Analytics-blog

Wow.  That’s quite a story/stat.

Of course web analytics are not perfect as most of them depend on cookie technology that can be easily defeated.

However, it’s good enough for most folks given where they are in their knowledge.  If it’s not good enough for you, I suggest you check out Convertro.

So it’s not quite like Spy vs. Spy.  In fact, to some extent it’s a complimentary relationship.

For example, I’m a big fan of Omniture and their SaaS online marketing analytics system.  While at Sony I did my best to push adoption across multiple marketing and website groups…and in the end they were adopted across most (if not all) Sony divisions.  They have a great user interface and their support system was excellent.  They are the best in online marketing & analytics tools in my opinion.

At AnalytixOnDemand we also talk about marketing analytics.  However, when we talk about it, online marketing analytics are just a subset of a much larger picture.  We also support statistics such as sales per square foot and return on equity that have very little to do with online marketing.

So the real difference between an Omniture and an AnalytixOnDemand is pedigree.

Omniture has a pedigree in online marketing analytics.

AnalytixOnDemand has a pedigree in business intelligence.

Business Intelligence encompasses online marketing analytics + call center + finance + logistics etc.

This means AOD must be conversant in hundreds of reports and KPI’s across industries.  This is not easily attained.  It requires years of experience.

In addition, companies with a business intelligence pedigree like AnalytixOnDemand expect data to appear from MANY sources.  Not just a browser.  As such, our systems and processes are built around the concept that we will be dealing with messy data.  We’ve built tools and processes specifically to identify and report these issues.  And it’s just not for online data…it’s ANY data.

If you read this blog you probably are thinking…well why in the heck would I even consider Omniture?  Well…they have a great system as pertains to anything you are doing online.  And also, Omniture combines those analytics with various optimization tools that help folks real-time organize and organize their website, campaigns etc.

Our application helps you look at performance across all channels or even across your entire enterprise….and also drill down to figure out why a given trend or pattern exists.

There is certainly some overlap between the two systems.

If you are a Director of Online Marketing, I would not advise you to drop Omniture in favor of AOD.  However, if you are VP of Marketing with a multi-channel marketing effort and managing the call center, I would advise you to hire AOD in addition to retaining Omniture.

Hope that makes sense.

As I was disembarking from my G4 this morning (G5 is in the shop again…sigh…)….I was thinking how advertisers are taking blogs and social media seriously these days.  If you don’t believe me, look no further than the IAB issuing “definitions” of metrics that can be used for media planning purposes.

God forbid we don’t extend advertising to every single surface of the planet, here’s some insights on what the IAB is thinking about blog analytics in particular.

They divide the measurements into four major categories.  Below are the measurement categories and a high-level overview of what they measure.

1. Conversation Size – How many sites/blogs and how many links exist regarding the particular topic. In other words, how important is this topic overall?
2. Site Relevance – This is based on how consistently a given blog or site is discussing a particular topic.  Meaning, was it just discussed once or is it a daily, weekly, monthly occurrence?
3. Author Credibility – How many links into the blog for the given topic and the duration for which the topic has been discussed on the site/blog.  Is the blog popular with the right audience and for how long have they been discussing the topic?
4. Content Freshness and Relevance – Primarily the frequency of posting on the topic.

If you are really interested in these guidelines, you should definitely check out the IAB guidelines in detail.

In a lot of ways, the IAB Guidelines are very similar to how Google indexes various pages and assigns them rank for a particular keyword or phrase.  Obviously if an SEO wizard like Randfish read that last sentence; he would be inclined to slap me upside the head.  But there are certainly some similarities to what the IAB proposes and the Google secret sauce.

Anyways, the good news is that advertisers are finally figuring how to spend money on blogs.  I’m not saying the methodology above is perfect, but it’s a good start.

Oh my goodness…can you just smell all those advertising pennies adding up?  Pretty soon my blogging profits will exceed those generated by my three-legged mule farming operation.

So pass around the offering plate because I’m getting rich one post at a time.