The Ultimate Definition of Analytics

Hej Stephane - great comment and observations as ever...

I always start my talks/workshops with a similar rant (and the same quote formt the WAA):
http://www.advanced-web-metrics.com/images/what-is-web-analytics.png

The language I often hear being used to describe web analytics usually attempts to blind people with science. The result is to scare them off - a user walks away thinking they need a maths degree to work with web analytics. I feel that has held back our industry for many years...

The truth is (and with your capital T), an analyst just needs to be an expert user of websites and search engines to figure out the reports of say Google Analytics (and have an inquisitive mindset). Even my 92 year old grandma is an expert at website usability - she knows what works and what does't in an instant...

So I prefer the following:
"Web Analytics is the study of online experience, in order to improve it"

And, Advanced web metrics:
"Advanced web metrics is about doing the basics very well and applying it in a clever way"

Of course expertise is required for implementation, but the rest I find comes down to experience.

Best regards, Brian
Author: Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics

I can't agree enough with Brian's comment about "attempts to blind people with science". Too many vendors and practitioners hide behind technology and buzzwords.

To me a good web analyst is inquisitive, full of common sense and able to explain websites and data to anyone. So from that analytics is using data, knowledge and common sense to explain what is happening on websites.

The WAA definition lacks the focus on social media, advertising and conversion, which often occur outside the web site, but integrate into web analytics products. Here's my working definition for Web analytics, most recently used in Gartner publication: "Web Analytics Market Update, 2012".

"The term "Web analytics" refers to specialized analytic applications used to understand and improve online user experiences, visitor acquisition and actions, and to optimize digital marketing and advertising campaigns."

Your post is really interesting Stephane, I agree with you that we need a new definition for what we do, and I like what you suggest as well as Brian, Andrew and Bill's comments. Back in 2009, I co-authored a two-piece article with Avinash Kaushik named Web Analytics 2.0:Empowering Customer Centricity in which we tried to define Analytics as follows:

Web Analytics is the science and the art of improving websites to increase their profitability by improving the customer’s website experience. It is a science because it uses statistics, data mining techniques, and a methodological process. It is an art because, like a brilliant painter, the analyst or marketer has to draw from a diverse pallet of colors (data sources) to find the perfect mix that will yield actionable insights. It is also an art because improving websites requires a deep level of creativity, balancing user-centric design, promotions, content, images, and more. Besides, the analyst is always walking the fine line among website designers, IT personnel, marketers, senior management and customers.

A few comments:

1. It is essential to have the objective of Analytics inside its definition which; IMO, they are "increase website profitability" and "improve customer experience"
2. I believe it is important to acknowledge that science and art play a role, because they do!
3. I believe that mentioning the multitude of data sources is an important reminder for those thinking that we live in an online-only world.
4. Important to remind veterans and let newbies know that you will have to deal with many different people, it is not an individual effort, it is a team effort.

Would love to hear your comments on that too...

Thanks all for chiming in!

@Brian: totally agree with your assessment that some vendors/consultants seem to have a versed interest in making things more complex than they. Check this great video from the 60s - I feel sometimes we look exactly like this guy when we talk about web analytics to business managers! http://youtu.be/rLDgQg6bq7o

@Andrew: I agree 90% with your statement - the only part which needs clarification is "websites"... does it include social, mobile, VOC and all?

@Bill: I understand we need to narrow down on the online channel but eventually we can use online data to optimize back-office and even offline business processes and customer experience.

@Daniel: that's a long and detailed explanation - can you use that to explain to your step-mother? :) About your (1) - there is no such thing as "website profitability"... there is just business profitability. (2) science & creativity are both important - if you miss the creative part, you won't think outside the box and the only solution will be to copy your competitors or have very sub-optimal recommendations (3) data is data - give it to me and I'll figure it out :) and (4) absolutely! You just got me the topic of my next post! LOL!

Greetings Stephane, Brian, Andrew, Bill, Daniel and All the Ships at Sea:

Having been one of the crafters of the WAA's definition, I suppose it falls to me to explain it. Although, like a good joke, if you have to explain it, it doesn't work.

