MARKETING

The straight-up answer Yes, Google Analytics is rather hard to learn. It’s not the type of platform you just sign up for and instinctively know how to use. ‍ The difficulty will depend on ‍ Previous experience How familiar you are with SEO strategies Which method you choose to learn ‍ Let’s take a closer look. Factors influencing how difficult it will be to learn GA: Previous Experience ‍ Do you have prior experience in traditional marketing? Do you spend your free time watching the latest keyword research videos on YouTube? ‍ Have you designed websites for friends and family as a hobby? ‍ All these interests and skills will make it easier for you to understand Google Analytics jargon and concepts. The better your foundation, the easier it will be to build on. Source: Pexels ‍ Knowledge of Digital Marketing and SEO ‍ General knowledge of SEO strategies will give you a running start in learning Google Analytics. It’s one thing to know how a program works, but quite another to understand how to use that data to make better decisions. ‍ You’ll also be more familiar with GA terms like metrics, KPIs, and Funnel conversions. All this means less time Googling terms and more time learning the tricks of the trade. Which method you choose to learn ‍ Can you learn Google Analytics on your own? ‍ If there’s one takeaway from this article, it’s this: DON’T! ‍ Trying to learn GA by simply watching a few YouTube videos and reading blog articles will take weeks. ‍ Don’t get me wrong, there are MANY quality articles and videos out there and you should absolutely take advantage of them to supplement your learning. ‍ But the best way to learn is to sign up for an actual Google Analytics course. This way, you know it will take X hours and can plan accordingly. Best Google Analytics training Google Analytics Academy: Google Analytics for Beginners ‍ Google designed this course for absolute beginners. It is best for startups, blogs and small business owners who are not ready to hire a digital marketer. ‍ Course duration: 4 – 6 hours ‍ Cost: Free ‍ Google Analytics for beginners includes all the analytics essentials: ‍ How to set up Google Analytics, as well as views and filters Understanding and sharing reports Basic reports: Audience, Acquisition & Behaviour Basic campaign and conversion tracking ‍ And once you’re done learning the basics, you can move on to the Advanced Google Analytics course.  To supplement your learning, there’s also the Google Analytics YouTube channel. ‍ Source: Pexels‍ Reliablesoft Academy: Google Analytics Course ‍ As part of the Digital Marketing course bundle, this course is ideal for beginners and those with prior knowledge of GA. ‍ If you want to learn how the platform works and get a well-rounded knowledge of SEO, this is the course for you. Recommended for small business owners and aspiring digital marketers. ‍ Course duration: 8 hours ‍ Cost: $119 ‍ Reliablesoft’s course includes: ‍ How to use Google Analytics for SEO purposes Advanced analytics, including creating goals and sales funnels Google Analytics 4 basics Google Analytics reports ‍ CXL: Google Analytics Intermediate ‍ This course is designed for those with a good foundation in Google Analytics. It can be described as a masterclass that helps you level up your GA skills. ‍ Course duration: 6 hours ‍ Cost: 7 day free trial, then +/- $140/month ‍ Google Analytics Intermediate includes: ‍ How to measure the customer journey funnel step-by-step How to create custom reports How to minimize spam in your data How to customize your marketing channels Can I get a Google Analytics certification? ‍ Yes – To do so, you’ll need to pass the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (QAIQ) exam. The exam should take approximately 1 hour to complete, and it’s recommended you first complete both the beginner and advanced GA academy courses before you do so. ‍ Note there are now 2 certifications – Universal and GA4. Should I learn Univeral GA or GA4? Google has announced that starting July 2023, they will no longer process data in UA. ‍ Although many principles and terms will remain the same, there are also considerable differences between the two platforms. ‍ So if you choose to learn how to use UA first, make sure to supplement your learning with content focused on GA4 as well. What makes learning Google Analytics a challenge? Source: Pexels‍ ‍ Google Analytics gathers an enormous quantity of information and compiles reports for just about anything you can imagine. ‍ Even if you want only basic data, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the information provided. The program also uses a lot of technical jargon, familiar only to those in the industry. ‍ This complexity means there is a steep learning curve. And the more complex the data you need, the more difficult it becomes to learn. Is Google Analytics worth learning? It depends.  ‍ If you want a career as a digital marketer, you’ll have very little choice but to learn how the world’s most popular analytics platform works. ‍ And knowing your way around GA will give you a very valuable skill that could land you some pretty cool jobs. In fact, the demand for people with web analytics skills will only increase going forward. ‍ On the other hand, if you are self-employed or a personal blog writer, it may not be worth the trouble. Also, as a small business owner, you probably won’t have much time to learn how an analytics tool works. Your focus will be on developing your product or service, hiring new staff or choosing the perfect office space for your company. ‍ Even though Google Analytics might be free, it doesn’t mean it’s the best option. There are other alternatives that deliver data reports for just a small monthly fee – minus the steep learning curve. ‍ So instead of spending hours wrapping your head around

