Chinalytics Longmarch Blog

The first Web Analytics Wednesday of the 牛 (niu – ox, as in year of the ox) year will be hosted on February 11th, one week later than usual, to account for some late returning 春节 (Spring Festival) travelers.

If you are interested in sharing your Web Analytics, measurement or optimization ideas in front of a enthusiastic crowd of 40+ web analytics enthusiasts, please let me know in the comment section of this post, in the Beijing WAW Google group, or just send an email to florianpihs[at]gmail[dot]com.

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MRM Worldwide logo

With client demands for Web Analytics growing, MRM Worldwide is expanding its team of Web Analytics analysts and consultants in Beijing.

Join us and

• Be part of a team that pioneers web analytics in China
• Work in an international bi-lingual environment for a global 4 A agency
• Work with exciting global clients like Microsoft, Intel and others that push the limits of digital marketing in China with innovative new projects
• Learn from the  most experienced Web Analytics practitioners in China, trough regular trainings, experience sharing and on the job guidance
• Work with a young, fun and motivated team of professionals that together makes a difference in how our clients do digital marketing to reach business objectives.
• Competitive compensation

If you are interested in joining us, please forward your resume and a short cover letter explaining why you are the right person for our team to mei-dot-zhao-at-ap-dot-mccann-dot-com, or send it directly to me florian-dot-pihs-at-ap-dot-mccann-dot-com. Feel free to mail in either in English or in Chinese.

Your chances are best if your experience fits the criteria I have compiled in the job description below for an Analytics Consultant / Lead Analytics Consultant (with a big hand from Aviansh’s sample job description). If your know someone who is qualified and interested, please kindly get us in touch. If you don’t fulfill all the requirements yet (but aspire to), reach me anyway, we need junior web analysts as well. Please leave any questions in the comment section of this post, and I will do my best to answer them.

Typical Deliverables:

• Weekly, monthly reports (excel, BI tools, web analytics tools).
• Website behavior and customer experience analysis.
• Data consolidation and validation.
• Coordinating tags, tracking parameter implementations.
• Business requirements synthesized from multiple sources including product managers, development teams, and functional group members.
• Documentation relating to existing processes and suggestion / presentations for improving those processes.
• Effective and persuasive presentations (verbal and written) for project teams and business leaders.

Knowledge / Background / Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree (MBA preferred).
• Web Analytics
  • Preferably one to two years of working with standard click stream analysis tools: Omniture, Click Tracks, WebTrends, HBX, Core Metrics etc.
  • Experience in advanced web analytics methodologies such as experimentation and testing, competitive analysis, surveys and market research preferred
• Experience in one or more roles in an online e-commerce or online support environments.
• Expertise with Business Intelligence tools, such as Brio, Business Objects, Micro Strategy, Cognos etc with experience writing and tuning SQL queries in a online or offline environment preferred.
• Three to five years of experience in using the Microsoft Office suite with very strong Excel skills.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to interact with all levels of end users and technical resources.
• Exposure to project management skills, business process redesign principles, tools and techniques a plus.

Team / Leadership Skills:

• Works effectively both independently and as a member of a cross functional team.
• Uses sound judgment to identify issues and escalates when appropriate.
• Contributes to improvements in processes (technical or business) used by analysts.
• Drives focused decisions within specific areas and is a key contributor to decisions beyond specific scope of role.
• Ability to identify key needs or gaps and provide leadership to close those gaps.
• Resolves disagreements and conflicts constructively, knows when to involve others.
• Learns from mistakes, takes action to apply the lessons and provides peer and team wide feedback for those in immediate area of focus.
• Identifies and communicates specific personal growth goals for self.

Technical / Functional Skills:

• Understands relevant technology applications in their area.
• Using strong analytical skills provides insights as well as recommendations for changes
• Identifies and drives requirements trade-offs by proposing solutions to BU/FU leadership.
• Handles multiple tasks, switches priorities and focuses as needed.
• Exhibits high degree of pro-activeness in analyzing customer behavior using available data to influence changes on the website.
• Understands the complex web ecosystems and best practices and applies this knowledge to their work.
• Collaborates on creation of project plan and tasks for the team.

Language Skill

• Strong written and spoken English and Chinese are required to communicate effectively to clients and co-workers.

I am looking forward to your feedback. Keep it coming!

