Google Universal Analytics (discontinued) vs. Parse.ly

I think this is a great platform as long as there is a dedicated team which is going to spend reviewing the data and also taking out insights from it, making it beneficial. It was well suited for me when working with a client that had a very large amount of traffic, with a large range of complex products on offer. This tool allowed us to be able to do more with the data and segmenting it more which ultimately drove our relationship forward, but also the results that we saw

For people working in online media, or digital content creators, the platform could help them understand their audience and allow them to interact with them in a user-friendly way. Since the digital media industry is booming, Parse.ly can allow the user and the content creators to meet each other's demands and reduce redundancies and bombard the users with unnecessary content.

Incentivized

• It is an excellent cloud analytics platform that is easy to install and configure and easy to deploy and use, allowing us to measure web traffic and other tools.
• It is an entirely online tool; it does not take up hard disk space like other desktop tools.
• Since this tool is draggable, Google is constantly adding more features.
• Even beginners who do not have a custom dashboard can get information. If there is a problem somewhere on the site that needs to be investigated, Google Analytics 360 will notify you.

Incentivized

• Real-time metrics are great and help us decide what content to follow up on.
• Audience segmenting is key, helps us determine where we're strong and where we're not.
• Historical metrics are also helpful in helping us see what readers come back to overtime, which drives decisions about what content to devote more resources to producing.

Incentivized

• As far as I can tell, this is the ultimate large scale analytics platform. It does so much and can be a very powerful tool. Maybe it's overwhelming for newbies, but that's kinda what the pro Google consultations are for.
• Although I've never been personally responsible for paying the GA 360 bills, I know it's very pricey ($150K/year last I checked). If your business is managing a lot of high-traffic sites, and maybe you resell other Google services, then it's probably worth it for the dashboard and integration. So... it's expensive, and by definition, not for everyone.

Incentivized

• Traffic source. I would like to be able to find the exact social media page a view comes from. Now I can only tell which platform.
• I would like to be able to compare traffic more than one year ago. Now I'm limited to one year.
• Some more customization of reports (or maybe more training).

Incentivized

I believe that once Google Analytics Premium releases some additional eCommerce capabilities, it will be the best tool on the market for multi-site customers. Google does an amazing job of fully vetting out new features and functionality before releasing them publicly, so I have found very few issues with the functionality and usability of the tool. Some of the other big players in the industry are too quick to release new features, and they are often riddled with bugs and defects. I know that when I set something up with Google Analytics Premium, I'm getting a reliable, strong product that will deliver what it promises.

Cost is always a factor when considering any renewal, so we will always see how that compares to other offerings, but we have been pleased with the functionality from Parse.ly. Importantly, it has engaged news teams, and writers can easily assess their own performance--it is not just a management tool. This wider take-up makes it more likely that we would renew.

Incentivized

Google Analytics Premium has a very easy to use and intuitive User Interface. It's easy to find anything you are looking for and apply different segments to reports on the fly. This is very important especially if you are doing report comparisons. It's also an aesthetically pleasing design, making the general experience pleasant.

The Parse.ly platform is very user-friendly and easy to use. User management is simple, and reporting setup only takes a few minutes. They provide very helpful documentation for implementing the scripts on your site and have great customer support to help with custom development such as implementing their content recommendation engine.

Incentivized

• Everyday support is primarily through chat and email with the centralized, general team. Its as you would envision with an anonymous individual attempting to figure from "page one." Often responses are later in the day or next day.
• At first signing, one account person is assigned along with an initial individual to assist in onboarding. There's an interview of the goals with GA360, but the provided deliverable document is limited in the review of one site. Also, after delivery of the onboarding document, you are left with an account individual who is looking for expanded vertical integration with other Google products.

Incentivized

Seems to be more bugs than I encounter in Google Analytics, but Parse.ly is always very quick to answer my questions or fix something. It seems like most of my issues are due to communications around my requests being outside of the package we pay for with this tool (i.e., only two years of data).

Incentivized

There is a ton of information online about Google Analytics, but Google Analytics Premium users will have dedicated support and training from Google or an Authorized Reseller.

If you already have the basic version of GA installed, "getting" GA Premium happens immediately through a virtual flipping of the switch - no need to re-implement. You'll want to expand your use of custom dimensions and metrics (you get 10x the amount with Premium). Ideally, you'll be using a tag management solution to talk with GA Premium, in concert with implementing a dataLayer (to note, Google's Tag Manager platform is covered under the same GA Premium SLA, and it's free). There are some welcomed "configurations" with GA Premium, such as integrating with DoubleClick products, activating data driven attribution models, and building roll-up executive reports - but all of these are easy point and click solutions. In comparison with any other enterprise analytics solution, implementing GA and GA Premium is traditionally easier and more flexible. And if you have any trouble or need an extra set of hands for implementation, GA Certified Partners like LunaMetrics can help

Since our data is on Bigquery it is very easy for us to connect our database to this platform which is very challenging for us to connect the data integration part to other platforms so this is the primary reason for us to choose this platform. The second reason to choose this is that this platform will solve our problems of multiple departments of product, marketing, business, and analytics rather than choosing separate platforms for different departments

Parse.ly excels in providing detailed insights into how users are interacting with specific pieces of content, allowing us to make data-driven decisions about content strategy and optimization. Its real-time reporting also provides us with immediate feedback on the effectiveness of content changes, which is particularly important for content-heavy sites that need to iterate quickly.

Incentivized

• It helps me understand which social media platforms are most successful for me - which I should focus on and which I might want to focus less on.
• I can also see which blog posts people are reading - so I know which topics resonate most. I can write more of those, hopefully gaining more visitors.

Incentivized

• Sometimes in meetings our editorial director will point out stories that didn't perform well. To us, that means readers don't really care about the topic, so we'll pivot away from writing about that in the future. That might not be "business objectives" though.

Incentivized