As a marketer, the evaluation, selection, implementation and integration of marketing technology tools can be overwhelming. According to Scott Brinker, who publishes an annual marketing technology landscape supergraphic, the number of vendors nearly doubled from 2014 to 2015! Even the web analytics space is getting pretty crowded (Brinker, 2015).
Regardless of which category of vendors you’re evaluating, it’s important to conduct a side by side comparison of your finalists. Here we’ll evaluate the Kissmetrics Analyze web analytics tool and provide a comparison to Google Analytics. Let’s get started.
Kissmetrics: A Brief Review
Kissmetrics is a Software-as-a-Service(SaaS) provider of web analytics and conversion products. Their core products are their Analyze and Engage tools, which when combined are designed to provide an easy to use, simple platform for marketers to understand their data, develop actionable insights, and increase conversions. “We show you what’s working and what’s not working, across devices. We help make better marketers who don’t get lost in the data, but rise above it with insights for smarter business decisions and timely customer interactions” (Kissmetrics, 2015). The Analyze product will be the focus of this review.
Features of Kissmetrics: Analyze Tool
The Kissmetrics Analyze tool provides seven fundamental reports to understand the behavior of both individual and groups from their first anonymous visit, through each conversion, to their lifetime value. The reports included in the Analyze tool are:
- Funnel Report: helps track conversions, understand roadblocks on the road to conversion, and which type of customers convert the best.
- Cohort Report: shows how like groups of people behave over time.
- Path Report: shows the quickest and most effective route customers take towards a website’s goal.
- A/B Test Report: learn how changes to your site impact revenue.
- Power Report: allows for advance segmenting and secondary views of data.
- People Search: drill down to understand behavior at the actual individual user level.
- Revenue Report: no secret here, this report shows revenue metrics by segment (Kissmetrics, 2015).
Analyze is an easy to use tool that provides quick access to actionable dashboard reports. The tool provides a simple interface with very little training required to start producing useful reports. Kissmetrics is helpful to the marketer because it is geared towards providing insights into the customer journey (or path to purchase) and it consistently keeps goals and outcomes connected to the metrics. I find it to be user and ROI centric. With 93% of CMOs stating that they are under more pressure to deliver measurable ROI, Kissmetrics is certainly helping the cause. (Abramovich, 2015).
Kissmetrics Analyze vs. Google Analytics
There are several difference between Google Analytics and Kissmetrics. Let’s start with the price. Kissmetrics uses a monthly subscription model starting at $200/month for basic access. This entry level does not provide access to either the Power or Path reports. Google Analytics provides an incredibly robust tool for free, and with some basic training and customized reporting, provides most of the same reports as Kissmetrics Analyze, and more.
Kissmetrics lacks several key metrics that are fundamental for content marketers. It does not track time on page, bounce rates, and exits. While they both can provide metrics on visitors and visit, the cost of Kissmetrics makes it cost prohibitive unless you plan on digging deeper into funnels and A/B testing. Off the shelf, Google Analytics provides more in depth general insights into your audience. If you’re a content marketer, Google Analytics is going to provide you quick insights into the impact of your content with their Behavior reports and event tracking. Kissmetrics requires developer involvement to create reports to show the impact of blog categories, content type, and social sharing.
A major difference between the two tools is how each tracks the identity of your website visitors across devices and links that behavior together. This identity crisis comes about because visitors often spend time on a page browsing content, reading about products, and watching videos before eventually registering with the website. The question becomes, will the analytics tool track this activity prior to registration and link it to the registered user? For Kissmetrics, this is an important question because their tools are focused on providing insights at the individual user level. While there are advanced features and workarounds within Google Analytics to mitigate this to some degree, for those who are needing individual user detail, Kissmetrics is more accurate.
Both tools recognize the importance of looking at cohorts of visitor behavior. Cohort analysis allows us to see engagement or behavior of a particular segment over time. This comparison analysis can be very insightful versus looking at traditional growth metrics. I found this short video on cohort analysis helpful.
While the GA Cohort reports are in beta, both tools are providing this type of report to show how user behavior changes over time in response to changes in your marketing campaigns, the competitor, your web site layout, or the market. “For example, if you’re running successive 30%-off, 25%-off, and 20%-off campaigns as a holiday approaches, you can see how different metrics like Revenue per User and Transactions per User compare among the groups of users you acquired on the dates each campaign ran” (Google, 2015).
As you start to take a deeper dive into funnels, goals, and goal paths, there are also a few notable differences. In terms of funnels, Google Analytics only starts tracking data after the funnel is set-up, whereas Kissmetrics will track historical data. This is even more important when you account for the time to purchase/convert and the growing omnichannel buying behavior of consumers. If a customer visits your website several times over the course of 2 weeks, Kissmetics can knit that data together to provide a full customer acquisition journey, whereas Google Analytics will treat each of those visits as individual sessions, calculating an actual conversion only if it happens on that same visit. However, the Multichannel Funnel Reports in Google Analytics provides better insights into how the consumer interacts across each channel and how those interactions impact the conversion. For both Kissmetrics and GA, the funnel reports require the marketer to develop a hypothesis and plan to set-up the conversion goals. You still need to use your brain to develop insights and make recommendations to eliminate the path to purchase “roadblocks.” It is important to remember that the tool does not take the place of action.
You Still Have to Ship It.
This brings me to my closing thought regarding this comparison. The founders of Kissmetrics state that “data exhaustion has always been our conundrum to solve” (Kissmetrics, 2015). When you open up the Google Analytics tool there are over 80 potential reports to learn and explore. For me, this is an overwhelming amount and for many it can lead to “paralysis through analysis.” In the words of Seth Godin, “The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing” (Kristiansen, 2013). Both of these tools allow a marketer to develop a hypothesis, gather data to validate, and develop a course of action in order to change the outcome. Never going past the data analysis and insight development step is expensive. At some point, you have to develop an action plan and ship it, regardless of which shiny new tool you are using.
References:
Abramovich, G.(2015, January 9). 15 Mind-Blowing Stats About Marketing ROI. Retrieved from http://www.cmo.com/articles/2015/1/6/15_stats_marketing_ROI.html
Bernd, L. (2013, March 6). Cohort Analysis: An Introduction - Whiteboard Wednesday. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCtS6xA79fI
Brinker, S. (2015, January 12). Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (2015). Retrieved from http://chiefmartec.com/2015/01/marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-2015/
Google. (2015). Analytics help: Use the Cohort Analysis report. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6074676?hl=en
Kissmetrics. (2014, August). What is the Difference Between Google Analytics and Kissmetrics? Kissmetrics [Web log]. Retrieved from
Kristiansen, D. (2013, October 13). Top 10 Seth Godin Quotes From "Poke The Box". Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/danielcashk/top-10-seth-godin-quotes-from-poke-the-box-26823485
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