Web Analytics is not Free
It is a common misconception that there are free options for web analytics, this is simply not true. Yes there are free web analytics tools like Google Analytics but web analytics, extracting intelligence from visitor behaviour to inform decision making, is not free. There are costs involved for:
- set-up of the web analytics tool
- training for users of the web analytics tool
- transformation of data into intelligence, insights and recommendations
- creative of new website assets
- testing and implementing changes to marketing, the website and business strategy
All of these require an investment in resources, either internal or external, to get value from web analytics. So whether using a free or paid web analytics tool, you need to invest in the people with the necessary skills who can drive the tool.
But weigh up this investment against a 20% increase in performance.
How companies currently invest to improve performance
Organisations are constantly investing in an attempt to improve performance, most commonly through advertising. Spending money to acquire website traffic through any marketing channel is a part of any business strategy. Spending more money in an attempt to get more traffic to plug those holes in the budget is a common strategy but not necessarily the best one.
If you needed to increase conversions (however that is defined for your organisation), you could spend money on getting more traffic to your website or you could spend the same money on getting more conversions out of your current traffic. The tool below calculates the required spend on marketing to achieve a target increase in conversions – and the level of budget available over a year if that money was to be used for performance optimisation instead.
