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2010 Web Analytics Progress and Plans in BtoB Organizations: Survey Report page 1

Web Analytics Association

2010 Web Analytics Progress and Plans in BtoB Organizations:

Survey Report

Prepared by the Web Analytics AssociationJune 2010

All Rights Reserved



Table of Contents

Table of Contents ................................................................................................... 2

Notice to Readers ................................................................................................... 2

About the WAA ...................................................................................................... 2

About the Survey ................................................................................................... 3

Executive Summary ............................................................................................... 3

Survey Results:

About the Participants ...................................................................................... 4

Web Analytics .................................................................................................. 9

2010 Outlook ................................................................................................. 20

Key Findings ........................................................................................................ 24

Notice To ReadersCopyright and usage guidelines:Copyright ©2010, by Web Analytics Association. All rights reserved.

This report is provided to members of the Web Analytics Association (WAA) as a benefit of membership. Specific charts may be used for public presentations by WAA members, but the full report may only be distributed by the WAA. Any public usage of data from this report must include an acknowledgement of the source (Web Analytics Association) and the WAA logo.

About the WAAThe Web Analytics Association was founded in 2004 and opened to general membership in February 2005. The WAA unites and fosters the interests of industry practitioners, vendors, consultants, and educators, who use, sell, install, implement, consult, teach, or train in the field of web analytics. With over 1,500 members, the organization has committees and initiatives for education, advocacy, standards, research, events, marketing, public sector, international, and membership. More information about the WAA can be found at webanalyticsassociation.org.



About the SurveyFrom January 21, 2010 to February 12, 2010, The Web Analytics Association presented a survey to web analytics end-users who characterized their company’s marketing as either business-to-business or a combination of business-to-business and business-to-consumer. They were asked to participate through web analytics-related websites, emails and events.

A total of 761 web analytics users from the around the world participated in the survey. Respon-dents were asked approximately 25 questions about their web analytics progress and plans in 2010, their effectiveness at using web analytics to inform online and offline business activities, as well job title, business, and annual revenue.

Executive SummaryThe survey delved into the current state of web analytics in business-to business organizations, and asked participants questions such as:

Where does web analytics live in your organization?• Which online channels are you currently measuring?• What are the most important KPIs for your company, and have they changed over the last • two years?How do you integrate data from various online channels?• How much will your 2010 online analysis budget change over 2009?• What are the staffing plans for your online analysis department in 2010?• Do you plan to increase, maintain, or decrease your level of customer data privacy oversight?•

Findings include:Investments in Web Analytics are Increasing: • Just over 56.1% of organizations surveyed said they will increase their online analysis over 2009. Only 2.7% said they would be decreasing their budgets. The rest (41.3%) said spending would remain unchanged.OrganizationsAreConfidentAboutOnlineMeasurement:• Nearly 43% of those surveyed said they’re effective when it comes to using web analytics data to inform online business activities. And 7.1% described themselves as very effective. Web Analytics Needs a Good Home: • Most respondents (69%) said the marketing department is where web analytics lives, very few (2%) said they outsource web analytics. The organizations with the most effective use of online analytics say that web analytics lives in marketing (63%) or analytics centers of excellence (23%)—and none of them outsource.

Before we examine the key findings of the survey, let’s take a look at the profile of our participants: their job title, business, sales cycle, and company revenue.



Survey Results: About the Participants

What is your job title?

Here we see a wide range of marketing job titles, with Marketing Manager (23.4%), CEO/President (20.5%), and Director of Marketing (11.6%) taking up about half of the group. And 6.8% indicated the title VP of Marketing.

The “other” category (35.7%) includes titles such as web analyst, marketing analyst, Internet marketing specialist, and consultants of various types.

n=440

2.0%

6.8%

11.6%

20.5%

23.4%

35.7%

CMO

VP of Marketing

Director ofMarketing

CEO/President

Marketing Manager

Other (pleasespecify)



0.5%

0.7%

0.9%

1.6%

1.8%

2.5%

4.8%

5.9%

10.9%

13.4%

15.9%

17.2%

24.0%

Consumer Packaged Goods

Sports/entertainment

Hospitality/Travel

Non-profit

Education

Retail

Health/Pharmaceutical

Financial Services

Manufacturing

Advertising

Consulting

Other (please specify)

Technology


What industry best describes your company’s business?

When asked about their industry, 24% said technology best described their business, while nearly 16% said consulting, and 13.4% indicated advertising. Lower down on the list were manufacturing (10.9%), financial services (5.9%), and health/pharmaceutical (4.8%). The “other” category (17.2%) in this case includes marketing, publishing, media, and professional services.

n=441




How long is your typical sales cycle?

Many of the organizations surveyed said that they have a sales cycle of two to three months (28%), followed by those with a four to six month cycle (21%), one week to one month (20%), and seven to twelve months (17%). In the minority are those who have a one to two year cycle (7%), one week or less (6%), or more than two years (1%).

n=435

From 1 week to 1 month

20%

2-3 months28%

4-6 months21%

7-12 months17%

1-2 years7%

1 week or less

6%

More than 2 years

1%



5%4%

7%

12%

13%

53%

6%

More than $25billion$501 million-$1billion$5.1-$25 billion

$1.1-$5 billion

$100 million-$500millionNot Applicable

Less than $100million


What is your company’s annual revenue?

