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Google Analytics is the Go-To Web Analytics Package
June 07, 2014

Google Analytics is the Go-To Web Analytics Package

Jennifer (Utterback) Davis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Google Analytics

Overall Satisfaction with Google Analytics

As a digital marketing agency, we use Google Analytics to track traffic, and conversions (as well as other KPIs) for the digital marketing efforts we run. It is used by every account person in our organization as we recommend it for all of our clients if they are not using it when we sign the contract (which is very few that were not using prior to our engagement). It provides full data into visits, conversions and revenue data for our clients.
  • Allows for robust reporting of web visitors.
  • Allows for customization with use of filters, profiles, segments, etc. We are not stuck with the defaults. Using advanced techniques, we can customize it easily.
  • It is free.
  • While I love the customization, some of it is very technical to put into place. This can be troublesome for non-technical folks.
  • For larger websites with more traffic, there can be a sampling issue with the data.
  • While data can be delayed by 24 hours, generally on smaller sites it isn't and you can get a clear picture of how the day is going when running a special promotion and such to make educated decisions on your marketing campaign.
  • The API integrates well with tools and is generally reliable, so I can pull in data into a bid management tool, an excel spreadsheet and a lot more through the API, but can still do a one-off export.
  • In the 6 years I have aggressively used Google Analytics, I only remember less than 5 instances of problems, and all were corrected in timely fashion.
  • It continues to evolve.
We have used Omniture and WebTrends. WebTrends is an outdated analytics tool. Omniture, while robust is just not as customizable. Basically, if you have no intention or no need to do customization and you just want out-of-the-box reporting and not willing to spend the time in GA to set up dashboards and be a slave to the system, Omniture is your choice. They do make it dummy proof, but realize the data is probably not in a way you want it and you learn to work around it.
My first choice is Google Analytics. The integration with Google Adwords combined with being free and easy install make it an absolute no brainer in web analytics.
Two drawbacks can be limits placed on "row data" and sampling if you have a larger website. But unless you are in the millions of data rows, this generally is not a problem. Sampling can still be a problem if you are running extremely advanced segments, but in my mind even these should be limited for analysis. You don't need to know every single path every single person took through your website.