Web Analytics Foundation

To maximise the value from Web Analytics, it is essential to get the foundation right from the start. The result is comprehensive and high quality data designed to provide the intelligence required for the business decisions your organisation makes. This is complemented by dashboards and training ensuring the web analytics is providing value throughout the organisation. There are six tasks required to get your web analytics foundation in place.

Discuss the business intelligence requirements in a series of workshops
Create a new web analytics implementation
Tag all marketing campaigns with campaign parameters
Configure the web analytics tool to complement the implementation
Create automated dashboards containing performance KPIs
Provide staff with training on using web analytics

Requirements
Implementation
Marketing
Configuration
Training
Dashboards

Business Intelligence Requirements

The first step is to understand the intelligence required by key stakeholders to inform their decisions. L3 Analytics will run one or more workshops with these stakeholders to define these requirements. This will be complemented by L3 Analytics reviewing the website and any existing web analytics data to understand the website structure and likely visitor behaviour, given our experience with the business intelligence of other organisations.

The requirements will be translated into visitor behaviour and website interactions with these converted into metrics & data reporting requirements. The end goal of this task is create a document summarising the business intelligence requirements and the recommended approach with web analytics to provide this intelligence.

Web Analytics Implementation

Organisations will need to upgrade their web analytics implementation in light of the business intelligence requirements identified in the previous task. Code will need to be re-implemented in a consistent manner across the entire website, capturing all key website interactions and additional information about content viewed. This will lead to a clean view of the data providing valuable insights that can be used to improve performance.

L3 Analytics will provide a clearly written document for the website development team containing instructions for this redeployment of code. Recommendations will be directly related to the identified business intelligence requirements. Support will be provided to this team by L3 Analytics via phone, email and in person to assist in any issues that arise.

Tagging All Marketing Campaign Links

All campaigns links need to have web analytics campaign parameters added to their landing page URLs. This should include any links the organisation has control over including social media and redirects from vanity URLs/QR codes. Excel tools can be provided to minimise the resources required to add these tags.

Adding these campaign parameters will enable your organisation to identify the originating source of website traffic and to investigate and compare the performance of different channels, campaigns and links. The task will include defining a naming convention so that links are clearly identified.

Web Analytics Configuration

Web Analytics tools need to be configured correctly to maximise the intelligence they provide, complementing the web analytics code that has been implemented. This may include setting up funnels, defining the data to be included within reports, defining additional traffic sources, etc.

The configuration work will be performed by L3 Analytics but it is important that your organisation understands what has been done. A document will be provided detailing your web analytics configuration.

Web Analytics Training

A web analytics tool is no good if it is not being used to deliver value throughout the company. While there is likely to be some level of existing internal knowledge, this should be enhanced through additional training. A number of training sessions can be provided for different requirements.

Training sessions are customised for different audiences, so that all stakeholders develop the appropriate level of knowledge and skills. The focus for non analysts will be on what information is available through web analytics and how to access basic reports. Regular to heavy users will be trained on the more complete range of reports & features including how to use web analytics data to answer business questions.

Performance Dashboards

Dashboards are incredibly useful tools for giving stakeholders direct access to key pieces of information about performance. This is particularly the case for stakeholders who find using web analytics tools intimidating due to the number of available reports. Working with end users, L3 Analytics will design weekly performance dashboards customised to reporting requirements. These dashboards will then be created and automated so that they can be quickly produced on a weekly basis.

Timelines and Cost

The completion of this project is heavily dependent on the availability of internal resources. Key stakeholders need to be available for the initial Business Intelligence workshops and for training on web analytics following the new set-up of web analytics. It is commonly more difficult to obtain sufficient dedicated developer resources, especially for an extended time period. If these resources are available, the project can be completed in between 4 and 8 weeks.

The cost does depend on the complexity of the website and the related number of website interactions to be tracked. It is further reliant on the number of trainings sessions and dashboards included within the project. With these two factors in mind, the cost can vary from £3,500 up to £6,000.

An Alternative Approach

An alternative and cheaper approach is to simply focus on the set-up of the web analytics tool. The Business Intelligence workshops are replaced by L3 Analytics using personal judgement on what intelligence the organisation requires. The training and dashboards tasks are eliminated to minimise costs. The remaining tasks will provide an organisation with a strong set-up of their web analytics tool.