What do Analytics look like?
During one of the huddles at xChange, a good question came up. What does Analytics look like? Is it a report, a graph or even a conversation?
At first blush, this seams like a simple question. It looks like Omniture or Google Analytics, right? Or does it look like Webtrends / Visual Sciences? Wait a minute, I hired a web analyst and he gives me a report weekly with text on it. Sometimes we even have a conversation about analytics.
During xChange, analytics looked a lot like conversations to me. We all sat around tables and talked a lot about it. The problem is, there is no answer for this. I know what accounting looks like. I know what my doctor’s office looks like. I know what most other professions look like but there doesn’t seam to be a standard way to communicate analytics.
Just printing out a dashboard or special report doesn’t seem to cut it for me. Neither does a dry report. When I used to receive weekly reports from our web analyst, I used to insist that he sit with me and go over the report. I wanted to hear a story about our traffic. I wanted to speculate as to reasons why things were up or down.
Data itself is not very interesting. I think Analytics must tell a story. It must tell us something we didn’t know before we started. I want to know how analytics can help our user experience or how it can help us avoid problems. Those are the stories that interest me.
What does analytics look like at your organization?
Web Analytics Links - One Six | Webanalyticsbook - Web Analytics added the following ...
[…] What Analytics Look Like - Paul Holstein explainsWho gets credit for a conversion? Jim Carr about their new Sitebrand product, which I have to have a look at (in order to add it to the guide) […]
Dave added the following ...
There is so much time that can be spent examining the data, but the problem is that when you seem to point out a weakness, it sometimes gets put in the too hard basket.
example
Site bounce rates are high, seo campaign results in less numbers and slightly lower bounce rate.
reason
80-90% of visitors to the site are for a popular tv show, similar product name, even though now 10-15% are related to the product, the 80-90% tv show visitors are skewing the numbers.
result
client thinks you should build a new website around a new .com
Boaz Ronkin added the following ...
Analytics looks like a martini glass; i.e., a conversion funnel. And if it doesn’t, then the company/entity in question is probably not maximizing the ROI of its marketing programs. Analytics should have a goal in mind: changing behavior — be it buying, registering, downloading or even simply viewing. Often, the company does not know precisely what goals its marketing programs should try to accomplish. Engaging the data to see how well we’re doing can also suggest what to do.
Alex B added the following ...
There is no standard though the analysts at the organization I work for have been working to somewhat standardize our reports for the sake of who reads them. In almost every case though, it is Excel with a summary page (including chart/text), as well as a fair amount of tabs on the granular data for those so inclined to delve into it.
You’re absolutely right though that the data needs to be discussed– both because as an analyst you know more about certain things than the individual you’re speaking to, and vice-versa. I’ve often found that certain things that were puzzling to me are often made entirely clear when talking to an individual closer to the product/goal of a website than I am and, during conversation we uncover a bunch of insights that, alone, I don’t think either of us could have come to.