In January 2022, the Austrian Data Protection Authority ruled that Austrian websites that use Google Analytics are breaching the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This recent ruling has its roots in a ruling known as Schrems II, which was made by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in 2020. The CJEU stated that US cloud service providers are not capable of complying with EU privacy laws, including GDPR. This non-compliance is inevitable due to US surveillance laws, which require US cloud service providers to hand over users’ personal data to the US authorities. Despite tech companies warning that this ruling would have severe consequences for companies and users on both sides of the Atlantic, many companies in both the US and the EU simply ignored the 2020 case. However, one Austrian business has now ended up in court as a result of ignoring the regulations. The company could be facing a fine of up to 20 million euros, as well as reputation damage. ‍ What Happened in the Austrian Case? The European Center for Digital Rights brought the case against the Austrian company. They found that IP addresses, which GDPR classes as personal data, were transmitted in cookie data to the US, in breach of the regulations. This illegal data transmission occurred as a result of the company using Google Analytics to monitor traffic to its site. The Austrian Data Protection Authority took the bold step of ruling that Austrian websites that use Google Analytics are breaching GDPR. According to Max Schrems, who is honorary chair of the European Center for Digital Rights, similar decisions could now occur in most EU member states. The organization has filed already filed over 100 complaints in almost all EU countries. ‍ What Does This Mean for EU Website Providers? Many website providers use Google Analytics to gain insight into how visitors find, navigate, and interact with their websites. However, for website owners in Austria — and perhaps soon in all other EU countries — continuing to use Google Analytics no longer remains a legal option. Any business currently using Google Analytics should remove it from their website immediately to avoid violating GDPR, which could lead to a significant fine and loss of reputation. ‍ Are There Legal Alternatives to Google Analytics? The good news for EU website providers is that there is no need to give up using analytics technology altogether. Analyzing website traffic is an essential part of understanding how visitors use your website and working out how you can improve your site to serve them more effectively. Thankfully, there are plenty of alternatives to Google Analytics that do not use cookies and are compliant with privacy regulations in the EU. Abralytics is a cookie-free and privacy-focused website analytics service. In addition to respecting the privacy of website visitors, Abralytics also focuses on delivering information to website providers that is jargon-free, easy to understand, and immediately actionable. It can even provide insights in as little as 20% of the time that Google Analytics takes. Abralytics works with all major website building platforms, such as WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or Shopify. Most EU website providers who are currently risking breaking the law by using Google Analytics could quickly and easily switch over to Abralytics to keep their visitors’ data — and their own reputations — safe. Another alternative to Google Analytics is Plausible.io. This open-source web analytics software is lightweight, cookie-free, and fully compliant with GDPR. Plausible.io was created in the EU and is still hosted there, which means that it is a great choice for businesses that are keen to ensure compliance with all EU legislation. One advantage of using a cookie-free alternative to Google Analytics is that there is no need to obtain GDPR consent from website users. That means no annoying cookie banners — just a website working in the way it was designed to give a great experience to all visitors. ‍ Do EU Businesses Need to Act Now? As of January 2022, only Austria has ruled that Google Analytics is illegal — but similar rulings are expected to follow in most if not all other EU member states. Website providers in all EU countries must take action now to avoid fines and reputation damage. It is time for websites across Europe to ditch Google Analytics in favor of a privacy-friendly web analytics alternative. Sign up for a 30-day free trial of Abralytics today and protect your business.

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

Your choice of analytics solution plays a crucial role in how you collect, measure, and analyze website data to achieve your business goals. ‍ So, you must choose a website analytics platform that offers: ‍ a cost-effective model relative to your business size, an easy-to-use interface, fast loading of analytics data, mutual integration with relevant marketing tools, and total control of your website data. ‍ Keep reading if you’re looking for good analytics tools and want a detailed Matomo vs. Fathom comparison to help you narrow down your decision. ‍ This article discusses the key differences between these analytics tools – their main advantages, pros and cons and the best tool for different audience types. ‍ What Is Matomo? Source: Matomo Home Page‍ ‍ Matomo Analytics (formerly Piwik) is an open-source web analytics tool based on PHP MySQL software that provides detailed reports on your website and its users. The report tells you who your users are, how they interact with your content, what marketing channel they came from, and how they convert …or bounce off your website. ‍ So you can see what works and what does not on your marketing funnel for better conversion. ‍ Matomo gives you total control of your website data. No third party can access your website data without your authorization. ‍ What Is Fathom? ‍ Source: Fathom Home Page‍ ‍ Fathom Analytics is a simple, open-source web analytics platform that helps you track, analyze, and report your website data while placing a premium on data privacy. ‍ So, unlike Google Analytics, Fathom does not collect personal data of your website visitors. ‍ And it does not use cookies, so you won’t have to bother about the ugly cookies notification bar on your website anymore. ‍ Fathom is an easy-to-use analytics tool for website owners at any technical level. It has a dashboard that allows you to monitor: ‍ number of website visitors site pageviews bounce rate average time on site goals completion ‍ The Core Similarities Between Matomo And Fathom ‍ Matomo and Fathom have some fundamental aspects in common. Let’s look at these features before we dive into their core differences. Open Web Analytics ‍ Matomo and Fathom encourage user feedback and suggestions. ‍ For example, you can look at the Fathom development’s public roadmap and add (or vote on) your preferred feature recommendations. Open Source Analytics Tools ‍ Both Matomo and Fathom are open-source analytics tools – the analytics tracker codes of both are available on GitHub for you to view and inspect. ‍ Open-source tools ensure transparency and openness. You can read and review their tracker codes and learn how they keep your data private and secure. 