Mountain View, California — Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular search engine, in now geared up to transform the web analytics market forever for the first time with the introduction a new set of reports is providing a window into real-time web traffic with “Google Analytics Real-Time,” which shows you what is happening with your site as it happens.
The search engine giant has now officially entered the paid web analytics market with Google Analytics Premium, will sell an analytics service for online advertisers, in a direct competition to offerings from International Business Machines Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc.
Moving forward, Real-Time reports are available in the new version of Google Analytics, and administrators with Analytics accounts will be able to enjoy Real-Time reports. Google introduced the new feature on Thursday for “a number of you,” John Jersin, product manager at Google Analytics wrote on the Google Analytics blog.
“One way that I like to use these reports is to measure the immediate effects of social media. Whenever we put out a new blog post, we also send out a tweet. With Real-Time, I can see the immediate result to my site traffic,” says Jersin. “For instance, last week we published about the latest episode of Web Analytics TV and also tweeted about the post. By campaign tagging the links we shared, we could see how much traffic each channel is driving to the blog as it happened. We could also see when we stopped receiving visits from the tweet, which helps know when to reengage.”
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For users trying to measure how a campaign or post is performing, Real-Time will track the immediate effects on the site traffic. If a user publishes something and then tweets about it, for instance, Real-Time will track when traffic from the tweet stops driving visits.
The recently unveiled Google Analytics Premium costs $150,000 a year and is packed with increased processing power, phone support and the ability to assess the impact of a new campaign within four hours of posting it online, said Amy Chang, director of product management, in an interview.
Mountain View, California-based Google is adding new services catering to large businesses to lessen its dependency on online advertising. While a free version of Google’s analytics tool has hundreds of thousands of users, additionally enhanced features in the paid version may lure corporate clients who currently rely on services from IBM and Adobe, Chang said.
“Everyone is struggling to get better ad spend,” Chang said. “Google Analytics empowers everyone across the board on a marketing team to be a data-driven marketer.”
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The search engine titan has been testing Google Analytics Premium throughout 2011 and already has a number of clients in live production. It is also worth noting that the free edition of Google Analytics will continue to be available in its current form. How is Google Analytics Premium different? Google Analytics Premium offers enhancements above and beyond the free offering in several key categories:
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Support: GA Premium customers get a dedicated account manager, training, access to Google implementation and technical specialists, and 24/7 support via phone and email for critical issues.
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Service Level Agreement: The GA Premium SLA features guarantees – with penalties – for data collection, processing, and reporting.
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Processing and Features: GA Premium offers increased limits on data collection and custom variables, unsampled reporting, and enhanced attribution modeling.
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Fee Structure: GA Premium is available for a single, flat annual fee of $150,000.
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Partners: Google has expanded the Google Analytics Certified Partner program to include a specific certification for GA Premium. These partners are authorized to resell, implement, and support GA Premium in line with the standards set by Google’s direct support capabilities. Several partners, both in the UK and US, are now certified for GA Premium.
Google is not the first company to deliver such data. Woopra, Chartbeat and a number of other tools also provide data in real time. Besides, IBM, based in Armonk, New York, gained an advertising–analysis service with its purchase of Coremetrics Inc. last year. San Jose, California-based Adobe added a similar business through its 2009 purchase of Omniture Inc. for $1.55 billion.
Google said it will have dedicated salespeople and support teams for its paid data service. The four-hour turnaround for analysis compares with 24 hours for the free version. More on this here.
“It changes the decision making from days into minutes and that matters to a lot of marketers and a lot of clients,†Chang said.
Companies that have signed up for the paid service include Travelocity.com Inc., Gucci Group NV, TransUnion Corp. and Papa John’s International Inc. (PZZA), Google said.
However, the initial iteration of GA Premium attempts to rectify many of the traditional user concerns that stifled its adoption as a primary web analytics tool in the enterprise. But it is a huge step forward for a solid offering, and Google will continue to aggressively iterate the product to close the remaining gaps over time.
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