So - to recap:

"Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage."

Stephane - you asked about word order. Allow me to clarify.

Measurement
First, we measure stuff. Pageviews, clicks, actions, errors, submit button clicks - whatever we can get our hands on. The first step is to simply count things.

Collection
Next, we want to gather it all in one place where correlations can happen. These numbers only have meaning in relation to something else.

Analysis
What might we derive from the comparison of these measurements? Are these numbers good? bad? going up? going down? How do they stack up compared to others? or other companies? other communities?

Reporting
Now that we have a feeling for the numbers and can extrapolate their meaning, we can generate recommendations - that's the results of analysis. Only then, is it time to trot them out in front of others. Reporting before analysis is something that keeps squirrels busy and frightens ninjas.

We decided on "Internet data" to free us from pure web logs. Frankly, we just didn't see mobile coming as fast as it did. Perhaps we should have gone with "Interactive" or "Digital". So no, it's not about the web anymore. It's about the interconnectivity and the data that fall out of those interactions.

Brian - you said that you prefer
"Web Analytics is the study of online experience, in order to improve it"

Way back then, as the Web Analytics Association, we were on the hook to differentiate ourselves from
usability
eye tracking
surveys
focus groups
panel research
and a dozen other forms of market research

I think "web analytics" should be a narrow definition. But please note that I changed the name of my conference from:

The Emetrics Summit: The Web Analytics Conference
to
The eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit

I wanted to broaden the subject to include, "the study of online experience, in order to improve it." And web analytics is just a sub-set of that.

Bill - to be fair, when we crafted the WAA definition, people knew about MySpace but nobody had yet used the term "social media."

Furthermore, I'll suggest that your definition is also too narrow. The WAA suggested that the purpose was, "understanding and optimizing Web usage." Whereas you have limited the purpose to "optimize digital marketing and advertising campaigns." Why not take it beyond marketing and advertising? Let's optimize Web usage for research, human resources, education, non-profits, dentistry, etc.

Andrew - your definition is great (...analytics is using data, knowledge and common sense to explain what is happening on websites) as long as we drop "on websites" and add something about the purpose.

Daniel - wonderful analogy! A valuable explanation, but not a definition.

So ... is the WAA's definition out of date? Oh, yes!

Does it need some work? You bet!

Did the Board of Directors recently have a retreat in Philadelphia and chewed on this very issue? They did!

Do they have a simple solution that answers all questions and solves all problems? They do not.

The wheels grind slowly, but they grind very finely. These things take time and smarter people that me are actively working on it.

Thanks for tossing this ball in the air Stephane. Can wait to see where the conversation goes next.

If I can throw a few more ideas into the mix, I look to the world of business analysis (which is in my view not that far removed from web analysis).

The IIBA provides this definition: "Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies and operations of an organisation, and to recommend solutions that enable the organisation to achieve its goals." (BABOK Guide v2.0).

Wikipedia's definition for Business Analytics takes a similar tack: "...the skills, technologies, applications and practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Business Analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods."

These both bring up some key concepts I'd expect to see included in an updated definition:

1. An analyst is a liaison between stakeholders, aiming to understand business objectives and goals (and KPIs)

2. Measuring user behaviour related to those objectives and goals (I agree with Stéphane that business is increasingly multi-channel, so it's not just "the web" or "digital")

3. Applying statistical methods or other techniques to the data to draw conclusions about how users are behaving (have a look at Stéphane's blog post http://bit.ly/rTob10 as example)

4. Using those conclusions to inform a business decision on what to do next (the idea of iterative development or optimization); the decision-maker may be the analyst or a stakeholder

5. Solution validation - assessing to what degree observed user behaviour aligns with business objectives and goals

I'd respectfully disagree with Jim that the definition of web analytics should be narrow; the scope of the WAA is the leading organisation in a field that has expanded to include mobile, social media, etc., while the web is considered less and less as a unique business unit. The IIBA has provided a definition of 'business analysis' that's technology-agnostic, I suggest the WAA should take a similar approach.

