Kissmetrics vs Google Analytics
Google Analytics has been setting the standard for analytics platforms since its launch on November 14th, 2005. It tracks website data which gives users the needed insights to improve their pages and optimize their conversion rates. Google Analytics soon grew into the most used analytics tool in the world, commanding an impressive 85% market share. (1) People have noted this success and since developed their own analytical software to rival it. Companies like Kissmetrics, founded in 2008, have provided users with viable alternative tracking tools. There are many reasons why you should switch to a google analytics alternative. But let’s take a closer look at both Kissmetrics and Google Analytics and help you figure out which platform would suit your needs. The similarities between Kissmetrics and Google Analytics Google Analytics helps users identify behavioral patterns of website visitors, telling you where they’re from, how long they stayed on a page, and what action was completed on a page if any before they clicked away. This conversion tracking helps users of GA adapt their pages to optimize results. Google Analytics tracks all the important metrics that users need to know about and offers a great summary of these in the form of a table, chart, and graph. Users are able to set up custom reports that are tailored to their goals and needs. Kissmetrics also helps companies understand customer behavior. They offer detailed customer delivery reports which help you track daily, weekly, and monthly users. It also allows you to see the most popular pages on your site, so you know where the most interest is. At first glance it might seem like both analytics tools do the same thing, right? Well, there are a few significant differences. Have a look at these: Differences between Kissmetrics and Google Analytics The kind of Data they track Google Analytics tracks anonymous data, meaning that they base their results on a large sample of visitors. So Google Analytics tells you about the overall traffic performance of a site and the top trends on a webpage. They make use of software called Google Tag Manager to track visitor interactions. The Tag Manager then allows you to set up certain event tracking, which when triggered will be counted in their report. Kissmetrics connects all their data to a specific person. This means that their reports are more personalized and focused on specific users. As can be seen in the screenshot below, this reporting tool allows you to hone in on individual visitors and track their interactions with your app or website. Credit: Kissmetrics.com Data Accuracy Because Google Analytics makes use of anonymous tracking, they assume that each visit is a new person. This leads to inaccurate conversion rates. Kissmetrics knows when a single user accesses your website from different devices or browsers. Because it ties all this data together, conversion reports are more accurate. Customer Journey What is a customer journey? It’s the path of interactions an individual has with your product or services, from the moment they land on your first page, until after they’ve made a purchase or acted in a desired way, until the moment they leave your page. Google Analytics tracks sessions, not visitors, so you can’t build up customer journeys. GA helps a person understand what’s happening on their website before a purchase happens, but leaves many questions about the entire experience of individual users. Kissmetrics tracks the entire customer journey and shows you the drop-offs right throughout. This means that vendors know at which stage their potential customers have opted out of a purchase, including the time after they’ve added an item to the e-Commerce checkout cart. Marketing Funnels What is a funnel? A funnel is a series of steps or events that a user takes that lead to a conversion. It’s important to set up custom funnel reporting as it will help you visualize the steps that customers take to ultimately complete a task on your website. Knowing this helps you improve your site and reduce inefficient or abandoned customer journeys. Credit: GA4Bigquery.com In your funnel reports, Google Analytics will show you important metrics such as Visitors, Bounce Rate, Time on site, and Exits. As seen in the image above, these metrics are tied to sessions, not individual visitors. As mentioned, Kissmetrics ties data to individual people, so their funnel report will give you data on one user source. This allows you to increase conversion rates over time. Support No matter how many white pages you study or how many tutorials you watch, sooner or later everyone needs a real human that can help resolve issues and give needed advice on the day-to-day use of the analytics tool. Even though Google Analytics has always offered support in the form of e-mail platforms and online Q&A they do not offer live support to those who use the free version. Kissmetrics offers live support with setting up their platform and also live communication with a real person (not a bot) when you need their help. E-commerce data tracking Google Analytics has long since been an attractive tool for small and medium e-commerce businesses. It offers some of the most important reports any vendor would need insight into, namely Enhanced Commerce Reports These consist of Campaign views, Campaign clicks, Product views, Product clicks, Product detail page views, Shopping cart additions, Shopping cart changes, Shopping cart abandonment, Coupon code activity, Purchase activity, Refund requests Average order value (AOV), and other metrics. Goal Flow Reports Helps businesses identify ‘stuck’ points for customers and leverage these points to better their return on investment. Users Flow Reports Helps you understand how visitors to your website are navigating their way through your web pages. By comparing the desired path to the actual paths, e-commerce managers can make user experience adjustments to better serve their prospective customers. Channel