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Assignment 3: Kissmetrics, a Web Analytics Platform
Kissmetrics: A Web Analytics Platform
Introduction
For this week’s assignment, we have the opportunity to expand our horizons into ventures unknown including a bit of research on web analytics platforms other than Google Analytics.
My web analytics platform of choice for this assignment is Kissmetrics, a platform with which I have never personally engaged for web analytics data, but a familiar platform due to the large volume of quality blog content and educational tools they provide to users and non-users for all things digital marketing. Though Kissmetrics is not a tool listed in our Week 2 Lesson, I thought I would analyze this selection to further expand our available options.
In the process of selecting a web analytics platform, I found a great grid from G2 Crowd that provided an overview of the top performing web analytics platforms and their subsequent reviews. You can find the grid, below:
G2 Crowd. (n.d.). Best Digital Analytics Software. Retrieved from https://www.g2crowd.com/categories/digital-analytics
I feel that the visual, above, provides a sufficient visual representation of the placement of these web analytics platforms in reference to their competitors. That being said, let’s analyze Kissmetrics!
Kissmetrics: An Introduction
Kissmetrics is a web analytics platform founded in 2008 by Neil Patel, a revolutionary marketer a SEO and digital analytics maven (if you ever have an opportunity to join one of his webinars or listen to his podcast, I would highly recommend to do so: https://neilpatel.com/).
The Kissmetrics platform provides three primary categories for web analytics observation, and they are: analyze, population and campaigns. The USP for this platform is that the website visitor is the most important component of their analysis; all measured metrics contribute to a more comprehensive overview of the customer, which is a strong foundation for marketing in this consumer-driven economy.
Kissmetrics offers three different service packages for their customers: the “Growth” package at $500/month, the “Power” package at $850/month and the “Enterprise” package, which is available for purchase on consultation.
Analyze. The analyze category of the Kissmetrics platform “tracks everything people are doing on your website or products” (Kissmetrics, 2017).
With this feature of Kissmetrics, you can segment your data into behavioral data and attribute data, A/B test various content on your site, monitor customer flows, set and track conversion rates, and color customize reports to further segment your data for visual efficacy.
According to Javier from a G2 Crowd review, “The amount of data and options are amazing… all that data can be combine with different search levels” (J.H., 2017). In the majority of the reviews on G2 Crowd, the ease of the Kissmetric interface when segmenting data and customizing reports is the biggest asset for the platform.
Populations. True to form, Kissmetrics has a powerful audience analytics feature that allows users of the platform to “monitor the segments of users that are most important to your business” (Kissmetrics, 2017).
This web analytics platform allows you to deeply customize your population data reporting to further understand growth opportunities, growth hindrances and more.
If your business requirements for analysis include KPI’s and metrics related to your site’s audience (Reed College of Media, West Virginia University, 2017), as outlined in the analytics selection process in our week 2 lesson.
Campaigns. The unique last feature of Kissmetrics is the opportunity to leverage email marketing campaigns through this platform. Not only can you monitor the OR, the CTR and other email marketing metrics, but you can actually send emails through this platform.
Though this campaign feature is not necessarily an analytical feature, aside from the email reports, it is interesting to see such a comprehensive email marketing service within an analytical reporting platform.
Kissmetrics vs. Google Analytics
Kissmetrics and Google Analytics have a similar framework, based on the descriptions of the products. You can monitor audience, campaigns, create funnels, and retrieve comprehensive reports on your business’ website.
