Using Parse.ly to engage our team
Updated February 28, 2024

Using Parse.ly to engage our team

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Parse.ly

We use Parse.ly to keep track of the success of our newspaper website in terms of audience reach and dwell time. It is used daily by the editorial department but also to help our advertising teams discuss online digital advertising sales with clients. It guides our news team on content that is doing well in real-time, helping to inform decisions about what stories to cover in the future. It offers excellent insight into the online performance of both individuals and the title (and its sister publications). We can gauge how we are performing from day to day, week to week, and month to month, enabling us to set targets to help us achieve growth in our online audience. We monitor the sources by which people come to us--such as social media or a Google search--along with the times of day and the type of platform they are using. By setting up reports, we can swiftly inform all team members how we are faring and how their stories are doing, encouraging them to continue posting content that our audience appreciates.

Pros

  • Real-time audience measurement--Parse.ly helps us understand how many people are on our site now and how this compares to our usual performance. By ensuring we improve on standard performance, we can grow our numbers.
  • Reports--setting up automated reports that can be sent to team members enables us to inform them at a glance what stories have performed well. This keeps them engaged and encourages them to post content more likely to perform well.
  • Analysis of performances--everyone can access their statistics, encouraging them to improve their reach and dwell time of their stories and better understand what has done well.
  • Overview across time--it is easy to compare how you have performed over set periods (e.g., month-on-month or week-on-week), making it easy to set targets for growth.

Cons

  • A more readily understandable visual guide to a visitor's pathway through your site would help understand what keeps a reader on-site.
  • The total page view number for the day should be more readily visible--on the overview page, not just by going to Posts>Historical.
  • Maintain the archive for longer than a year under all plans--it's a shame to lose year-on-year data quickly.
  • We have grown our online audience by about 200% in two years since we began using Parse.ly. Some of this would have happened regardless, but the additional monitoring has certainly helped.
  • We have been able to improve individual performances in terms of audience growth by offering greater insight into what our audience wants.
  • Online revenue has grown, at varying rates, across the titles as our website audience has grown.
Parse.ly is far more user-friendly than Google Analytics, which feels like a developer's tool by comparison. Parse.ly feels like it is designed for ease of access and use. While analyzing trends is more difficult in Google Analytics, it is straightforward in Parse.ly. Google Analytics has a free offer, depending on your site size, which is a major plus point in its favor. However, with greater scale, greater insight is required, and Parse.ly enables this for all users--not just those in your web development team. The ability to provide real-time and long-term data on audience performance, platform usage, and source (social media, search, direct), which is accessible for all users, makes it a better choice for larger sites.
Most functions in Parse.ly are readily understandable with virtually no training. You do not need to be a web developer to use it--it simply enables you to study performance and gives you a clear overview of what is trending on your site and how your daily performance compares to usual. The reports function is relatively straightforward to set up, with a bit of trial and error. The search bar makes it easy to check up on a particular story.
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.

Do you think Parse.ly delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Parse.ly's feature set?

Yes

Did Parse.ly live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Parse.ly go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Parse.ly again?

Yes

Ideal for news teams who want to keep track of the success of their online audience and understand what stories perform well, where their audience is coming from, how sticky their content is, and how they are performing compared to normal achievements. It may be more difficult for ad managers to understand how specific ads are performing--although this is not my area of expertise.

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