements for the tool and its level of complexity or sophistication. According to Zamanian (2012), “The tool must provide the appropriate abstractions to categorize and present the important information (and hide unnecessary details) in an intuitive, user-friendly and flexible manner...Acquiring the right web analytics tool will have a huge impact on the success of a company’s digital marketing initiatives.”
While GA continues to be top of mind for marketers and businesses, let’s explore another tool and how it compares. Adobe Analytics (formerly Adobe SiteCatalyst), which was originally created by Omniture prior to being acquired by Adobe, focuses on improving conversions for organizations. As I discussed in the "Web Metrics Part II: Conversion" post, “conversion” is the number of times a visitor performs a desired action, like making a purchase. However, a conversion is not restricted to purchases. Other types of conversions include user information inquiries, consumers signing up to receive emails or e-newsletters, comments made on websites, user profile creation and registration and more. With conversions comes the ability for businesses to evaluate ROI and increase their bottom line. And this is exactly what Adobe Analytics does for businesses – the tool allows companies to identify trends in order to maximize conversions and revenue.
Businesses can choose between Adobe Analytics (called Adobe Analytics Standard) and Adobe Analytics Premium, both of which are a part of Adobe’s Digital Marketing Suite. According to Gaines (2013), here’s the difference between the two tools:
- Adobe Analytics Standard combines the capabilities of multiple analytics tools that have been available from Adobe to date: reporting and dashboards (functionality available previously in SiteCatalyst), ad hoc analysis (Discover), Excel dashboarding (ReportBuilder), a raw data repository (DataWarehouse), tag management (TagManager), and data connectors between Adobe and its partners (Genesis). When you use Adobe Analytics, each of these capabilities will be available to you centrally and seamlessly via Adobe Marketing Cloud.
- Adobe Analytics Premium includes all of the capabilities mentioned above, but goes a step farther by including customer analytics, multi-channel capabilities, and statistical/predictive modeling (primarily delivered through Insight) to provide a more complete view of your customers.
Figure 1: Adobe Analytics Standard and Premium features comparison (Gaines, 2013).
Both Adobe Analytics Standard and Premium enable marketers and businesses to generate insightful data that then allows them to understand how their online efforts impact their organization. According to Demers (2013), some of the key features of Adobe Analytics include A/B testing, reports that are embeddable, a handful of customizable options for users and a “drag-and-drop” dashboard. As for cost, Adobe asks that businesses call them directly for a quote.
Now that we have Adobe Analytics defined, let’s compare it to GA. Demers (2013) goes on to explain GAs key features, including being able to benchmark data against “all other analytics programs” and conducting content experiments for A/B testing. Cost-wise, GA is free. But aside from those distinctions, there are a variety of capabilities to know and think about when deciding between GA and Adobe Analytics or even opting to use both tools at the same time. Here are some key takeaways of the two platforms.
Figure 2: Google Analytics vs. Adobe Analytics illustration
(Suryavanshi, 2015).
1. When it comes to real time data, GA allows users of the tool to see how many people are on their site in real time. This also includes referred traffic sources, where they are located throughout the world and what content they are viewing at that moment. Whereas, with Adobe Analytics, Suryavanshi (2015) states that “Current Data” reports “provide low latency real-time reporting” and “allow the user to view nearly real-time data on traffic reports, and about a 20 min delay on conversion data.”
2. Adobe Analytics includes more custom variables than GA provides users. While both tools provide users the option to set the expiration date for variables, Adobe Analytics variables “can also be stacked on top of each other, giving you the chance to identify a sequence of events” (Suryavanshi, 2015).
3. Backing up data housed in each tool is approached differently. For GA, data is kept for up to 25 months. In Adobe Analytics, all website data is stored for as long as the organization is a customer.
4. Both tools use their own custom filtering methods. According to Matisoff (2015), “Adobe Processing Rules cannot be used to move data from one report suite to another, whereas Google Filters can filter data to a specific View. In addition, Google Filters can also be applied to completely remove data from a specific View.”
5. Adobe Analytics and GA include bot filtering capabilities. Both tools use the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) list.
So, which platform is better you ask? I’m not falling for that! Each tool offers unique advantages. See for yourself by clicking here to learn more about Adobe Analytics or here to explore GA.
References
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
Gaines, B. (2013, March 12). Under the
hood with adobe analytics and adobe analytics premium [Blog Post]. Adobe
Digital Marketing Blog. Retrieved from https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/analytics/under-the-hood-with-adobe-analytics-and-adobe-analytics-premium/
Matisoff, E. (2015, April 2). Comparing data: Adobe
analytics vs. google analytics [Blog Post]. Search Discovery. Retrieved on June
8, 2016, from: http://www.searchdiscovery.com/blog/comparing-data-adobe-analytics-vs-google-analytics/
Suryavanshi, G. (2015, October 26). Google analytics
vs adobe analytics [Blog Post]. The Digital Group. Retrieved from http://blog.thedigitalgroup.com/gajendras/2015/10/26/google-analytics-vs-adobe-analytics/
Web
Metrics Part II: Conversion. (2016, May 28). Interconnect [Blog Post].
IMC642Interconnect.Blogspot.com. Retrieved from http://imc642interconnect.blogspot.com/2016/05/web-metrics-part-ii-conversion.html
Zamanian, K. (2012, April 2). How to evaluate and choose the right web analytics tool [Blog Post]. Oracle Modern Marketing Blog. Retrieved from https://blogs.oracle.com/marketingcloud/how_to_evaluate_and_choose_the_right_web_analytics_tool
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