Google Analytics V Adobe Analytics?
As a recruiter working in the “Digital Analytics” space one of the questions that pop up the most in relation to “Web Analytics” is: ‘Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics?’ from what I gather each has its strengths and drawbacks so I thought I would jot this down and see what you all thought.
Regardless of whether you are a fashion brand, travel company, gaming site etc. the overall purpose for these two tools remain the same; To drive traffic to your website, and to convert that traffic. There are probably 4 or 5 commonplace tools to get the task done but in terms of overall popularity I have observed a fairly even split between GA and AA. I may be far from an expert in the field myself, however, after having this conversation with many of you, I will try and summarise what I have picked up through various chats and discussions as fairly as possible.
Price
The first and probably most obvious point to the uninitiated is price. Google analytics do have a very functional free version of their premium package and many medium to large business use it to great effect. From my experience it is usually the Ecommerce giants and very cash-rich clients that are actively looking for ‘Premium’ experience in their next ‘web analyst’.
A years subscription to AA can cost anywhere between $50K and $350K+ depending on the traffic to your site. Whereas GA has a flat rate of $175K a year. I’ve spoken to many Heads of Digital and looked through different polls and the general consensus is, once set up very few would consider swapping. This might be more of a comment on the ease of implementation though as a full migration project often takes upward of a year at enterprise level.
Usability
This is a fairly big point, especially if you live on the tool for the majority of your working day. AA has a bit of a reputation for being a tough nut to crack. The interface is complex and you can expect a pretty steep learning curve to get beyond basic level reporting.
Inversely GA is a more intuitive and has the added bonus of fairly seamless integration with a huge number of other Google products (DFA, DFP, Adwords, Adsense and GWT etc.) which combined probably command 60-70% of most marketing budgets.
Performance
There seem to be some common trends in people’s feedback on this point as well. GA has a pretty neat attribution modelling function, Attribution 360, which can be really informative when looking at your broader marketing strategy. It also lets the user integrate and analyse offline sources easily via BigQuery, without which building fully integrated multi-channel campaigns could be tricky. AA does this as well it still leaves a lot to be desired.
However, if you overlook the complexity of Adobe’s interface from what I gather the reporting potential is far greater. Ultimately you are able to get to a much more granular level and faster. In AA Workspace you are able to do pretty complex analysis at speed by just dragging and dropping. This function ultimately leads to a level of customisation GA just can’t match.
So which tool should you be using?
Only about 20% of analysts are qualified Adobe specialists, so before committing to one tool or another have a look at the existing resources at your disposal. Will you require a specialist to come in and set up shop for a big premium? No matter how good your analysts are if things weren’t implemented properly at the start you will be plagued by too many funnel leaks from there on in. Whereas, if you are already a GA user looking to go premium it’s as simple as flicking a switch to get all the extra capabilities.
Each side seems to have compelling arguments for choosing their product. It would be great to hear from you Web analysts to see what you think on this.
Many thanks,
Patrick (Digital Consultant – Contact)
0203 764 2966