Over half of the organizations surveyed (53%) have an annual revenue of less than $100 million, and quite a few (13%) indicated that the question was not applicable to them. While 12% said they have a revenue of $100 to $500 million, 4% said their revenue was in the $501 million to $1 billion range. Taken together, the rest (18%) have an income of $1 billion or more.

n=437



7.9%

8.9%

20.0%

20.2%

26.7%

28.7%

33.1%

51.1%

73.9%

Site experience capture (Tealeaf,etc.)

Other (please specify)

Offsite surveys

Third party services/data (Hitwise,Comscore, etc.)

Site performance monitoringservices (speed, uptime, etc.)

Feedback forms

Onsite surveys

Paid web analytics tools

Free web analytics tools

Survey Results: Web Analytics

Which of the following tools are you using to measure online performance?

n=495

Free web analytics tools lead the pack by a clear margin with nearly 74%, followed by paid analytics tools (51.1%). Onsite surveys (33.1%), feedback forms (28.7%), and offsite surveys (20%) are also very popular, as are site performance monitoring (26.7%) and third-party services such as Hitwise and Comscore (20.2%). In the “other” category we see businesses using in-house solutions and combinations of the above, although one survey responder said, “sadly, we do not measure anything!”

When we look at the organizations who say they are effective at using web analytics data to inform online business decisions, they also are more likely to use free analytics tools—78.1% do so. However, those who are very effective (67.6%) are more likely to use paid web analytics tools. They’re also more likely to use onsite surveys (50%).



Marketing69%

IT12%

Analytics center of

excellence10%

Each business unit7%

Outsourced2%


Where does web analytics live in your organization?

The overwhelming majority of organizations—nearly 70%—keep web analytics in their marketing department. Next is IT with 12%, and 10% of organizations have web analytics centers of excellence. Approximately 7% keep web analytics in each business unit, and 2% outsource analytics entirely.

When we look at the organizations with the most effective use of online analytics, among those who say they are very effective at using web analytics to inform online business activities, web analytics also generally lives in marketing (63%). However, 23% say they keep web analytics in an analytics center of excellence. None of them outsource web analytics. Of those who say they’re very ineffective at using web analytics to inform online business activities, 27.3% say web analytics lives in IT, and 6.1% say that they outsource web analysis.

n=490



6.7%

16.9%

26.6%

42.7%

7.1%

Veryineffectively

Ineffectively

Neithereffectively nor

ineffectively

Effectively

Very Effectively


How effectively do you use web analytics data to inform online business activities?

Most organizations appear to be relatively confident about how effectively they’re using web analytics data to inform online business activities. In fact, nearly half (49.8%) said they’re either effective or very effective at doing so, with 26.6% rating themselves neither effective or ineffective. Just 16.9% indicated that they’re ineffective when it comes to using web analytics to inform online business activities, and 6.7% said that they’re very ineffective.

n=492



13.0%

25.0%

38.0%

22.0%

2.0%

Veryineffectively

Ineffectively

Neithereffectively nor

ineffectively

Effectively

VeryEffectively


How effectively do you use web analytics data to inform offline business activities?

Offline business activities are much less likely to be informed by web analytics data, with only 2% indicating that they’re very effective and 22% saying that they’re effective at it. The largest group falls in the neutral category, with 38% saying they are neither effective nor ineffective at informing offline business activities. The rest indicated that they’re ineffective (25%) or very ineffective (13%) when it comes to informing offline activities with web analytics insight.

n=492



Yes85%

No15%


Are you able to measure...

A large percentage of those surveyed (85%) said they’re able to measure the number of visits a visitor has made to the site, but only 63% indicated that they’re able to measure the activity of individual visitors across web visits.

Not surprisingly, organizations that are very effective at using web analytics data to inform online business activities are ahead of the curve—97.1% are able to measure the number of visits, and 85.7% are able to measure the activity of individual visitors across web visits.

Yes63%

No37%

n=494n=486

...the number of visits a visitor has made to the site?

...activity of individual visitors across web visits?



Yes63%

No37%

14.2%

16.8%

48.4%

55.9%

68.4%

70.4%

75.9%

88.1%

Video Advertising

Mobile

Social Media

Online Advertising

Keyword SearchCampaigns

Search EngineOptimization

Email

Website


Which online channels are you currently measuring? (select all that apply)

When asked to choose the online channels that they’re currently measuring, over 88% said their website, nearly 76% said email and just over 70% indicated that they’re measuring search engine optimization. Keyword search campaigns (68.4%) and online advertising (55.9%) are also being measured by more than half of organizations. Social media has a 48.4% measurement rate, but mobile media lags far behind, with only 16.8% of organizations surveyed indicating measurement of their mobile channels. And video advertising sees the least analysis, with 14.2%.

