Web Analytics - Challenge or Opportunity?

A recent eMarketer study published a chart showing the areas of knowledge that web analytics users worldwide would like to improve. Here are the top few:

1) 60.8% - measuring web 2.0 technologies
2) 57.2% - Targeting & Segmenting
3) 49.8% - A/B and Multi-Variate Testing
4) 48.6% - SEO
5) 41.2% - SEM

Other areas included, campaign & content management, email & affiliate marketing, each recording <38% response.

I find this interesting because, while a lot of organizations struggle to keep up with the right and effective measurement, users like us, with an elevated passion for web analytics, can grab this as an opportunity to create competitive advantage for our respective business units.

For measuring web 2.0 technologies, DEFINE your goals for promoting your business on blogs and social media sites, SET key performance metrics and MONITOR these KPIs for best results. Data in this area is in its nascent stages, and metrics such as, reach, velocity, engagement, followers, loyalty, etc. are still gaining popularity. The challenge in not only in measurement, but also in applying the insights, if there are some to be gleaned from the data.

Targeting and segmenting ideally needs to be on 2 fronts - consumer-centric and content-centric. Ideally there is significant overlap, or else, we need to first build greater insights into our consumers and business objectives, before attempting to target our content.

A/B testing is fairly common, but in my experience, businesses often struggle with multi-variate testing, due to a variety of reasons like, lack of tools, resources, expertise, etc. Investing in this area can help solve for multiple metrics, resulting in significant improvements budget utilization and user experience.

Marketing campaigns (SEM & SEO) analysis is relevant for obvious reasons - optimize your search term buy for best return, and invest in SEO expertise to apply techniques for improved rankings.

The closing thought is that we should not try to be good at all of the above at the same time, since the business teams tend to lose focus with too many initiatives and may not be ready to measure/analyze/recommend most efficiently. Evaluating gaps in your business will help develop a strategic roadmap to prioritize and implement these initiatives for best results.