December 6th, 2005

Conversion tracking, web analytics, or bust.

This past March, Google acquired the top-tier web analytics company Urchin. Then, just two weeks ago they announced that they were going to re-brand and offer this service for free as “Google Analytics”. What Google didn’t do was prepare for the amount of interest this free service would get, eventually forcing them to temporarily stop accepting new users as they increased their capacity.

So why is this important? Because it shows how many people are interested in website tracking… if the price is right. We have been researching tracking tools for a while now, trying to replace our own tool with something more robust. We know that finding the right tool for your needs and your price range can be a lot of work. So here are some important tips you should consider when looking at tracking tools:

Web analytics vs. conversion tracking – What’s the difference? Conversion tracking tools have one specific goal in mind – tracking your marketing campaigns from click to conversion. Web analytics tools offer a lot more information about how visitors are using your site, and in most cases include a specific report on conversion tracking. This extra info may be helpful to some (or confusing to others), but usually comes at an extra cost.

Pricing – This is an obvious one, but each service has a different pricing model. Besides the base price, typical charges are usually based on either number of page views, or number of visitors (regardless of how many pages they view). This can add up quickly, so be sure to get a good estimate of your actual monthly costs before signing up.

1st or 3rd party cookies? – Almost all website tracking tools use “cookies” to track visitors on your site. 1st party cookies are issued by your own domain (www.yoursite.com), and 3rd party cookies are issued by the tracking company’s domain (www.webtrackingcompany.com). In general, tracking tools that use 1st party cookies are considered more accurate because more web browsers are set to block 3rd party cookies. Most of the top-tier web analytics services now use 1st party cookie tracking.

What can you track? – There are a number of variables that may be important for you to track your marketing campaigns. Knowing the number of sales, value of each sale, product IDs for the sold items, number of newsletter signups, ROI, etc. all could be helpful in determining which campaigns did the best. Make sure the tool has the capabilities you need.

These are just some of the factors to consider, and really depends on what you need. For starters, here are some of the top services to check out:

Web Analytics Tools – all of these use first party cookies and have full conversion tracking reports (only in the “pro” versions for ClickTracks and WebTrends).

Google Analytics – signup to get notice when they allow new signups for this free service.
WebTrends
ClickTracks

Conversion Tracking Tools – In a lower price range, and likely less accurate, but these tools will give you a good idea of how your marketing campaigns are doing.

Conversion Analyst
KeywordMax

MarketingSherpa also has a more complete, yet slightly outdated, “Buyer’s Guide to Web Analytics” for sale here. And let us know if you find something out there that really works for you, we’d love to hear about it!