The supply-side of Econsultancy’s Online Measurement & Strategy report

On the Eurostar for a Web Analytics Wednesday event in London, I was reviewing Econsultancy’s excellent Online Measurement and Strategy Report, getting back to it, after a couple of days of reflection.
Tomorrow, I’ll be talking in Germany at Sapient about Web Agencies’ Web Analytics business models, which I’m really looking forward to as well. These types of networking events are ideal for discussions about our sector, surrounded by smart peers & drinkies!

Reading some great perspectives about the report both from Web Analytics guru, Avinash Kaushik, and sector God Father, Jim Sterne, I missed comments about other findings that I humbly thought would be interest.

Avinash tweeted, quite understandably, about it in the following terms: “The only report U need on online measurement & #wa http://tr.im/nW8B D/L sample report. Why good? Pragmatic, 100% sourced fm customers, no BS”.
Google Analytics is on the rise, assuring its position in the Web Analytics space, as the report confirms. But like any leader, contestation is on the rise as well as recently following a French post, discussion has amplified about how GA attributes conversation.
Additionally, the report does not mention Yahoo! Web Analytics (former IndexTools), the other great free tool out there on the market, but does point to “one limitation is the inability to tie up analytics with data at an individual customer level. Google faces a problem on this front because it already has to contend with criticism that it has too much data, and this is a problem that worries businesses as well as consumers.”
The double sides of a coin: we want more individual level data to really drill-down and try to make our data sources less conflicting vs. worry about Google having all this personal data. Let’s see how Y!WA stacks up to that assumption. In the mean time, you can also check out some good writing by Dennis Mortensen

Talking about tools, what actually first struck me was the reason why 31% of respondents don’t use GA: “it isn’t sophisticated enough for their requirements”. Even though I can imagine this to be true for some companies more sophisticated in the practice of doing Web Analytics, I also have a hunch this stems from disinformation coming from competing vendors! Call it a female intuition if you want but fact remains, if this is the case, such practice doesn’t resonate to me as being a sound long-term strategy!

I also couldn’t avoid noting Omniture’s progression with 42% of market share according to the responding companies! Let’s just hope that with all the people Omniture’s been training through Europe, they will actually also let other supply-side actors, besides themselves, support their clients. Let’s say that this process could need some tweaking imho.

Just like the pillars of a company are its stakeholders, customers & staff; for Web Analytics, I see vendors, consultants & end clients. And it’s in this later part where I find the Econsultancy report fascinating as it distinguishes answers from the client-side with those from the supply-side, giving a voice to this fragmented army of web agencies, self-employed consultants & specialist web analytics consultancies.
Because let’s face it, these non vendors supply-side actors more often than not “recommend a tool for their clients to use” or “make a decision on behalf of their clients”. And for some, like Web Agencies, the relationship with the client reaches far beyond Web Analytics even if, some time ago, before the commoditization of its practice, WA could be seen as a differentiating factor. It’s not anymore about selling licenses and with margins below 40%, lets be honest, it’s bad for this type of KPI!

It’s a difficult balancing act doing Web Analytics within a web agency. Eternally swinging with vendors between love – to sell their solution – & hate because technical roadmaps aren’t always discussed & shared and competition on services is increasing.
Competing also against Media Agencies, who hold another side of the crystal ball with their campaigns i.e. traffic acquisition and I’ll refer to Eric’s post about attribution as issues are far from being resolved in this space!
I’ve witnessed it often: discussions about access to a client’s Google AdWords account to tie the data to the GA account, explaining to some young trainee how to add the correct tags to the landing URLs.  URL, you want me to spell it for you?

Unfortunately, this lack of incentive for collaboration, which is totally understandable on all mentioned sides, doesn’t do much for data transparency & sharing in order to make sure we all work towards the client’s goal, making money today and in the future and uncover those blessed insights. Sharing remains the key in order to align those processes and make sure all actors work towards this common goal. Unfortunately, not all clients are savvy enough to understand their pivotal role in this dance of (expensive) service providers!

It also looks like the equilibrium between budget allocations between technology & human resources is slowly but surely reverting from an over investment in tools (would I dare to write that?) that should magically point towards insights. Just like Word should be able to magically write by itself a great trilogy such as Millenium
Ok, we’re not at Avinash’s 10/90 rule yet but what I basically concluded from the report is that those who get it, get it. Those who don’t, aren’t going to take the risk in these times to make the leap of faith. For now.

The market has thankfully evolved towards a commoditization of web analytics services. It’s not anymore about how to tag this new Flash website or Ajax application, a lot of very smart people can help with that today, partially thanks to the GAAC – Google Analytics Authorized Consultant – network imho.
However, resources remain scarce and for that, supply-side companies still have a role to play, if they can make it work for them, business model wise.

And that’s where my great fears lie for the moment. I’m afraid all those great, but fragmented consultants, are going to get stuck in this tinny Web Analytics field that could bring so much to a companies’ reflection and dialogue with its clients, stakeholders & staff. And that’s what I want to discuss with the smart guys from Sapient tomorrow in Germany

I’ll finish by sharing my favourite quote from the report “Knowledge – there’s almost too much information out there, every time I learn something new it all just gets bigger – which is exciting as well as frustrating.” And agreeing with Avinash recommended reading for anyone serious about the industry!

I’m off to Moorgate. Be well & prosper!

Posted Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | One responses | Add a Comment | Share, Save or Email