100% Ownership Of Your Website Data ‍ Both Matomo and Fathom Analytics are privacy-friendly analytics solutions. ‍ But what does this mean? ‍ Your analytics and website data are all yours. Unlike Google Analytics which collects personal data of your website visitors for ad purposes, Matomo and Fathom Analytics give you total control over your website data. ‍ So you need not worry about unauthorized access or use of your website data. The Core Differences Between Matomo And Fathom  ‍ Besides their user interface and other features, the core differences between Matomo and Fathom are the differences in their pricing plans, hosting, integration with other tools, loading speed and use of cookies, and trackable metrics. Pricing Plans ‍ Matomo has two models, namely Matomo Cloud and Matomo On Premise: ‍ Matomo On Premise: This version of Matomo is FREE. To get started, you need to host it on your server. However,  you can purchase specific bundles for better analytics. ‍ These bundles include SEO web vitals (starting at $86.67/year), multi-channel conversion attribution (starting at $86.67/year), Roll-Up reporting (starting at $218.33/year), etc. ‍ Matomo Cloud: This version of Matomo is cloud-hosted and comes at a price that varies with your website’s traffic and use. The price ranges from $0(21 Day free trial) to $15,250 annually. ‍ Fathom has two versions, namely Fathom Analytics (main software) and Fathom Lite. ‍ Fathom Analytics: Cloud-hosted, uses no cookies, offers additional metrics, and comes at a price. The price starts at $14/month; for business is $24/month; for enterprise is $34/month. ‍ Fathom Lite: FREE, but it has limited features. ‍ Overall, when it comes to pricing, Fathom is the better choice because it offers about the same features as Matomo at a cheaper cost. Integration With A WordPress Plugin ‍ Because they are both cloud analytics tools, Matomo and Fathom Analytics have similar WordPress integration processes. ‍ To set up Matomo for WordPress, download the WP-Matomo plugin from your WP admin dashboard. The WordPress-Matomo integration uses Matomo API to provide you with metrics about your website visitors and how they interact with your website. ‍ On the other hand, to set up Fathom for WordPress, download the WP- Matomo Analytics plugin from your WP dashboard. Alternatively, copy your Fathom Pro tracking code and paste it into your footer theme file. Trackable Metrics ‍ Source: Fathom Dashboard ‍ ‍ Fathom Analytics allows you to add unlimited users, goals, segments, and 50 websites. But you can only track 6 metrics. ‍ With Matomo Cloud, you can only add 30 users, 200+ metrics, track 150 goals, 100 segments, 30 websites, and 30 custom dimensions. ‍ So, you can track more metrics on Matomo than on Fathom Analytics. In addition, both Matomo and Fathom Analytics offer server log analytics and intranet analytics. You can access your intranet analytics and see the unique website visitor data of people in your intranet network at a glance. Overall, if you want an analytics solution that tracks more than the basic metrics between the two options, then you should opt for Matomo. Use Of Cookies ‍ Matomo uses first-party cookies to track your intranet website visitors with similar system configurations, such as IP addresses, computers, etc. ‍ Conversely, Fathom Analytics does not use any cookies at all. According to Fathom, their software “intelligently tracks information about

So you’re looking for a web analytics tool that will fit your business size and give you raw data on the behaviour of your site visitors so that you can zero in and optimize for better conversion? You might have been advised to choose a web analytics tool: That is price-friendly to the size of your business. That has advanced analytics features. That allows mutual integration with a ton of marketing tools. That gives you 100% data ownership. Now, if you’ve searched for good analytics tools and you’re looking for a well-detailed Matomo vs Google Analytics comparison before you make your final decision, then read on. In this article, we’ve covered the core differences between these analytics tools; their key advantages, pros and cons, FAQs, and the best tool for different audience types. So, let’s get started by first understanding these basic questions; what are Matomo and Google Analytics? What Is Matomo Analytics (Formerly Piwik Analytics)? ‍ Source: Matomo Dashboard ‍ Matomo Analytics (formerly called Piwik) is open-source software that is used for real-time user information, and event tracking on your website to discover; who your visitors are, what marketing channel they come from, the pages they navigate to, and how they convert… or drop off. With this, you will gain insight on what to adjust on your marketing funnel to drive the best conversion. More importantly, Matomo gives you 100% ownership of your data. This simply means that you’re not sharing your analytics data with any third-party platform, unlike Google Analytics which uses data collected to serve Google ads to its advertising platform. ‍ What Is Google Analytics  ‍Source: Google Analytics Dashboard Quite similar to Matomo, Google Analytics is one of the most popular and widely-used analytics tools from Google that provides a wide range of useful data for a basic fee of $0. More importantly, with Google Analytics, you can: Discover the most visited pages on your website. See which devices your visitors are using. Find out where your visitors are coming from; channels and geographical locations. And generate many more custom reports. Despite sharing a similar analytical infrastructure with Matomo, there are core differences that digital marketers look out for before choosing any of these tools. Now let’s look at these differences and discover their core strengths for different audience types. ‍ The Core Differences Between Matomo And Google Analytics Aside from other features, the core differences between Google Analytics and Matomo are differences in their pricing models, hosting and trackable metrics. Matomo Paid Version Vs. Google Analytics Premium (Google Analytics 360) To get started, Google Analytics is totally FREE for basic users but has a paid version for advanced features like access to 1 Billion+ hits per month.   