Which is the best Web Analytics solution? That’s one of the most frequently asked questions in this industry. Unfortunately things in the world are not that easy, because if there is one “best” solution why would people buy another one? If there is one “best” solution why competitors don’t just work on the same line of development?
Most of the current solutions are the best…for a particular need. So the first thing to define it is what is your need.
Let’s see a very simple example comparing Google Analytics vs Yahoo! Web Analytics (or Y!WA):
1. Campaigns with Google Analytics: Google Analytics has it’s own query parameter structure for campaigns. Which means that you have to use one utm_source, utm_medium, utm_term, utm_content and/or utm_name for any of your campaigns. The good thing is that you don’t have to do anything else to do it. I mean, you don’t need to configure anything on the tool, just add those query parameters with the specific values on the url you are advertising and that’s it. You can even use the Google Analytics URL Builder which concatenate all the values you provide on each field generating the campaign url in a very simple way.
So, if you have an standard campaign structure Google Analytics is a great solution, simple, faster and very effective.
2. On the other hand Yahoo! Web Analytics or Y!WA count with a more flexible solution that allows you to track campaigns based on different conditionals and variables that allows you to track almost everything. More work but more flexibility and more in depth analysis.
First you can select type of campaign, free campaign, one time cost, cpc or cpa.
Secondly you can fill the standard query parameters or even change them by others you are already using on campaigns (ie, adserver)
Finally you can select the required conditions for that campaign like “Url parameters equal”, “Url parameter contains”, etc…
So, none is the best. The best one is based on each client requirement… or just enjoy both! 