MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange : Web beaconing vs Log file analysis

Posted by: pg07*	Accepted Answer
7/22/2004 10:45 AM (CST)
Hello, I see several advantages of beaconing vs. logfiles. Logfiles are inaccurate, do not filter out automated traffic and are (depending on size of files) hard and expensive to process. If you run several websites on different servers, logfiles can quickly become a nightmare to analyze. Page embedding and beaconing is light in processing power, more accurate, provides more info on users and patterns and allow for cross domain tracking. I would say that the only downside of beaconing (besides privacy issues) is the fact that you do not have good reporting on search engine indexing (i.e. how often does search engine access your pages). Solutions like omniture are a dream for a marketer since they allow you to correlate various type of indicators (conversion and keyword - segment and purchase etc...) Cheers, PG

Posted by: Inactive Member	Moderator Response
7/22/2004 11:12 AM (CST)
There has been an ongoing debate between the various web analytic companies over this issue. The log file companies, such as NetTracker, believe that log files do a better job of helping you understand what's going on on your site. The beacon companies, such as Omniture, will tell you that log files miss a lot of information that is solved by their solution. Other companies, like WebTrends can provide both solutions as a way to compromise. I've heard all these companies talk at an eMetrics conference just last month. They will all tell you that their solution is not only the best but the most accurate. If accuracy is what you're looking for, then it's best to use something that will provide convergent validity, and that argues for a solution that provides both log files and beacons. If instead, you want to get a "good enough" perspective, go with beacons since they are easier to administer and several provides (e.g., DeepMetrix, WebTrends, HitBox) provide ASP solutions.

Posted by: Sharon	Moderator Response
8/12/2004 10:50 PM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question, since it's more than 2 weeks old. We do this to make sure members' contributions are rewarded in a timely manner and to improve the visibility of newer questions. Thanks so much for participating!

Posted by: ircone*	Member Response
5/9/2005 3:33 PM (CST)
Just an update. NetTracker now provides web beaconing methods as well. WebTrends and NetTracker are the only companies that I've found so far that use both technologies, but I'm hesitant to claim that either use both technologies in the best way possible. As others have stated in this thread, the ideal solution would consist of creating transactions (hits, purchases, downloads) via both logfile analysis and web beaconing. I would also argue that the biggest advantage to using web log analysis packages is that they can gather data historically and create reports on it. You can only gather data via web beacons AFTER you've implemented them. If you've had a web site live for a year or two and you need reports on traffic that's occurred in the past, web log analysis is the ONLY method you can use to gather that data.