In his a recent post
Stephane Hamel linked to an interesting Gartner slide about their “Web
Analytics Maturity Model”. It seems a I am a bit late to the party,
since the slide was presented at eMetrics 2007 in San Francisco.
Regardless, its an interesting view of the evolution of web analytics.
Where do your efforts fall? Most of what I see in China is squarely in
level 1. Some leaders are implementing level 2 or 3 activities,
but I have not seen any web analytics implementations here that would
fall into Gartner’s “CRM” or “Corporate Performance Measurement” level.
While we could ague about which activity should go into which level (I
would argue well defined personas should go into level 4), I see the
main value of this graph in showing us what else can be done outside
our current scope of work. Thought provoking stuff.
Reader Tai Te, posted an interesting comment on the “The third party online metrics controversy” post, that I used to argue that 3rd party metrics are unnecessary to plan online marketing campaigns and and to evaluate campaigns success. This post generated a lot of interest due to Kaiser Kuo’s mention his the Digitalwatch blog.
Tai Te writes:
“That’s all useful to see if your ad WAS effective but it doesn’t help
much when it comes to guessing if your ad WILL BE effective.”
I highlight this comment because it echos common concerns about using web analytics metrics for campaigns planning and evaluation.
I can agree with this criticism for “one off” campaigns. It becomes mute though when you regularly or
continuously run campaigns (which is the case for most online advertisers) since you can build on experience. It also leads to best practices that accommodate media testing and continuous media optimization.
Testing and ongoing optimizations are critical for other reasons too. While reliable 3rd party
metrics will be able to tell you the number of impressions and clicks
you can expect for your campaign given a dollar number and media, these metrics will not allow you to predict the results of
the campaign.
Real campaign results (outcomes) depend on actions users
take on your landing page (e.g. buy, register, play video, learn more
etc.) I would argue that its these outcomes you should optimize your
media buying for.
After returning from the May holiday, its time to talk web analytics again. This time I am going to take 15 min of your time to talk about “actionable web analytics”. Or how to build a web analytics process that provides actionable insights. Of course I will be looking for your input and your insights as well.
Time: Wednesday May 7th/ 8PM – 10PM
Location: Club Camp (near Workers Stadium) Web Analytics Wednesday Website or by replying to this post.
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