One of the major limitations on Web Analytics in China is the lack of skilled and experienced analysts. Once a company or agency has decided on persuing the digital ROI path though Web Analytics, they soon notice that while tools are free (like Google Analytics, Yahoo! Analytics and Microsoft AdCenter Analytics) or can be bought from respected vendors (like Omniture, Webtrends and others), skilled and experienced analysts are in severe short supply. (as I’ve argued before). As a result, most analytics teams are made up of one senior person, spending most of his/her time on training and a bunch of smart young analyst coming staight from university or from a market research background. Most of the trainig is on the job and done informally. Most of it is done “on the job”. I have never met a certified Omniture or GA analyst in China (let me know if you are!).

This is about to change, with Omniture offering their first Site Catalyst Fundamentals training in Beijing and Shanghai in March. The training will last 2 days and will be conducted in Chinese  Here are the dates and prices:

BEIJING – MAR 17 – 18

SHANGHAI – MAR 19-20

Prices per person range from USD 1,500 to USD 1,800. Given current exchange rates, thats beween RMB 10K and 12.5K.

This is a princely price for China, given that it reflects a monthly salary for a senior analyst / senior analytics consultant in the market. While I am excited about this opportunity, I am not sure how many companies can afford that kind of money in the current economic situation. I can only urge my readers to review Avinash’s 90/10 rule.

• Our Goal: Highest value from Web Analytics implementation.
• Cost of analytics tool & vendor professional services: $ 10.
• Required investment in “intelligent resources/analysts”: $ 90.
• Bottom-line for Magnificent Success: Its the people.

Re-read it! Re-read it again! And now go looking for the money. If you are lucky and find a pot of gold, contact your local Omniture salesperson (Darry Su, CY Yueng) or, lacking their contact info, comment on this post to sign up for the training. I will then share the Omniture contact info with you via email.

I am looking forward to seeing you in March.

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While many of my readers probably already know the Yahoo! Web Analytics Forum: For those who don’t, I highly recommend you become a member and subscribe to the updates. There is no better way to keep yourself updated about the hot topics in the Web Analytics arena (while sometime the email updates stack up quite a bit in my Inbox….)

Currently a hot discussion is ranging on the benefits and implementation of the Web Analytics Association’s Web Analytics Standards (PDF).

1. Brandt Dainow started the discussion off on iMedia Connection claiming: “What the WAA has done is a retrograde step — the WAA standard has less precision and utility than the JICWEBS standards, so it moves us backward not forward. However, WAA is a major force in the world of web analytics and online marketing. What it says matters. In this light, the work of the WAA standards committee is a disaster for the web analytics community. It will take years to undo the damage and create proper precise standards that can be implemented in software. The WAA “standard” is not a standard, it’s just second-rate muttering.”
2. Stephane Hamel replied on his blog, highlighting the differences between an industry standard and a “standard terminology”, arguing that the Web Analytic’s Association’s value is coming from creating a consensus among the different actors in the market.
   The ISO is a standard body, and in order to claim ISO certification you need to abide by strict rules, and pay undergo audits to retain certification. On the other end, the IAB is a more open structure, much more similar to the WAA, that was able to define common terminology regarding online advertising and bring “standards, guidelines and best practices”. On the other end, the IAB is a more open structure, much more similar to the WAA, that was able to define common terminology regarding online advertising and bring “standards, guidelines and best practices.” Which one makes most sense? Which one makes most sense? In my mind, the second option is the way to go! In my mind, the second option is the way to go!
3. Many other post in the thread, but I like the reply from Angie Brown, co-chair of the commitee (extra points for staying calm, too).
   There are several reasons the definitions are written the way they are, and why we left some wiggle room in them (too much, in some people’s opinion and that’s fair enough). First, there’s the intended audience. Stephane hit the nail on the head when he said we used marketing rather than engineering terms. Web analytics is a business function, and we tried to write the definitions (yes, definitions, not technical standards — for now) in such a way that they would be accessible to most marketers.

Check the whole this out. Which argument do you agree with? Let me know in the comments

I just got an email from Stephane Hamel announcing V 1.02 of WASP, his Web Analytics Solution Profiler utility. Congrats and kudos to Stephane. Good job. Rock on.

