Data analysis is all the rage in the digital space. The size and scope of data is so immense that different fields and technology for data analysis have emerged, and both are constantly evolving to suit the needs of online marketers, web analysts, and data scientists.
Web analytics was once confined to Google Analytics, and online marketers were satisfied using it to measure KPIs and conduct monthly reports on website visitors, track sessions, and count conversions.
But now things have gotten more complex, and web analytics has transformed into “digital intelligence” — a term that includes collecting, enriching and storing data, and then joining it seamlessly with different internal and external datasets to reveal powerful insights.
Businesses that wish to remain competitive in the online space will have to employ digital intelligence to find quick answers to complex business questions.
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Web analytics vs. advanced analytics
Since the demand for this type of complex analysis has increased, the web analytics space has responded by becoming more complex and varied in the solutions it presents to online marketers. There are now a host of solutions available: mobile analytics, app analytics, social analytics, and not to mention in-page analytics and predictive analytics. But let’s not forget that once a marketer has chosen to implement any of these analytics, they need to hook it up to their web analytics.
Even after combining several different web analytics solutions, however, businesses may find that traditional web analytics, such as conversion funnels, don’t provide insights beyond the steps of the shopper and the number of shoppers who dropped off at each point. Deeper insights, such as the revenue impact of offering registration to the site before and after visitors browse the latest product line, are not taken into account. Advanced behavioral analytics that collects event data from different sources can inform businesses that visitors who receive product recommendations after registering to the site are more likely to purchase more products and have a higher LTV on average.
Gaming platforms, for instance, might use advanced analytics to discover that first-time players who win their first level have a very high rate of FTDs. As a response to this insight, a gaming company might optimize their platform to ensure that all first-time players win their first game level, and immediately afterwards deliver them a campaign prompting them to make an FTD.
An advanced behavioral analytics platform, compared with simple web analytics, can integrate a business’s different moving data parts, such as a data warehouse, BI processing and visualization, to discover deep insights into user behavior.
But that doesn’t mean the traditional analytics solution should be thrown out and replaced entirely with an advanced analytics solution. Many times, it’s not a question of which solution a business needs, but which combination of web analytics and advanced analytics will give them the insights they need to stay competitive in their industry.
Embrace the change with education
In response to this rapidly evolving space, the analytics community needs to be as prepared as possible. The change affects BI analytics managers and data scientists at the highest management levels. As a result, they need to educate themselves about the latest developments and solutions available to them.
This community Web Analytics and BI wiki embraces the evolution in the analytics and BI space and aims to educate the relevant parties involved. The wiki includes over 60 topics and over 100,000 useful resources from experts around the world. By collecting all the relevant information from leading publications and experts in the field of web analytics and BI, online marketers, web analysts and data scientists can all be constantly updated on the latest changes in the field.
Knowledge is power
It’s not clear what future holds for the role of the online marketer, web analyst and data scientist. Some experts feel everything is moving more towards data science, while others believe web analysts will remain web analysts and online marketers will need to embrace data analysis and become more technology-oriented. Whatever occurs in the future, the best tool anyone in the field of analytics can have, regardless of title or level of expertise, is knowledge of the emerging trends and changes. This will assist business and decision-makers when selecting an analytics solution for their product and goals.