Introduction
Organizations evaluating higher-end web analytics products must consider many factors in deciding which product best meets their needs. These factors go well beyond a simple comparison of reports and base license prices. Other considerations include scalability, robustness, and flexibility of reporting; the extensibility of the application; organizational use; network environment requirements and commensurate costs; and other hidden costs, such as implementation, training, and professional services.
No single web analytics program completely addresses all of these factors. Those that come the closest are usually considered "enterprise" class applications, with prices in the upper five figure range or higher.
ClickTracks Professional was designed to meet the key needs of organizations that require a powerful web analytics solution. However, enterprise-level features have been judiciously and carefully implemented in such a way that ClickTracks Professional imposes neither the large initial investment nor the corresponding back-end cost that accompanies other enterprise-class applications.
Who Needs ClickTracks Professional?
Relatively few websites warrant the full scope of functionality of enterprise-class web analytics programs. ClickTracks Professional was designed for the following types of customers:
Corporate websites
Corporate websites tend to have high volumes of traffic and dedicated staff working on specific aspects of their online marketing efforts. ClickTracks Professional provides the performance and scalability these companies require, as well as organizational access controls that ensure people get the information they need.
Ecommerce websites
ClickTracks' revenue-tracking features are exceptionally accurate by industry standards. Combined with ClickTracks' campaign tracking and innovative segmentation features, return on advertising spend (ROAS, aka ROI) can be analyzed on multiple axes with pinpoint accuracy.
High-volume websites
The Pro Processor includes a powerful analysis engine that processes log files on a scheduled basis, so users can view reports quickly and easily, whenever and wherever they need to. ClickTracks Professional also provides multiple ways to improve performance of ad hoc analysis at the desktop.
Agencies and ISPs
For companies providing web analytics for many customers' websites, Professional is the right choice. ClickTracks offers professional products specifically designed to meet the needs of agencies and ISPs, with multiple means of report distribution as well as our unique cobranded client application.
User Needs
For the types of companies that require the Professional product, certain needs are essential.
Asynchronous processing of data
Analyzing the log files of websites that serve high volumes of traffic is a CPU- and RAM-intensive operation, no matter how efficient the analysis engine is. It simply isn't practical to process such datasets on a desktop computer while trying to work on that computer. This is especially true when trying to track revenue, which requires following unique visitors over time. Without such tracking, any attempt at ROAS analysis is futile, as latent conversions usually constitute the vast majority of revenue.
Tracking unique visitors requires tremendous amounts of analysis - far more than is practical to perform on an end user's desktop computer. For this type of analysis, it is necessary to use an asynchronous dataset processor, which can be set to run on a schedule, acquiring raw data (log files) and analyzing data on the scale of millions of visitors, with no human intervention. This system must then be able to make the processed data - ready to view - available to end users whenever they need it. This is a core function of the Pro Processor.
Centralized dataset definition
Web analytics is inherently complex, and the data that are ultimately displayed in reports are subject to a wide range of assumptions. How are sessions defined? Which parameters define pages? What are the key conversion pages? Should certain IP addresses be excluded from the analysis? If these settings are left to individual users to define, a team will soon find itself looking at divergent results.
The ClickTracks Professional product includes a component called the Configuration Client, in which key options and settings are established for the entire team, thus helping the team stay in synch. Furthermore, this tool allows an administrator to set up campaign tracking or establish funnel definitions for the entire team, thus reducing duplicated efforts.
Distribution of datasets and reports
High-volume websites often have a team of concerned personnel - web developers, online marketing specialists, marketing managers, executives, and so forth - each with different needs in terms of the type of information required and the form in which to view it.