Interestingly (and wisely in my personal opinion), Kissmetrics crafted a blog that elucidates the differences between Google Analytics and their platform. Before I elaborate on the differences between the two platforms from a third party, I want to provide the key characteristics that Kissmetrics feels makes them a better platform (Kissmetrics, 2017):
- Kissmetrics identifies all sessions of their site visitors and creates a profile for each unique visitor; the platform tracks each session, regardless of activity, and builds this user profile
- Kissmetrics may not have the capacity to monitor all user devices unless properly logged in (for instance, Sally registers for the website on your desktop, visits the website again on her iPad and doesn’t log in), but once the user has logged into the site from another device, all past sessions are logged in her profile
- You cannot track bounce rate, time on page, and exit % on Kissmetrics, and they encourage you to use Google Analytics if you desire to monitor these metrics
- You can set up a funnel on Kissmetrics, and the platform will report data that falls into this funnel from before the funnel was established
- Multi-channel funnels are stronger on the Kissmetric platform; on Google Analytics you have to set up individual goals
- You can integrate A/B testing tools like Optimizely into your Kissmetrics platform and create extensive A/B tests with comprehensive reports
The only con listed for Kissmetrics in a review from Slant is that the filter capabilities on Kissmetrics are limited with only one filter and subset can be active at a time (Slant, n.d.). In the review, Slant claimed that they would suggest the Kissmetrics platform over Google Analytics, but this, as we learned in lesson 2, is largely dependent on the individual business goals.
The cons listed for Google Analytics are summarized as follows:
- Google Analytics will sample data on its platform if there is a high volume of users, which means that basically the reporting in the platform will come from a fragment of the users rather than an average of all data.
- Google Analytics does not have the highest quality user-based data
- And Google Analytics does not necessarily know what to do with authenticated users and does not provide extra reporting for these users
I think a major difference between the two platforms, which appeals to me as a marketer is that Kissmetrics allows for the integration of other marketing platforms that can benefit your business. For instance, Kissmetrics supports the integration of the following major platforms:
- Marketo, a marketing automation platform that includes social media automation, which is of interest to me
- Optimizely as mentioned earlier in this assignment, is an A/B testing platform that focuses on landing page development and tracking and website testing
- Mailchimp, an email marketing platform, which is very smart from Kissmetrics as they have their own email service; this prevents isolating potential users
Kissmetrics offers integration of other platforms as well, but these are the ones that hit home for me.
Of course, there is also the matter of the pricing difference between the two platforms. Google Analytics is a free service that easily integrates into your website, and Kissmetrics is available for a monthly or yearly subscription.
Which is Better?
Though I do not have hands-on experience with the functionality of the Kissmetrics platform, I am inclined to say that Kissmetrics is a heavy hitter in web analytics and it would be a platform that I would like to test out for a 30 day trial.
Based on my focus on audience metrics and consumer behavior on site in reference to social media and public relations efforts, this platform definitely appeals to me and the metrics I am looking to achieve.
I would be interested to see whether our digital agency would find the Kissmetrics reporting as effective as GA in providing comprehensive reports to our team.
What are your thoughts? Are you familiar with the Kissmetrics platform?
References
G2 Crowd. (n.d.). Best Digital Analytics Software. Retrieved from https://www.g2crowd.com/categories/digital-analytics
J.H., J. (2017, June 30). Great data frustrating service. [Product Review]. Retrieved from https://www.g2crowd.com/products/kissmetrics/reviews
Kissmetrics. (2017). Kissmetrics population. Retrieved from https://www.kissmetrics.com/product/populations/
Kissmetrics. (2017). Kissmetrics analyze. Retrieved from https://www.kissmetrics.com/product/analyze/
Kissmetrics. (2017). What is the Difference Between Google Analytics and Kissmetrics? Retrieved from https://blog.kissmetrics.com/google-analytics-and-kissmetrics/
Slant. (n.d.). Kissmetrics vs. Google Analytics. Retrieved from https://www.slant.co/versus/1404/1406/~kissmetrics_vs_google-analytics
2 comments
Parris, I wrote about Kissmetrics as well. In my research, I found the two are more of a compliment to each other rather than competition. I did see that while the data can be more in-depth, with some practice, you can get a lot out of Google. I was torn between the two and defaulted to free equals a better deal. I like how you broke this down; it has made me think twice about my assumptions. I have a similar contrast with Meltwater and TrendKite, I ended up going with TrendKite, but the options were crazy to compare.
ReplyDeleteHi Parris,
ReplyDeleteThe question that I had for myself while researching these tools was, "could it be used alone?" While Kissmetrics did alert you to go to Google Analytics for some reporting, I can see a marketing department using it alone to do some great campaigns and assessment of their websites.
Please leave your comments, below.