Thanks all for an engaging discussion, and thanks to Jim and Stéphane for "driving the analytics bus".

@Jim: thanks for joining the conversation! I'm amazed by the throughtful comments and quality of the commenters! May I say it's a "mature" conversation! :)

I guess I stumbled on "reporting" because of the negative perception of merely reporting information without analysis. Based on your clarification, I would see it as "communicating insights" just to avoid the word "reporting".

I'm glad to hear the WAA Board is also looking into this - and I guess also broader topics related to the role of the WAA.

My intent is certainly not to deny the contribution you and the WAA brought to the industry. My experience tells me there is always a very valid reason for the "state" of things and you outlined the little story very clearly (and I know it's not the first time you tell it!). Pioneering & being a change agent isn't easy and people who are unaware of the whole story often fall for easy critics. Hey! We don't call you the Godfather of web analytics for nothing! :)

Hi Who-is-Who in Web Analytics.

You know web analytics when you see it. 8-) But looking over this thread and similar discussions before it - defining it is obviously tough.

I'd like to add an emphasis that the opportunity with web/digital analytics is not just about aggregate level reporting, learning, and making recommendations for taking manual business actions. But it is also about warehousing a customer level of insights that enable a company to better learn the preferences of participating individual customers and better serve them with more relevant content, offers, or recommendations.

For this reason I like that the proposed definitions in this threaded expanded beyond "decision taking" to "providing a more compelling experience" so that site visitors will hopefully eventually become (repeat) customers and loyal advocates over time.

Something that mustn't be missing from the definition.
Akin

@Akin: I agree an emphasis on "compelling experience” is important. At the same time, it is just one of the factors contributing to a successful business. The "decision" to put more resources toward improving customer experience and satisfaction is as valid and important as other factors such as improving revenues, reducing costs, being ethical, a good corporate citizen, hiring and retaining good talent, being creative & innovative and certainly many others… Yet, we still need to balance the "optimal" yet "realistic" approach because of scarcity of resources and organizational constraints. If we consider “decision” is about identifying values and rationality, uncertainties and issues relevant to the desired optimal outcome then we might not have to expend the definition of analytics that much. What do you think?

Let me please upgrade my #measure status by appending my name here... just kidding. I think it comes down to two types of definitons:

1. what web analytics is now
2. what we would like web analytics to become when it grows up

I think that web analytics currently is closest to what Brian Clifton describes. And I suspect it will stay that way because it's called "web analytics" and because of Google Analytics.

However, because I personally don't believe in easy answers and simplistic view of the world I no longer put my faith into "web analytics". Rather than trying to define what I'd like web analytics to become I've abandoned the term altogether and - of all options that have been discussed before - prefer "customer analytics".

Why? Because I personally see more value & fun in analyzing customer behaviour rather than analyzing web pages.

@Jiri: LOL! :)
You've got a very good point... who cares about analyzing websites... they have no feelings, they are just bits & bytes constructed in a certain way, and most of all... websites don't bring money, customers do!

Great post and discussion. I really like this topic as I must confess that I am less and less comfortable with the name "Web analytics" as I think it does not do justice to our discipline and the work we do - it is too limited.

Our discipline encompasses so many aspects that it seems difficult to make it all stands in a simple definition. Many aspects have been listed:

- Improve online (user) experience.
- Optimizing (online) marketing.

But it goes much beyond that. If I look at my own experience, Web analytics also covers:

- customer analytics (who is using what online, profiling, online vs. offline behaviour...)
- product analytics (what are popular products, what products do sell well online, which doesn't...)
- Sales optimization (role of online in purchase process, multi-channel up/cross selling optimization)

So it is not just about the "web" or "marketing" but it is also about "business". Most definitions are too focused on the web and marketing aspects but lacking the "business" aspect in my opinion.

How would you call this "activity" if there was no "online" experience, say we are back in the 90's...? Business Analysis? Marketing? a combination? or something else?

Metrics are metrics, they are part of analysis, Google Analytics or another tool are just different analysis tools...I agree that there are more than just Web activities but do we really need to specify "Online", "Web" or "Offline" to describe this activity?