Source: Google Analytics Website ‍ The advantage of using Google Analytics over Matomo is that Google Analytics’ free version provides more than enough insight that any business type will need to scale its marketing efforts. The Key Differences Between Matomo On Premise And Matomo Cloud For Matomo, you can choose between the Matomo on Premise hosting which is free or you can opt for Matomo Cloud. Matomo On Premise Though Matomo On Premise is absolutely free, and all you need to get started is to install Matomo on your server, you can purchase specific bundles for better analytics. These bundles are SEO web vitals (from $86.67/year), multi-channel conversion attribution (from $86.67/year), Roll-Up reporting (from $218.33/year), etc.   Source: Matomo Website‍ Source: Matomo Website ‍ ‍Source: Matomo Website Matomo Cloud Matomo cloud has a pricing model that ranges from $0(21 Day free trial) to $15,250 according to TrustRadius. Also, the process of installing Matomo Cloud is similar to the process of installing Google Analytics because both are cloud hosted. ‍ Integration With A WordPress Plugin Both Matomo and Google Analytics have similar WordPress integration processes because they are both cloud analytics tools. Though, because of Google Analytics’ popularity, there are tons of WordPress plugins that can be used to host the tool on any WordPress site. One of the recommended WordPress plugins that integrate Google Analytics with any WordPress site without requiring any coding knowledge is MonsterInsight. You can click here to read WPBeginer’s detailed blog post on its installation. The WordPress-Matomo integration uses Matomo API to give you data on your sites’ visitors and their behaviour on your website. ‍ Differences In Their Tracking Features The two analytics tools have basic tracking features that track similar metrics like real-time users, user locations, device and operating system, best-performing landing pages, top exit pages, traffic sources and referrers, etc. Narrowing down to their basic tracking features, let’s look at their tracking limitations and the tool among the two that offers advanced tracking abilities. Number of Metrics That Can Be Tracked. If you opt for the basic Matomo Cloud, you’ll be able to add only 30 users, track 150 goals, 100 segments, 30 websites, and 30 custom dimensions. But with Google Analytics, you can add unlimited users, goals, segments, and custom dimensions all for free. This is one of the reasons why Google Analytics is one of the most preferred analytics tools for Digital Marketers. Matomo provides both server log analytics and intranet analytics. You can gain access to your intranet analytics and at a glance, you will see the unique website visitor data of people in your intranet network. While tracking visits on your intranet website, Matomo uses first-party cookies to track visits of people that have similar system configurations like IP addresses, Computers, etc. ‍ 100% Ownership Of Your Analytics Data If privacy is key in your business, then choose Matomo over Google Analytics because Matomo lets you own 100% of your data and not share it with any third party or advertising platform. On the other hand, Google Analytics serve ads to their users by using data collected from web visitors’ behaviour on sites like yours. If you’re guessing that Google Analytics is a freemium software because their alternative source of revenue is ads, then also

Today, there are many analytics tools, each sporting a list of impressive features. But it’s not always easy to figure out which of these your business really needs. So how do you choose the right tools for your business? The Abralytics team is here to help! ‍ We think life is complicated enough and finding the right tools to help you run a stellar website shouldn’t be. ‍ An analytics tool helps you “analyze” your website or mobile app. Some tools help you with more technical aspects like page loading speeds and site maps, others tell you more about your customers and how they engage with your site, and some even help you fill your page content with all the right words to rank well in search. ‍ Today, we’ll discuss two well-known and respected analytics tools, Matomo and Hotjar. What do these two platforms offer that makes them worthy of your consideration? ‍ Hotjar in a nutshell ‍ Hotjar is a UX tool focused on helping you create a great user experience on your website or mobile app. Its features fall into two main categories, namely, Observe and Ask.  ‍ Observe: Visualise what a visitor does on your website from the first to the last click. User behavior is observed using heatmaps and session recordings. We’ll delve deeper into these incredible features in a bit. ‍ Ask: How helpful would it be if you could talk directly to your online customers like we did in the past with a traditional store? Now you can with Hotjar’s Feedback and Survey tools. ‍ Hotjar is not a traditional website analytics tool like Google Analytics, which gathers data in the form of reports. If you find it challenging to turn reports into meaningful insights, Hotjar is perfect for you! No guesswork, just a clear customer journey right before your eyes. However, Hotjar does recommend running its platform alongside an analytics program to get the most comprehensive insights. ‍   ‍Source: Hotjar Matomo in a nutshell Matomo is both a UX and web analytics tool rolled into one. The clear advantage of Matomo over Hotjar is you can run both from a single place instead of using two different platforms. ‍ It has similar UX features to Hotjar, like heatmaps and session recordings, as well as a host of analytics tools. How does it compare to Google Analytics? See our blog section for an in-depth article, but here are a few key advantages of choosing Matomo over Google Analytics: ‍ With Matomo, you have 100% ownership of all data.  ‍ No data sampling or limitations ‍ The ability to import GA data. For now, it’s not possible to import data from Universal GA to the new GA4 platform. When you switch over, data will be collected from scratch, meaning you’ll lose all the historical data you’ve collected. Matomo allows you to import all your data from UA – that’s a big plus. ‍   Source: Matomo ‍ What about a little thing called data protection? ‍ If recording a user’s session or movements sounds a little suspicious to you in terms of data protection, have no fear. Both platforms are fully GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and CCPA compliant. ‍ With Matomo, you are given 100% ownership of data and a guarantee that it won’t be used for marketing or other purposes.  ‍ Both platforms collect data about a person’s interaction on your site and use it to create a visual representation of their journey. All of this is possible without tracking a personal IP address or needing to collect personal data. Heatmaps & Session Recordings Both Hotjar and Matomo offer heatmaps and session recording tools. ‍ Heatmaps help you see exactly where visitors click on a page, their movements, and how far they scrolled down. The more an area has been clicked on, it will gradually move from being highlighted in green to red. This is known as a “hotspot.” ‍ Both platforms give you these three options: Click; Move; Scroll; And both allow you to switch between desktop, tablet, or mobile heatmaps. ‍   Source: Hotjar‍ ‍ To the left is a scroll heatmap, and to the right, a click heatmap on the Hotjar platform. ‍ Session Recordings are videos of a visitor’s journey on your website. Like heatmaps, they also show you where users clicked, scrolled, or left your site. Benefits of heatmaps and session recordings ‍ It helps you see which areas of your site are popular and which are largely ignored. Are users seeing important content and using main links such as CTA’s? ‍ Clearly shows you at which point a user left your site. This can help you identify an element of your site that frustrates users or indicates which content needs a CTA or more engaging content. ‍ See how far a user scrolled down on a page. This can indicate which pages may be too long or don’t hold the user’s interest for long enough. ‍ Compare a site’s performance across devices: Desktop, tablet, and mobile. ‍ User recordings help you spot elements of your site that aren’t performing as they should, such as broken links or tabs. Additional features offered by Hotjar You can also purchase “Ask” features with Hotjar, namely Feedback and Surveys.  ‍ Feedback enables you to simply ask visitors about their online experience in real-time. It appears as a tab at the side of your site’s pages, so if a user expresses frustration or happiness, you know exactly which page caused them to feel that way. Collecting user feedback helps you to turn more visitors into customers. ‍   Source: Hotjar‍ ‍ Surveys help you get valuable suggestions or comments from website visitors, giving you a platform to ask the right questions at the right time. Hotjar makes this process really simple by providing pre-built templates and a handy question bank. In a few minutes, you can set up a survey to ask visitors what caused them to leave your

Are you looking for a web analytics platform to replace Google Analytics? ‍ Both Matomo and Mixpanel are great alternatives if you are looking for a tool that is: ‍ Easy to understand, and Powerful enough to give meaningful insights ‍ But which one is more suited to your business model?  ‍ Let’s find out how they compare across six different categories, namely: ‍ Installation and Setup Features Dashboard Integrations Support Pricing ‍ We’ll also look at one outstanding feature of each tracking tool and give you our two cents’ worth at the end of the article. Who are they? Mixpanel’s motto is: ‍  “build better products.” ‍ And that’s what they’ve been helping people do with their data since launching in 2009.  ‍ Mixpanel has finetuned its software over the years and is currently one of the most advanced analytics platforms in the world for mobile and web tracking. ‍ Matomo’s (formerly Piwik) motto is: ‍  “To create, as a community, the leading open digital analytics platform that gives every user full control of their data.” ‍ Matomo is an open-source analytics software with privacy protection and user-centric insights. It focuses on web analytics rather than product analytics. Who will they appeal to? Mixpanel has been designed for engineering, product, design, and analytics data teams. It focuses on product-based data capturing, allowing the user to see how people interact with a specific product. ‍ They thrive on providing metrics that help businesses convert goals, engage with customers, and, most importantly, focus on user retention. ‍ Matomo, on the other hand, will appeal to companies looking for a cloud or on-premise open-source web analytics solution. ‍ It is intended for marketing and content teams who need to focus on SEO activities without losing control of their user data. It’s suitable for small and large businesses. ‍ One of the most appealing features of Matomo is that their data analysis reports are never sold off; they allow you 100% data ownership. ‍ So, now that you understand these two analytics tools better let’s see how they fare in a head-to-head comparison. Installation and Setup ‍ Configuring and setting up Mixpanel is relatively straightforward. Users follow a step-by-step process beginning with registering and signing up for their services.  ‍ Once a user understands which metrics he wants to track, setting up the code takes around 30-minutes per event. This is because you’ll write the code for the desired event tracking, verify the data, and then run a stress test to see if it’s working correctly before merging the code with your Data tracking. ‍ Matomo users will need to sign in to their accounts. ‍ Click on Administration, then under Websites/Measurable, click on Manage.  ‍ This page is used to create, update and delete websites. Click on Add a new website to create a new site in Matomo. Features Analytics platforms have more or less the same features, don’t they? ‍ But not all are necessarily crucial to your business. ‍ Let’s break it down into the most important features and see how they compare: ‍   Created with Canva‍ Goal Tracking  Goals help you measure how well your app or site fulfills your target objectives. When an activity is completed, a goal is met.  ‍ Examples of Goals are  ‍ Destination Goals Duration Goals Pages/Screens per session Goals Events Goals ‍ Both Matomo and Mixpanel Analytics allow you to set Goals suited to your business objectives. Event Tracking Event tracking helps you identify when a specified event has occurred in your app or business. These events include, but are not limited to,  ‍ Form submissions Link Clicks Video Plays Downloads ‍ Both Matomo and Mixpanel allow you to create custom event tracking, which gives a more focused understanding of how people interact with your website. This is important because companies will each have different events they need to know about. ‍ For example, a music service would want to track a song download as an event, while an eCommerce company would be more interested in a user clicking ‘add to cart.’ Multiple site Management When you have different divisions within your business,  you need the ability to track multiple pages, websites, or apps with one user account. ‍ Mixpanel and Matomo analytics both allow you to do this.  