Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Nielsen//netratings, Hitwise Vs Google Analytics

Posted by Anonymous on 9/2/2008 at 8:21 AM ET 50 Points
I have been looking into some website traffic analysis tool and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this.

Google Analytics seems to be a good tool that gives a good amount of information on visitors/traffic/content of a website. And, it is free.

Why then, would one consider paid tools like Nielsen//NetRatings or Hitwise or other paid services.

Thank you for your time and inputs on this.

cheers!
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  • Posted by Dawson on 9/2/2008 at 9:01 AM Accepted
    Nielsen netratings allows you to compare the ads displayed from your campaign with ads displayed from a competitors campaign. Google only (as far as I'm aware) tells you stats about your own website.

    Therefore, If I was Ford, Netratings could tell me how many of my target consumers saw a ford banner ad vs one for BMW or Honda. With Google, I don't think that this is possible.

    There are a number of other factors considered by Nielsen also in terms of technical factors which may bias numbers based purely on server records but I'd imagine that this was a technicality other than a significant difference.

    I don't know about Hitwise.
  • Posted by steven.alker on 9/4/2008 at 8:02 AM Accepted
    I believe that its as simple as this: Google Analytics is a do-it yourself application with a restricted feature set. Neilson and Hitwise offer custom analysis over a wider range of parameters.

    You gets what you pay for!

    When evaluating an analytics package, we recommend that clients list what they want from it and then compare the offerings from Google, Hitwise and Neilson in a table so that they can highlight what features are available. Extend this analysis to the benefits they provide to your company and you will quickly get a picture of whether it is work paying for rich features.

    Posting on another website?!! Indeed! We’ll have to decontaminate you and send you to a re-education camp!

    Best wishes


    Steve Alker
    Xspirt
  • Posted by Dawson on 9/5/2008 at 4:42 AM Member
    Another point to make - Nielsen (and I suppose hitwise) both collect data from users machines showing habits and what they have been exposed to (a bit like the Peoplemeter technology - google it). Google just adds a site counter and more to your site.

    If you need some reliable stats on competitor metrics etc then you need to pay!
  • Posted by steven.alker on 9/5/2008 at 5:12 AM Member
    Dear Isaac

    I find the comparisons of “Us” vs “The Competition” rather pointless. That said when I was a much younger marketing manager; I used to be able to flex my muscles by rattling off every single competitor’s whole advertising strategy along with the places where they were successful with their PR. I’d know their budget and their turnover. I calculated their unit sales and wheedled out sales information, country by country where they operated.

    The former secured my budget with the boss; the latter was good for scuppering anything novel they tried for free. All in all, I knew my prices, our margins, how much and where they spent money. The trouble was that I didn’t really know how to spend our own money and manage the process to a definable personal contribution. In other words, I was useful but disposable!

    Competitor marketing information not useless information and indeed, most CEO’s rather like to possess it, but emulating a competitor is almost inevitably a waste of time. They don’t share your pedigree, your costs, your goals, your strategies or your tactics and the certainly don’t have to employ the chairman’s youngest son when he gets out of jail or Eton.

    So why should you pay for a lot of competitor analysis. Looking for places and levers you have missed? Being aware of a promotion so that you can do likewise?

    Nearly all the reasons I could come up with were for the comfort of knowing – no one was actually going to do anything with this wonderful information. Successful competitor campaigns could be copied, but that’s just me-too marketing. The only valid reason I could cook up was to eliminate their activities from your list so that you could be 100% original. The trouble with that is that you advertising spend would be 100% high risk!

    Good luck with what you are trying – re-education appears not to be necessary, but if you want a hair shirt experience, you could go and work in one of my salt-mines for a few years.

    Best wishes

    Steve


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