Web analytics – why should you invest in it?

Have you ever wondered if the actions you take to promote your business online make sense? How many people bought your product after seeing an ad on Google? How many people used your services after they found you on Google? These and many other questions are answered by a web analyst – this post is devoted to its basics.

Analytics is needed by everyone who benefits from being online. Most companies are aware of the power of the internet and invest money and time into setting up web analytics. It is worth knowing the effect of your own advertising activities, at least investing where the return on these investments is greatest. Web analytics is needed by everyone who makes money on the Internet!

Types of companies that need web analytics

Service companies

Let’s say we have a local appliance repair company with a monthly net advertising budget of $6,000. In the first month, we spend half on Google Ads and the other half on targeted ads. At the end of the month, it turns out that we received 23 calls from potential customers from contextual advertising, and targeted advertising gave us only 5 calls. When planning ad spending for the next month, we have an important piece of information – Google Ads has given us more customers for the same amount spent on promotion, so maybe it’s worth investing more in Google ads this month?

E-commerce

Analytics tools should be used in the field of e-commerce, knowing the behavior of users, problems and errors of a given online store, we can improve its sales without additional costs for acquiring traffic. Another example is an electronics store that is visited by a few hundred people a day but only a very small percentage of that number buys. An analysis of the purchase process shows that the majority of users refuse to purchase at the stage of filling in the data for sending. Changing the way they are filled out to be more intuitive doubles the store’s sales.

Blogs and Portals

Blogs, web portals and all kinds of content publishers also basically need analytics to work better. These types of websites make money by advertising or recommending products and services. Analytics can help make your ads more effective, which will directly impact your bottom line. Through user analysis, you can also change the page to make it more user-friendly and readable for them, or look for new topics to post.

The road to shopping is difficult

Until recently, the concept of the user journey was fairly simple. Marketing activities initially consisted in creating awareness of the future consumer and winning his interest. In the next stages, potential buyers were attracted and encouraged to purchase our product in order to keep the client in the last stage as long as possible. Nowadays, customers have more control over their buying processes because they can start the buying process at any point along the way. The task of today’s marketer is to predict where the customer will appear and show him the appropriate message – the way he expects. Knowledge of these states can be obtained by analyzing the behavior of potential customers moving through all marketing channels.

Quantitative and qualitative data

Quantitative and qualitative data provide additional insight into who a company’s potential customer is and how they behave. It is very important that these data types complement each other. An example is a situation with unsatisfactory sales in a store – quantitative data can localize the problem (for example, an order form), and qualitative data can reveal the cause of this problem (questionnaire about the complexity of filling out the form).

Quantitative data

Quantitative data is the number of recipients, geographic location, the effectiveness of marketing activities (number of conversions) and activity on the site, illustrating the behavior of users within it. Until recently, it was possible to measure online behavior only on websites, but modern technologies allow you to install analytics almost everywhere, for example, in mobile applications, stationary cash registers or household appliances/electronics. Comprehensive behavior measurement gives a better understanding of the user at many points of contact with the company.

Qualitative data

Qualitative data allows you to check what caused the behavior of a given user in a given situation. The most striking example of qualitative data are surveys. While quantitative data will only check the number of people who have abandoned their carts, conducting a survey can tell us why they are abandoning their carts (which was troubling, which is wrong). Website usage questions are important because they help increase conversions, and no amount of quantitative measurement will answer these questions.

Focus on business impact

Measuring results is one of the most important steps in web analytics, but before we get started, we need to know what to measure. A very important element of the whole process is setting business goals and determining how to measure this goal, the measurement strategy should be clear and understandable – the same for everyone in the company.

There are five general goals in online business. In the case of e-commerce sites, the obvious purpose is to sell goods or services (transactions). On customer acquisition sites (for example, companies that provide services), the goal is to collect information about users for the purposes of sellers so that they can contact them (contact information, completed forms, etc.). In the case of content publishers (blogs, portals), the goal is to encourage users to participate and visit the resource frequently (eg to display ads). When it comes to information or support sites, the most important thing is to help users quickly find the data they need. When promoting a brand, the main goal is to increase awareness, engagement and user loyalty.

Web analytics with Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that gives you access to a wide range of data about your customers. Web analytics is a powerful weapon in the hands of any online marketer. It is thanks to her that a real digital revolution is taking place in the world of sales. Because you know what your customers want, where they come from and what interests them. A professional analysis of your sites will show, among other things, what content attracts the attention of buyers, indicate where customers find you (for example, from social networks or search engines), and allow you to determine the conversion rate. Using this knowledge, you will better tailor your site to the needs of buyers and win. Thanks to the possibilities offered by analytics, this will be easier. With reliable concrete data, you will know what your customers expect and what goals you need to set for yourself, both marketing and financial. Knowing how your target group behaves, who are the users of your website and how they navigate it, you can significantly improve your financial results. This is an investment that will pay off quickly.

Summary

Web analytics is a very broad term that describes a set of activities and processes aimed at obtaining business-critical data. Appropriate implementation of analytical tools and the correct interpretation of data can improve the company’s online and offline operations.