There is so much data available in analytics that it's easy for enterprise users to get sidetracked by some interesting numbers. It's even easier to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data available, which threatens the value of analytics to the business. The solution for enterprise analytics experts is to have the intended audience for a report create a profile of the targets.
Using free applications like Google Analytics, we could learn things about our users like their loyalty, the frequency and timing of their visits, the products they purchased, where they come from, the devices and browers they use, how they found the site -- the list goes on and on. Each piece of data that is added to a report takes time to collect and time to interpret in a meaningful way. It also increases the complexity of the report and makes it less likely to be read by executives. Less is more, and with all the data available, the right information can seem like a needle in a haystack.
Creating profiles allows the intended audience, or enterprise clients, to dictate what parts of a report they'd actually read, so resources (primarily time) aren't wasted.
This isn't always a straightforward process. Sometimes enterprise clients are so unfamiliar with or bewildered by analytics that they don't even know what they want. A good data analyst has to walk them through profile creation by asking them about the target market. Keep the questions in plain business language, so the client understands what's being asked. Focus on what needs to happen from the client’s viewpoint, so you can identify the data you need to find.
When possible, request that clients show instead of tell. Have them walk you through the site and the process they view as conversion. For e-commerce sites, the converted will be those who made a transaction. For ad-driven sites, it will depend on who's clicking the banners. Interest-based sites need to know who's more than a casual or one-shot visitor.
Profiles narrow the scope of what is important and what isn't. This ensures that the audience doesn't balk at too much information, and it simplifies life for the analyst. Additionally, comparing profiles provides a lot more context than data on its own.
In the example below, we are dealing with a client looking for visitors who have made a purchase via e-commerce. This allows us to create two very simple profiles -- one for visitors who never made a purchase, and one for those who have. This chart shows some very simple data we might pull based on these two profiles.
Table 1: Two Profiles Provide Context
Visitors Who Made a Purchase
Visitors Who Have Never Purchased
Average Pages Browsed/Visit
23.5
5.2
Average Time per Visit
35 min 20 sec
5 min 43 sec
Percentage of Site Total Traffic
5.68%
94.32%
New Visitors
76.5%
82.5%
Pageviews
153,250
512,876
Source: Scott Kinoshita.
If the buyer profile were presented alone, the client might focus on page views or the percentage of site traffic. When this information is presented together with the profile of those who did not buy, the client can clearly see the significance of the number of pages browsed and the time spent on site. The client can then ask, "Is the fact that our buying visitors are spending more time on the site than other visitors a good or a bad thing? Are they engaged, or are they having a hard time finding things?"
Profiling before looking at the data limits the report's scope and offers comparative data for context that's understood faster, making life easier for everyone.
@Mr. Roques -- depends on what business you're in, what you're looking to gain as far as your website is concerned, and the kind of market you have.
Google Analytics has the capacity to capture the data if it's been set up properly with the right event tracking code set in place. You have to know in advance what's most important to track, and you can figure out the initial steps via profilling.
Events can be set up so Google Analytics tracks links that leave the site, buttons that play video, even mouse-over events. Knowing which buttons are most important based on the profile means you plan out in advance where you expect each kind of visitor to go on our site, and set up the event tracking accordingly to prove or disprove these theories.
What are the top KPIs that every report should have? Is Google Analytics "smart" enough to capture data that links user website behavior with actual buying patterns?
I would agree, Kim. The profile is simply making sure that what the report needs to answer is clearly defined, much like how good design tries to avoid scope/feature creep.
Well thought out profiling helps to boil down the data as well, since it tries to eliminate any data that isn't requird so the report is as clear and simple as possible.
All that front-end stuff is nice and all, and I'm sure it's very good for finding that needle in a haystack that will make the next sale or aim the branding with more pinpoint accuracy. But what do you do when you've several million page views a day, and all that data keeps pouring in 7 by 24 by 365? Like maple syrup, it's only tasty when it's been boiled down a bit. At That Place Which Shall Remain Nameless, we used an enormous Hadoop array to grab the incoming data, and then ran carefully designed "map reductions" against it to boil a bit of the steam out before trying to make sense of it. Only after it was concentrated properly could the analytics team get any kind of traction on that much data, coming in that fast. Profiles work wonders, but be sure you've cooked your data properly before serving.
Really, it's all about defining the problem before trying to solve it. Using the face analogy, it's knowing the names and faces of the people you need to find before trying to find them in a crowded city.
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