So, what is it called? :)

There was a good comment on G+ suggesting the word "existing" shouldn't be there. I agree with this comment - it is the analyst role to identify which data is readily available and what is missing to do a good analysis, and seek ways to obtain it. In a Lean SixSigma approach, validating the data is good (audit) and collecting new data required for analysis would be done in the Measure phase of the DMAIC approach.

Hi Stephane (and everyone else) - I have been following this discussion over the past week and wasn't sure who I (dis)agreed with. All the definitions feel right, probably in the same way that the number of visits reported through any web analytics tool is correct, even if they are all different.

But as I was on my way to an unconference yesterday, I was making notes for my presentation. As part of this, I wrote down a definition, not of web analytics but of the purpose of web analytics. It was a quick thought but I thought worth sharing:

The purpose of web analytics is to provide intelligence that informs business decisions leading to an improvement in performance.

Ok, I need to throw the word online into there somewhere but could this be a simple definition (that a step-mother could understand) which is useful in explaining to others what we do and why they should be investing in web analytics.

Cheers

Peter

Stephane, I've enjoyed this thread (and your article) a lot so far. Thank you.

Recently, I've been finding myself asked by friends or acquaintances, "What do you do?" In most cases, my short answer of which includes the term "web analytics" just simply doesn't cut it. "What's that?" I hear in response. :) In cases where the person to whom I'm speaking also speaks a bit of Hebrew, I provide them with the translation of Web Analytics that I was able to find on a number of different Israeli websites. ניתוח תנועת מבקרים באתרים. Translated back into English, if basically reads "Analysis of the Movement of Website Visitors." To my delight, that tends to be more meaningful to most people than the two words 'web analytics'

I like the term 'movement' in this case because I feel it captures what Avinash so succinctly summarizes as the 3 most important things for a web analyst to consider - Acquisition, Behavior, Outcomes. How did users get to the site, general behavior once there, did they take a desired action.... so sweet.

There are two main things I believe the translation lacks. First, the 'implementation' aspect of Web Analytics work. (I certainly know that a significant of my time is dedicated towards client implementation work). I'm leaning towards wanting something in the definition about data collection. Second, the "improvement" (Brian) or "optimizing" (Jim) side of things, which is obviously critical.

In any case, just a little musing from my own experience of being challenged with needing to answer the question, "What do you do?"

Yehoshua

p.s. A moment later in the "what do you do" conversation you'll usually hear, "No, no.... it's not SEO.... Well, it's related in some regards but... um, no... it's not just SEO." :-)

This is a great discussion. I think everyone in this thread has contributed to the the definition of web analytics. Some of my thoughts:

1. We're not doing web analytics. And we're not doing business analytics. We're doing digital analytics. We look at _mostly_ digital data sources to help make businesses make better decisions about their digital strategy. We're not mature enough to call this true business analytics.

2. Per Jim, we need to define ourself as an industry. We don't fit into any other groups (BI, IAB, Marketing, etc.) so the definition of digital analytics needs to include a definition of what we do. And I really like how Jim breaks it down: measurement, collection analysis and reporting. That's what we do, we should embrace it.

When you merge these together we get something like this:

"Digital Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of digital data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing business performance."

Digital data can come from any type of device or any type of application. That's the key. This insulates us from changes in where data comes from (web, mobile, TV, etc) and how marketers use the technology to push content and functionality (social, apps, refridgerators, etc). Plus this doesn't specify the type of data, it can be customer data, as Akin points out, quantitative data or qualitative data.

And I think we need to be realistic, the definition will need to change in the future. Technology and marketing is changing so fast that it will be impossible for us to keep up. What we do as digital analysts, and how we actually fit into organizations, will evolve forcing us to update the definition again.

But that's just my $0.02

Hi All - great post Stephane and great comments - like Brian this is a pet peeve of mine - it frustrates me that the potential of web analytics is limited by the scope of this definition - it's too insular. I remember discussing with Jim S before Emetrics was renamed to Marketing Optimization - that's what I suggested the focus should be to appeal more broadly - I think this is a big step in the right direction.