Heatmaps A heat map tool is very handy as it gives you a visual presentation of how your visitors navigate your website. ‍ Use Matomo’s heatmaps to see where a visitor clicked, moved around, scrolled and spent the most time on your website’s pages.  ‍ For further reading on Matomo’s Heatmap feature, check out this article which discusses it in more detail.  ‍ Unfortunately, Mixpanel does not offer a heatmap tracking feature. A – B testing AB testing is an experiment run to determine which version of a page gets the desired response from users.  ‍ For instance, if you notice that people visit a page, but your conversions metrics tell you that they don’t click on the ‘play video’ button, you might want to run an A/B test. ‍ You could then move the play video tab to a different location, edit the font or enlarge the text size. Allow the page to run again and see if your conversion metric increases. If it does, you know that the second version of that page is more successful. ‍ Both of these analytics tools allow you to test different varieties of pages. User Interaction Tracking A Unique feature of Matomo is its content tracking ability. ‍ This software allows you to track how specific pieces of content perform on your website or mobile app.  ‍ For example, you might have google ads set as a pop-up on one of your web pages. Have you ever wondered how users interact with that bit of content?  ‍ Matomo Content tracking will tell you whether they simply closed it, followed the link, or allowed the ad to play. ‍ A real strength of Mixpanel is

Today, many options come to mind for an analytics solution that can track, measure, process, and store your website’s analytics data. As a result, you need to compare their features to see which one is the best fit for you. ‍ But before you choose a web analytics tool for your site, there are some crucial factors to keep in mind. ‍ The analytics tool must: ‍ suit your business goals, have a pocket-friendly cost relative to your business size, offer advanced analytics features relevant to your business needs, allow mutual integration with a ton of other marketing tools, and be data privacy ready. ‍ Read on if you are looking for an excellent analytics solution and want a detailed Adobe Analytics vs. Google Analytics comparison before deciding on one. ‍ This article reviews the core differences between these two analytics tools – their comparative advantages, pros and cons, and which is the best platform for your business. What Is Adobe Analytics? Source: inetsoft.com‍ ‍ Adobe Analytics is an element of Adobe Adobe Experience Cloud. This product suite allows marketers and website owners to use comprehensive segmentation and real-time analytics across many marketing channels.  ‍ Besides, the tool uses predictive analytics through machine learning and advanced statistical modeling to offer business solutions, such as evaluating consumer data, identifying patterns, and forecasting future behavior. ‍ With tools like Analysis Workspace, Report Builder, Ad Hoc Analysis, Reports & Analytics, Adobe Analytics provides several crucial features to the users. ‍ Some of the key features of Adobe Analytics are: ‍ real-time multichannel data collection, website effectiveness measurement, attribution modeling, e-commerce tracking, and path analysis. What Is Google Analytics? ‍ Source: Google Analytics Dashboard‍ ‍ Google Analytics is the world’s most popular web analytics tool. It makes a wide range of data available since it records information about every site event. ‍ So, the web analytics service offers data and fundamental analytical tools for marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. Many features are available on Google Analytics, some of which include collecting relevant data to produce insightful results. ‍ Essentially, with the analytics solution, you can: ‍ determine your website’s top traffic sources, measure the success of your marketing campaigns and activities, monitor goal completion like purchases and adding products to carts, discover user engagement patterns and trends, and collect user information such as demographics and gender. The Core Similarities Between Adobe Analytics And Google Analytics ‍ When it comes to website analytics, Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics have some standard features. Let’s consider these before looking at their core differences. ‍ Both analytics solutions: ‍ Feature a tag management system that enables users to collect and distribute data across digital marketing systems. Have mobile applications for both Android and iOS. Use remote-hosting Offer real-time analytics, so they record user activities as they happen on your site, Add to the weight of a web page’s script – so they affect site speed Are closed sourced – their codes are not available on GitHub. Include a customizable dashboard. Create and use tracking and analytics events like real-time users, user locations, devices, operating systems, etc. ‍ Source: Pexels‍ The Core Differences Between Adobe Analytics And Google Analytics ‍ Although Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics are both web analytics tools with similar infrastructure and functions, the core differences between them are as follows: Pricing Model ‍ Adobe Analytics ‍ Adobe Analytics has three versions – Select, Prime, and Ultimate. ‍ Adobe Analytics – Select ‍ The Select plan offers Enterprise-grade analytics. It is the most basic of the three pricing models and ensures reliable, timely, and informative data. ‍ It helps discover your high-value customers and the most effective ways to engage them with drag-and-drop segment building and customizable reporting. ‍ The price of the plan varies based on your traffic hits. ‍ Adobe Analytics – Prime ‍ Prime offers real-time, multichannel data, so you can understand your customers, discover new perspectives, and pinpoint problems. ‍ It helps to understand how users engage with your digital experiences across all devices and gauge the performance of your mobile apps. ‍ Like Select, the price of Prime varies with your use. ‍ Adobe Analytics – Ultimate  ‍ The Ultimate plan offers experience-focused analytics for enterprises. It is the most advanced and costly Adobe Analytics plan. ‍ It uses AI and machine learning to find hidden opportunities and gain deep insights into your analytics data. ‍ In addition, it helps you get the complete picture possible of your consumers’ journeys by utilizing experience data from cross-channel marketing and advanced analytics. ‍ Similar to the other plans, the pricing of the Ultimate depends on how you use the service. ‍ Google Analytics ‍ Google Analytics has two models – Free and Paid (Google Analytics 360). ‍ Universal Google Analytics / GA4 – Free ‍ This plan comes at a $0 cost. As you can expect, the standard Google Analytics has limited features and may not be suitable for businesses with large traffic volumes. ‍ It offers real-time data, custom reporting, and advanced segmentation, so you can keep an eye on your users and how they interact with your sites. ‍ Additionally, you can monitor user activities on mobile apps with app tracking and mobile device features. ‍ Google Analytics 360 – Paid ‍ Google Analytics 360 starts from $150,000 yearly at a service level agreement. ‍ It has higher data quality, better data freshness ( 98%, according to whatagraph.com), and improved data accuracy than the standard Google Analytics. ‍ Furthermore, the premium version includes data-driven features, attribution modeling, double-click manager integration, and data running through Google Big Query. Verdict On Pricing Model ‍ While Adobe Analytics offers better flexibility with the three pricing models, Google Analytics has a freemium service (standard Google Analytics) and a premium version. ‍ Moreover, the standard Google Analytics is optimum for small and medium-sized businesses. Large organization enterprises can use Google Analytics 360 or any of the three Adobe Analytics versions that suit their

Anyone with a Google Analytics account wants to use it to its full potential. To do this, website owners will often set goals for their website that track specific user interactions. Think of these analytical goals as a triathlete’s goals when preparing for a big race. A triathlete might focus his energy on one specific discipline at a time. Likely, he’ll begin with what needs to be improved the most. ‍ Source: Pexels.com As he gets better at each discipline, he will reduce or stop his training in that field entirely and move on to the next. These training methods may even overlap. Similarly, goals in Google Analytics help users or web developers focus on what is most needed to maximize their chances of success. As businesses develop and website traffic changes, developers need to set new goals to keep websites optimized and content current. Let’s delve a little deeper into Google analytics goals by discussing what they are, how you can create new goals, what you should be doing with your old goals, and more specifically, how to delete goals in Google Analytics. First of all… What are Google Analytics goals? ‍ Similar to our athlete setting basic goals for himself when getting ready for a big race, there are four primary Google Analytics goals that website developers should consider setting, namely: Destination Goals Duration Goals Pages per session / Visit Goals Event Goals Source: Pexels.com Here’s a breakdown of those four core goals in Google Analytics Destination goals Google defines Destination Goals as ‘Conversions based on users viewing a specific page or screen.’ Basically, it tracks when a user lands on a specific page on your website. The purpose is best suited to the landing page, including the confirmation page, the gratitude page, or the sign-up pages for an email list and other forms. It is a common way of measuring conversion rates in your business. Duration Goals Visit duration goals measure the length of time visitors spend on an application or site. You can use the goal to track the number of visitors who stay on a specific page for a given period. For instance, you can see how many users stay on the site for more than a few minutes, engage in various activities, and read your content. Visit Goals/ Pages Per Session Visit goals or Pages per Visit is a simple goal to set up in Google Analytics. It’s super helpful to track the number of pages each person visits before leaving. Like the Duration goals, this is great for tracking user engagement and knowing which sections of your website may need improvement. Event Goals Event goals allow users to track visitors’ different actions on their site. Google Analytics events are useful if you want to know how many people filled out a form, downloaded a file, or played a video, for example. ‍ In addition to these goal types, your google analytics account also can track smart goals. Think of them like the pro tips a coach would give an athlete. ‍ Source: Pexels.com These goals need to be switched on manually, but this is a simple process. Smart Goals Smart Goals are specifically designed to help Google Ads advertisers who may not have enough conversions to use the Google Ads optimization tools, such as automated bidding. ‍ By enabling smart goals, your Analytics account automatically evaluates your website or app visits and assigns each a score. ‍ The “best” visits are then automatically translated into Smart Goals. Look at this awesome blog for a more in-depth look at these core Goals in Google Analytics. The basics of setting goals Creating goals for your business website or app is an easy 4 step process. Sign in to your Google Analytics account Click on Admin and navigate to the View column Once in the View settings column, click on goals Click + New Goal to add a new goal, or click on an existing goal and edit it accordingly. Here you can set an event goal, duration goal, or similar custom goals. Best practices for assigning Google Analytics goals ‍ Source: Pexels.com ‍ When choosing which goals to set up in Google Analytics, ask yourself: How do I get more sales and increase my business conversion? Then list the most important actions for your company, whether for revenue or leads. ‍ These actions can be email submissions, demo requests, subscription newsletters, and other activities showing interest and engagement for lead businesses. E-commerce websites should set up E-commerce Tracking System. ‍ Simply put, identify what’s most important to your business and set your own goals to add value to your site. Can I delete a Google Analytics goal? No, it’s impossible to delete a goal from your Google Analytics property. Source: Pexels.com Sounds odd, right? You might fear that goals that are no longer needed will clog up your analytics system. However, old goal-based data won’t impact your account tracking in the future. Old goals have no retroactive effect and therefore do not affect current statistics. It is processed only once to achieve the goals and that historical data does not apply to current goal tracking. What can I do instead of deleting goals? It is possible to change a goal to be inactive. Doing so will stop your Google Analytics Account tracking data on that specific goal. This, too, is a straightforward process: Sign in to your Account Navigate to your goals Locate the goal you wish to edit or change Turn the recording toggle on or off. Now that you’ve paused tracking data from a particular goal, why not create a new view? Think about your goal types and your future success. Use this opportunity to work on goal configuration and find a new use for existing goals. Source: Pexels.com While you’re rethinking your goals, why not act on this new enlightened way of thinking and try a different way of web analysis completely. Abralytics Every now and then, an athlete will change