For those who have not heard about WASP here is the skinny:

WASP is a Firefox plugin for Web Analytics professionals that allows you to easily do

• Quality Assurance:  Check If your own pages are correctly tagged, that is
  • If there is a web analytics tag on your page (works for ad tracking tools, A/B testing tools and e-commerce tracking as well). This works page by page, but also automatically with a crawler if you are using the licensed version.
  • If that tag is executed correctly and is sending the right data to the Web Analytics server (e.g. the right profile ID in GA, or the right Omniture SAINT tag). This works especially well for Omniture and Google Analytics, since WASP provides an “enhanced tags view” that explains each data point sent to the server.
• Market Research:  If and page you are visiting has a web analytics solution installed (e.g. your customers, your competitors, or your own business in other countries)

I have been an enthusiastic WASP user for more than a year and encourage you to test it out. My only reservation is that it doens’t work well for Flash “experiences”. To Q&A those, we have been using HTTP Watch and looked at the data sets send to the server manually. I am looking forward to version 2.0,  so I can ditch HTTP Watch completely.

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I am just returning from today’s AdWorld 2009 event in Beijing and am happy to report that all three keynotes (Jeremy Fain of IAB US, David Ketchum of ADMA and Will Hodgman of Comscore) were focussing on data & standards or had some interesting related comments.

Jeremy gave and introduction on “The Importance of Standards in Growing the  Interactive Advertising Market”, and Will repeated a disappointing standard Comscore deck without any China data (that takes guts in the market with the largest online population)

The “on the money” comment came from David Ketchum. “2009 is not going to be the year of data and standards”. David’s conversations with the largest publishers align closely with my observations, that big publishers in China are still very comfortable making money from a lack of transparency. They are very interested in talking to the ADMA or IAB, but still feel like they have something to loose in a more standardized and transparent ad-world. The key drivers for change towards more transparency have to be advertisers and smaller publishers who do business by proving their performance through independently verified superior performance.

I see this already happening, but it takes time to build momentum. 2009 will be a good start but it will take time until well into the new decade until we can say goodbye to cost per day media buys, ad serving by publishers and hundreds of different banner sizes.

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Happy New Year to all friends or Web Analytics Wednesday in Beijing. 2008 has been a great year, and I enjoyed every event we celebrated with you!
2009 is shaping up to be even more interesting as Web Analytics is touted as a key growth area that can benefit from the challenging economic environment. (better results with lower ad spend? Yes, please.)

I am especially excited about the upcoming WAW, because it is the first time we have a corporate user of Web Analytics speaking here in Beijing (not a vendor, agency or consultant): Anya Zhao (赵冬云), Air China’s Online Marketing Director. (More on Anya is a short bio below).

Anya will share her experience in setting up and running corporate Web Analytics at eLong and Air China, with a focus on tools, people and processes. I can’t wait to hear from her what works and what doesn’t work in Web Analytics in China from someone who has experience running web analytics at companies that stand to capture most of its value.

Please join me for this groundbreaking event, and bring any friends who might be interested to join our community.

Time and date: Wednesday Jan. 7th. 8PM
Location: Luga’s Villa (right behind 3.3 in Sanlitun)

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It will be standing room only with a buffet dinner. Part of the cost will be covered by our sponsor. Be prepared however to spend about RMB 50 for the evening. As usual the knowledge you get in exchange is invaluable

Please RSVP by commenting to this post or by sending me an email florianpihs-at-gmail-dot-com. Any problems please call my mobile at 13401191916.

Best,
Florian

Bio of Dongyun Zhao, Online Marketing Director, Air China (copied form the the Ad-tech panel on Web Analytics)
Ms. Anya Zhao ( Dongyun Zhao) has a professional background in online marketing and analytic measurement area. As the Director of online marketing for Air China, she drive the online sales grow up dramatically in the last 10 months by leading the online marketing team driving online marketing activity according to the online tracking and data analysis result . Prior to joining Air China, she was the online analysis and marketing manager of elong Inc, the division of Expedia Inc.. There, she grew the Omniture tracking and data analysis to be such a good fundamental for online marketing business development and benefit in making the online marketing to be one of the most efficient and important sales channel of elong Inc. She holds the master degree of Econometrics, who graduated from the Hebei University of Industry and was the government sponsored international student in the University of Applied Sciences Munich in 2003.