But going back to the original WAA definition, the emphasis on understanding and optimizing the effectiveness of marketing activities is sound, but needs to link much more strongly to COMMERCIAL VALUE or achieving business goals.

The reference to “web usage” tends to silo web analytics activities, such that it doesn’t relate to all online marketing activities like social media marketing activities or integration with digital marketing .

It may be the case that to increase adoption of web analytics in organisations it had to be repositioned as “Digital marketing optimisation” – this gives a wider range of influence integrated across all online marketing activities, but using the core approaches of reporting, analysis, testing and improvement.

Maybe it should be revisited in line with the activities of WAA members and beyond in the 2010 WAA outlook survey:

• Optimizing web site functionality and conversion (79.7%)
• Analysis of past performance (73.7%)
• Optimizing performance of and conversions from marketing campaigns (67.3%)
• Determining the best creative executions through A/B and multivariate testing (49.8%)
• Baseline information for site redesign (48.6%)
• Predictive metrics for developing future marketing campaigns (41%)

And yes, simplified in line with earlier comments - helping optimise customer acquisition, conversion and retention - marketers and business people get that!?

To me this whole thread raises more questions than answers (which is great by the way). At the risk of moving us slightly off topic I'd like to offer you one of my thoughts this post has raised.

I keep thinking of Steve Jobs and how he said Apple's vision wasn't to be the best manufacturers of computers in the world. It was to be the most innovative, the people who take crazy ideas and turn them into products what work so much better for the purpose than anything else out there. Do a search for "the crazy ones apple" to see what I am talking about. That was their vision, their core was creating an environment where the crazy ones could live and prosper.

So my point is shouldn't this actually go back to what we do for a living? What inspires you to do this? What is the core?

What are "we" as analysts? Justin said we need to define ourselves as an industry. I think first we need to define what we do and why we do it before we can define the industry. Why do we love it?

I am not trying to be deep or philosophical for the sake of it but as this thread proves people have a lot of different opinions as to what "web analytics" or "analytics" is. My thought is if you can define why you like doing this stuff you might just be able to define what you do in a much better way.

Personally speaking;
I challenge people to do better work. I am naturally curious and stubborn enough to keep asking difficult questions and I use data to inform my opinions. I love the lightbulb moments.

I still haven't figured out what I actually do for a living (being honest) except that I know I am a trusted advisor for online business - that's what my clients tell me anyway.

Sorry for the shift off topic just kind of thinking out loud.

It can be helpful to tell clients that web analytics is an interplay between two things: Finding problems, and then testing a variety of solutions to see which one works best.

Then you can say, Here's an example: If a variety of search phrases bring people to your site and one has an 85% bounce rate and none of them become customers, you've probably found a problem. Now it's time to guess why and try out some solutions. Perhaps adding content relevant to the search phrase attracts interest, reduces the bounce rate and increases conversions.

If you try out enough solutions, you are bound to find one that increases revenue, and by using data to evaluate several options you end up making better business decisions, so you increase customer satisfaction and revenue.

The advantage of a definition like this is it lets people know what they are actually going to be doing every day.

If you say, "Web Analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing Web usage," people will just give you blank looks! If someone doesn't already know what web analytics is, this sentence communicates nothing to them!

Check the German definition I created some years ago (more or less agreeing with your definition) here:

Web Analytics misst den Erfolg von Online Aktivitäten
und liefert fundierte Entscheidungshilfen für aktuelle und zukünftige Maßnahmen.

Whole article:
http://www.web-analytics-blog.de/2007/02/07/web_controlling_bei_wikipedi...

Thanks,
ralf.
www.web-analytics-blog.de

I think the Google Analytics system is great. I don't understand why so many people use alternate programs. Are they trying to hide from google? Anyway... I like your definition. I've always been kind of a numbers guy... so analytics programs seem pretty cool to me.

Just a note to let you all know that Justin Cutroni posted an article here at Online Behavior named Radically Rethinking Web Analytics, where he discusses the Web Analytics identity crisis. Check out Justin's insightful thoughts on the differences between Web and Digital Analytics and an alternative way going forward.