In March 2020, the world changed. And while some saw the beginning of the pandemic as the beginning of the apocalypse, others saw it as an opportunity to change their way of doing things. Change the way they shop, how they do research, and how they spend their downtime. And that makes sense, right? The rise of remote working has enabled more people to surf the internet and do their business online than ever before. Social isolation has also motivated many to improve their immediate surroundings by ordering products and homeware online. But that presents a challenge to business owners and webmasters. Are those customers finding what they’re searching for? Do they enjoy their browsing experience? Are they likely to return to or recommend your website to others when their session ends? ‍ Businesses need to analyze customer engagement and see if they can answer Yes! to these questions. Customer Engagement Analytics Customer engagement refers to the way that customers interact with a business. And tracking customer engagement in physical stores is relatively straightforward. You can set up structures that allow people to respond favorably when interacting with your brand. The right decor + Manage the air temperature inside the store + Service with a smile = Happy, returning customer. ‍ Source Pexels.com You can see how your customers respond to your product and their overall experience. This, in turn, tells you what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. Tracking customer engagement for an online business might be less straightforward, but it is doable. ‍ Related article – Top Ecommerce Metrics to track in 2022 Customer Engagement Analytics allows businesses to put themselves in their customers’ shoes and think like the person visiting their website. Doing this allows them to envision the customer journey from beginning to end and adjust their product accordingly. ‍ Let’s look at 5 of the most important Customer Engagement metrics to track and why they’re essential to the longevity of your online business. The Net Promoter Score The Net Promoter Score or NPS has to do with long-term customer loyalty and the likelihood of those individuals returning to purchase your product or view your web pages again. An NPS is usually calculated using a single-question survey at various intervals during a customer journey. This gauges their satisfaction with your product or service. “On a scale of 1 – 10, how likely are you to recommend [Company name] to others?” That’s a typical example of a question you might have come across from which an NPS is calculated. ‍ Source Pexels.com‍‍ A score between 1 and 6 is regarded as negative, while scoring 7 or 8 is neutral.‍ In a net promoter score, you want your customer feedback to be either a 9 or a 10. This is considered a positive and the likelihood that the person will return or promote your brand to others is high. Why is this important? The higher the score, the more likely a company is to retain customers in the long run. ‍With the NPS, a company can make adjustments to improve the customer experience and monitor loyalty trends. This helps with your customer’s lifetime value. ‍A net promoter score also helps a business gauge how far ahead or behind they are in connection with their competition’s ability to retain customers.  Customer Satisfaction Score The customer satisfaction score, similar to the net promoter score, is calculated using a survey during the customer journey. ‍ “On a scale of 1 – 10, how satisfied are you with your purchase.” ‍But the key difference between these two scores is that the CTS gives you insights into the short-term satisfaction of your clients. In other words, are they satisfied with their product purchase or website experience? ‍ The scoring system is also formulated the same as the net promoter score. So you’re always aiming for your feedback to be either a 9 or a 10. ‍The higher the score, the higher your probability of customer retention. Why is this important? Knowing how satisfied your customers are on a short-term basis helps you to make real-time decisions. ‍For example, you can change how your checkout process works or pay more attention to the quality of your product to retain more customers if you notice a low score. ‍The customer satisfaction score also tells us a lot about customer behavior. That’s because we understand the likes or dislikes of website visitors with customer analytics. ‍Knowing how satisfied people are with your brand will help you engage them more effectively.  Customer Effort Score The third survey on our list is the customer effort score. ‍This score indicates the effort customers put into interacting with your company. It helps you understand some important factors that might need attention.‍ Is it easy to find your website? Are your web pages easy to navigate? Do the ads and pop-ups take away from the customer experience? Is the checkout process easy enough to encourage clients to follow through with their purchases? The reason why so many people choose to do their business online is that it makes life easier. ‍But the questions businesses need to ask are not only about the customer’s experience but also about the effort they put into making life easier for customers.‍ How much effort are we putting into solving issues for our customers? How much time do we dedicate to helping our customers make successful purchases? Are we investing our time and money wisely to create a user-friendly experience? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you make the shopping experience enjoyable for your customers and improve customer engagement. Why is this important? Suppose the layout of your website or factors like advertising pop-ups and forms take away from that experience. In that case, your customers will likely not have the patience to remain on your pages all the way to a successful checkout. ‍ Source Pexels‍  Churn The churn rate is the number of customers that stop interacting with your