Comments on: 168 Billion reasons to stop using Google Analytics

By: 40+ Metric F***Tons Of Awesome Resources

40+ Metric F***Tons Of Awesome Resources — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:22:31 +0000

[...] of a commentary that I’ll bet 99% of the search community missed on the introduction of the Google Affiliate Network and why you need to kill off your use of Google Analytics. First to sphinn it gets a hot [...]

By: afewtips.com

afewtips.com — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:46:33 +0000

I recently tried clicktale.com for watching how my visitors move around my pages. Very good stuff.
BTW - I stopped using GA because they were using the stats against me. I was ranking well for a very popular keyword, and then I started using GA and BOOM - down I went. Not sure if it was the time on site, or bounces - which were not accurate numbers - I could see from ClickTale that an IP that GA said was 0 secs on site were there for 1:30.
I like AWStats.
I may implement my own solution with piwik.org.

http://afewtips.com

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Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:19:23 +0000

By: Startup Launchr | Start your first business online | » Why Numbers and Instincts Should Guide Your Business Decisions

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:34:42 +0000

[...] running a high-traffic site is that they can use your statistics to categorize keywords that competitors should bid for. Since Google’s main source of revenue comes from AdWords, you end up losing [...]

By: Searchquant

Searchquant — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:08:07 +0000

@Diorex - I’ve been telling virtually every SEM advertiser I meet for the last 5 years that investing in a good multivariate A/B testing tool like Offermatica or Optimost is THE most important thing they can do to succeed in SEM. Having been able to see the conversion rates of dozens of top 1000 AdWords advertisers in finance, travel, retail, automotive and B2B, I can tell you there are a few who get the importance of sustained, passionate multivariate testing, and a great many who do not.

Great blog by the way - glad I found it on a lazy Sunday afternoon…

By: Diorex

Diorex — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:41:35 +0000

@SearchQuant - Excellent analogy about how free is now perceived to have a negative value in so many markets - yet not in this one, where people are making the monthly cost of a solid analytics/testing program before breakfast most days - yet still wont cough up the cash to get what is bound to improve their business.

If you cannot build one yourself, spend the money to get a full featured one from one of the analytics vendors out there. Read my post ‘testing is for the rich’ if you dont understand why a better testing platform is critical to success in this space.

By: Searchquant

Searchquant — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:21:34 +0000

The very scenario Diorex envisages played itself out over at Valueclick’s Commission Junction unit; in that case individuals at CJ used the conversion data to arbitrage search terms and it wasn’t until CJ forced employees to choose between their day job and their arbitrage that the activity was reigned in.

Incidentally, I wouldn’t be opposed to Google making such a move for the good of the greater [online] economy. Merchants in any given sector tend to have huge differences in visitor experience & conversion rates, and were Google to do this it’d definitely give tons of companies the kick in the pants they need to realize they’re flunking online marketing. That, in turn, would be good for the health of the online economy.

WRT Google Analytics, it’s amazing to me that people so smart use Google Analytics and accept its limitations just because it’s free. I don’t get it. Free web hosting, free business cards, free PC’s, free phones have all become either unacceptable or understood as having a cost that equates or surpasses that of not-free products. Why don’t people realize this with Google Analytics? Analytics is quite arguably more important than any of those other business tools.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:42:45 +0000

I don’t see how you can be a serious affiliate without having a programmer or being one.. in which case building your own tracking *and* optimization systems are a fairly straightforward task. I haven’t seen anything free or commercial that do both.

By: Tob

Tob — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:26:04 +0000

Only major problem I see is, you’re fucked if you use google content network. Other than parsing referrers, you have no way of knowing where the click came from and how to tell which websites are attributing to sales/conversions.

By: Konrad

Konrad — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:43:53 +0000

Thanks, but I’m not using Google Analytics. I’m just wondering if there is an easier way to track clicks to their respective ads, instead of simply tagging each ad with an ad id manually.