Working with digital marketing tools means that you will be monitoring their performances regularly. Researching how many of your ads and promotions are reaching your audiences, how well they are engaging with the content, how many brand conversions happen and tracking overall goals and how well they are met will be your top priorities as you compete in the digital marketing space.
Google Analytics is one such digital performance tracking tool that is widely used to boost Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and gather insight into your brand’s market performance.
This tool uses ‘page tags’ which consist of JavaScript, which in turn tracks the web browser of every visitor who enters your brand promotion page or social media platform. It then collects information about your potential or existing customers and relays it back to you in the form of tailor-made reports so that you can make informed decisions about your brand and its promotions. The downside of Google Analytics though, is that it uses ‘cookies’ to track customer information, and if customers reject or disable such cookies, then Google Analytics is prevented from gathering such information.
Additionally, it also offers only sample data, so the accuracy of the picture you get is limited. Furthermore, access to raw data is restricted so the summary version will only give you certain details. Plus, the analyses on offer will be simple and will not be able to go into the finer details that you may sometimes require to make very specific decisions. Another important note to make is that if privacy is a main concern, Google Analytics data centres store data at various data centres and sometimes these can be accessible to others.
Given these downsides, Google Analytics, though widely used, is not as attractive to businesses as their needs increase and become more specific. Fortunately, Google Analytics is not the only tool of its kind that is now available for data and information gathering. A gamut of new and multi-faceted options for such tasks are available on digital platforms.
Some substitutes worth your time and money
1. Matomo
This is a popular application that can track customer visits to your website or blog, record customer habits and report its analysis. Statistics show that close to 1.5 million websites use this open-source software, globally.
While this is quite similar to Google Analytics, it goes a few steps further by providing recordings of sessions, heatmaps which are visual representations of what users are doing on your website, reports of SEO keyword usage, and so on. The most sought-after benefit Matomo provides, however, is its attention to privacy by following various privacy laws such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
Furthermore, if you have already been on Google Analytics and wish to move the information that has already been gathered, then Matomo makes it easier by allowing you to import your data from Google Analytics without a problem. Matomo is also quite affordable, starting with a free plan to paid ones with an increase in added features as you pay.
2. Woopra
Again, this is quite similar to Google Analytics but is more defined in its collection of information, where it looks at pursuing data collection at various points in the user journey. Woopra also supplies visual reports and combines well with tools such as Hubspot, Google Ads and WordPress.
Here too, free plans are available to try out initially, but Woopra’s paid plans are a little more on the more expensive side.
3. Adobe Analytics
This is a tool that directly competes with Google Analytics and is a cloud-based platform. The reports generated are in-depth, visual and extremely comprehensive. But it is also a premium tool and so it tends to be quite costly and is used more by organisations that require sophisticated analytics.
4. Piwik PRO
This is a strong suite of analytics tools and tends to pay great attention to privacy and protection of data. It also contains business intelligence tools which engage in real-time data examination, tracking of goals and tailor-made reports. It is highly recommended for sectors that require a greater level of privacy and protection such as governments, the financial sector, insurance, and so on.
Piwik PRO’s plans range from free to customisable plans according to your data needs.
5. Leadfeeder
If the aim is to keep an eye out for who exactly is visiting your website, Leadfeeder is the way to go because it can track visitors even without them filling out a contact details form.
Leadfeeder can also link with your Customer Relationship Management application and understand exactly what visitors to your webpage are perusing so that they can be targeted with specific solutions for their needs.
An additional benefit is that you can take the data from Leadfeeder and transfer it to your dashboards with Google Data Studio.
The choice is yours
There are many other alternatives to Google Analytics out there that are worth researching into, and the tools on the above list may not be among everyone’s favourites. However, once you figure out what sort of data you’re on the lookout for, then you can easily hone in on the tool/s that best meet your needs. From lead and customer analytics to SEO and performance, many tools can provide additional benefits to Google Analytics to satisfy your data needs.
Keep in mind that just as with Google Analytics, the free versions of many of these suites will offer limited features. The offerings increase as you begin to pay and as the prices increase, more features will be available. So, choose the right fit for your company and brand. At the end of the day, you will need data analytics tools to survive in the digital market.
(Anouk De Silva)