Google Analytics vs VWO

• Google Analytics does the obvious thing really well: tracks user behavior around our website. But more specifically, it allows us to do some very complicated attribution to behavior, traffic sources and even specific campaigns or devices. Depending on the volume of traffic we are trying to analyze and the purpose, we can narrow things down EXTREMELY well and get a great story to use for data mining.
• The eCommerce tracking with GA (Google Analytics) is hands down the best. Specifically, its attribution to traffic sources and matching with user behavior that is the best. I have yet to find another tool that can let me track traffic sources, split campaigns down to devices and track which inventory was purchased specifically from that campaign--especially if I am looking back at inventory purchased from a campaign (or in our case, people who signed up for Classes) I can tell all of that from GA.
• You can use GA to track specific user accounts within a product, and differentiate user behavior within the product based on account roles. A lot of people don't know about this, but with the help of a developer you can leverage a TON of data including creating lookalike audiences that you can sync into AdWords and make your display campaigns highly targeted. Most people think this kind of feature is only available on Facebook ads--nope! :)

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• When designing A/B variations I can choose to either use the visual editor or to make the changes using code. I particularly like using jQuery.
• VWO offers the ability to keep long term track of the performance of your goals.
• I can easily identify recordings of users that dropped out of a funnel and watch those.
• There is live chat to get support, with great response times and which is very helpful.
• You are forced to create observations and hypotheses when creating a test, which is a great way to make sure that you are actually testing something worthwhile.
• You can group tests together so that you can rule out interaction effects between tests that you are running at the same time.

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• I was bummed that they moved some of the functions (keyword data, etc.) over to Google Webmaster tools. (On the bright side, this has prompted me to become more familiar with Google Search Console.)
• A lot of functions are right there. But it's hard to tell which functions are most important or what they offer.
• Perhaps this is related to number 2, but the UX is fairly intimidating. All of these tools and subsets of tools are right in front of you, and it's difficult to understand what ones are the most important. A simpler, streamlined format might be a better approach.

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• The user interface within VWO does take a bit of time to get used to, especially as it pertains to switching back and forth between tests. When running multiple experiments on a site at a time, a clear and succinct dashboard for everything in one place would be helpful (as opposed to needing to switch between A/B, multivariate, etc).

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• GA has only had a positive impact for myself and my clients. Utilizing the data from Google Analytics, we have been able to optimize landing pages, shopping carts, and content to only improve our acquisition, reduce abandonment rates and follow through with successful conversions.

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• We've been able to roll out new design patterns with confidence that short term revenue is not negatively effected.
• We've had more wins than losses, as the company is just ramping up a testing strategy. We know percentage of wins will go down as we optimize, but VWO has been vital on making calculated steps along the way.

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