W3 How to read your audience? (Adobe or Google Analytics)

“Web analytics is a process of analyzing how visitors on your site behave.” Bigby (2018) There are numerous tools to learn about audience analytics and how to improve them. It is important for businesses to base decisions on Web analytics because they can determine success of all outreach to best improve relationships with their audience. The lesson touched on the purpose of Google Analytics, “A solid knowledge of these concepts will help you understand how to segment traffic using Google Analytics reports as well as how to analyze visitors’ behavior against business goals, even if their behavior doesn't generate a page view (for example, viewing a flash file).” For small businesses, web analytics are a strategic way to find out who the target audience is based on the interactions with the content posted. 

The reason brands turn to an analytics tool like Google Analytics is because companies want a lot of data and have the time and the ability or team to act on it (Frost, 2020). Although Google Analytics holds the majority of users to track metrics, there are still some competitors. In order to receive the full capabilities Google Analytics has to offer, researchers must determine what information they are looking for. Sometimes that can lead to using a different metric tool depending on the components of the research. The alternative web analytic tool I chose for this post is Adobe Analytics. I have used Adobe for years to build my creative skills to design, however I never focused on the analytical attributes Adobe offers as well. 

Hubspot defined Google Analytics as the tool “that gives you an extremely in-depth look at your website and/or app performance.” It is a free service that integrates with all other Google apps making it a universal popular choice to track metrics. It requires setup and maintenance throughout tracking periods. “It should be noted that the functionality of attribution is in a beta with Google Analytics 360 at this point, so a great deal about what we know and how attribution is executed may change over the next 12 months.” (Tietbohl 2020) This is a good example of the types of numbers companies will see year to year, however it will always be up to change. The analytics may fluctuate depending on the success or failure over time. 

Adobe Analytics has some familiar aspects that can be found with Google Analytics, however they have different qualities to tracking the behavior of audiences. Adobe Analytics focuses on tracking the first entry page to a website, how did the consumer find the website? When were they visiting the website? Google Analytics focuses on the amount of time a consumer spends on the website. How long was their session? What page did they end up “landing” on? These are example questions that highlight the difference between the two metric tools. The tools both offer insightful reflections that can greatly improve the success of a website. However, researchers tend to have a preference for one depending on the information they are trying to gather. 

Another difference between Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics is data sampling. Data sampling is defined as the “practice of analyzing a subset of all data in order to uncover the meaningful information in the larger data set.” (Google Analytics 2020) It is more difficult to have custom reports due to the need for a larger data set. Adobe Analytics does not need to sample data to create a custom report. Adobe has offered their consumers a flexible way to track metrics for a variety of businesses. “It allows users to capture unlimited touchpoints for more complete customer journey analysis.” (Contreras 2015) 

Tracking analytics can help increase the number of ways consumers can be aware of a company. Hubspot stated, “Either you need to create new content that gives users the information they’re looking for, and/or you need to better surface existing content so it’s easier to find.”  The research of analytics displays the numbers to understand what is working for the company with the extent of online traffic. 

When I first began using Google Analytics, I was early in my sophomore year in undergrad. I was required to track the main WVU website for traffic and views as practice for my major. At the time, I was confused on what to look for or even how to read analytics. Now being in the IMC program, I have been able to sit with my own website asking friends and family to visit it and track analytics. I have enjoyed seeing how the numbers have changed weekly from the increase in sessions with my website. 

Google Analytics is backed by the largest search engine in the world, Google . It is difficult to believe that Google actually experiences competition. Although Google and Adobe Analytics contain different components to track web metrics, which tool is found to be more useful to a consumer? Adobe 2020 states, “Adobe Analytics allows you to spend more time on implementing new and improved strategies rather than trying to figure out what those strategies should be.” This feature can offer a more insightful report as opposed to Google analytics. Google Analytics in this case does not offer the same flexibility for their consumer’s websites.  

In my professional opinion, I believe that Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics can support each other in determining the success of a consumer’s website strategy and new strategies that could be implemented based on the behavior of the website’s audience. Both web metric tools offer a different perspective of a target audience and consumers will decide which preference they need to improve their analytics. As a future IMC specialist, the analytical tools will vary on the type of market the website is linked with. For example, the type of information a researcher could be looking for is qualitative data instead of quantitative. It will rest on the type of research being conducted. The tools both offer ways to learn behaviors and action on a website by consumers. Using either of these web analytics can determine success of outreach to best improve cohesiveness with an audience. 

Works Cited 

Analytics Help. About data sampling. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2637192?hl=en

Bigby, G. (2018, January 25). 35 Amazing Web Analytics Tools that Rival Google Analytics. Retrieved October 26, 2020, from https://dynomapper.com/blog/21-sitemaps-and-seo/436-35-amazing-web-analytics-tools-that-rival-google-analytics

Contreras, G., Rigby, S. (May 2015). Adobe Analytics: Operational Readiness Playbook. Source: Web. https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/au/marketing-cloud/playbook/Adobe-Analytics.pdf

Frost, A. (2020, July 24). The Ultimate Guide to Google Analytics in 2020. HubSpot. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-analytics

Rutter, K. (2017, June). A Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Analytics. Seer Interactive; Seer Interactive. https://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-adobe-analytics/

Tietbohl, M. (2020). Lesson 3. Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=150868_1&content_id=_7384399_1&frameset/Wrapped=true