Nearly all (94.3%) of organizations that are very effective at using web analytics data to inform online business activities say that they are measuring websites, email, and keyword search campaigns. They’re also measuring search engine optimization (82.9%), online advertising (80%) and social media (65.7%). Mobile (45.7) video advertising (42.9%) are lower on the list but much higher than average.

n=494



25.3%

29.6%

38.3%

50.0%

53.5%

59.3%

59.5%

69.3%

77.6%

Customer Satisfaction

Technical Performance

Usability

Navigation

Content Consumption

Conversion

Search Marketing Response

Email Marketing Response

Landing Page Visits


Which of the following aspects of your online marketing do you measure on an ongoing basis?(select all that apply)

Looking at the measurement of various aspects of online marketing, most organizations surveyed (77.6%) measure landing pages on an ongoing basis. The response to email marketing (69.3%) is also measured regularly, as is search marketing response (59.5%). Nearly 60% measure conversion, 53.5% measure content consumption, and 50% measure navigation. Usability (38.3%), technical performance (29.6%), and customer satisfaction (25.3%) fall lower on the list.

n=486




What are the most important KPIs for your company? (choose three)

Finding the right KPIs can be a challenge for many organizations. While we see that sales was chosen as the first KPI by the most survey responders (127), it was chosen by only 43 as the second and 45 as the third most important KPI (215 total responses). Visitors ranked highly as the first (93), second (66) and third (74) most important KPI, receiving the most responses (246) overall as well. Leads were chosen by 223 survey responders as a top KPI.

0 50 100 150

Mentions by others

Inbound links

New Accounts

Pageviews

Visits

Leads by quality

Leads

Visitors

Sales

First KPI

Second KPI

Third KPI

n=480



None24%

Dramatically3%

A lot11%

Some30%

A little32%

We also see that not much has changed in these KPIs over the last two years, since 32% said that they’ve changed a little, 24% said not at all, and 30% indicated that they’ve changed some. Only 11% said they’ve changed a lot, and 3% of survey responders indicated that their KPIs have changed dramatically over the last two years.


Have these KPIs changed over the last two years?

n=480



13.1%

14.1%

15.4%

19.5%

20.3%

25.6%

33.6%

34.0%

44.1%

47.1%

48.4%

49.0%

49.0%

67.2%

67.6%

Visitor generated content

Print

Order size

Use tool/application

Forward to friend

Video views

Visitor login

Order placed

View

Time on site

Download

Request

Pages viewed during visit

Registration

Contact us


What success events are applicable to your site(s)? (select all that apply)

When asked to choose the success events for their site or sites, survey responders said that contact us (67.6%) and registration (67.2%) were both applicable, followed by a tie (49%) between the number of pages viewed during a visit and a request (such as for samples, quotes, proposal, or literature). Downloads (48.4%) are close behind, along with time spent on site (47.1%).

Among organizations that are very effective at using web analytics data to inform online business activities, contact us (74.3%) is also key, as is registration (71.4%). Interestingly, time spent on site is much lower (40%) in priority for very effective organizations.

n=488



A few16%

Some18%

All4%

Most4%

Only a couple53%

Many5%

Yes36%

No64%


Do you assign a monetary value to these events?

Most of the organizations surveyed (53%) said they assign monetary values to only a couple of success events. Approximately 34% said they assign value to some or a few events. Taken together, only 13% said they assign a value for many, most or all of their success events.

And when asked whether their Sales Force automation/CRM tool includes activity, only 36% said yes, which means a large majority (64%) are not monitoring website activity of their customers and prospects.

n=470

Does your Sales Force Automation/Customer Relationship Management tool include activity by customers/prospects that occurred on your website?

n=486




How do you integrate data from various online channels? (check all that apply)

When asked how they integrate data from various online channels, more than half (54%) said they use Excel spreadsheet integration, and 29% said they use periodic extract, transform and load (ETL) to integrate data. Survey respondents also indicated that 23.2% have fully integrated data streams. About 12.6% have RSS feeds between databases, and 8.7% use PowerPoint integration. Believe it or not, 8% are still relying on manual or “sneaker net” systems in order to get information across.

When we look at organizations that say they are very effective at using web analytics data to inform online business activities, it comes as no surprise that nearly twice as many as compared to the general population—45.5%—say they are using fully integrated data streams.

n=435

8.0%

8.7%

12.6%

23.2%

29.2%

54.0%

Sneaker net

PowerPointintegration

RSS feeds betweendatabases

Fully integrated datastreams

Periodic ExtractTransform and Load

Excel spreadsheetintegration



9.4%7.8%

21.9%

17.0%

41.3%

1.6% 0.9% 0.0% 0.2%

Increasemore than

30%

Increase20-29%

Increase10-19%

Increase0-9%

Flat Decrease0-9%

Decrease10-19%

Decrease20-29%

Decreasemore than

30%

Survey Results: 2010 Outlook

How much will your 2010 online analysis budget change over 2009?

Investment in online analysis is clearly a priority in 2010. In fact, 9.4% said their budget will increase more than 30% over last year, and 7.8% said it will increase 20 to 29%. Nearly 22% said it would go up 10 to 19%. All together, only 2.7% said they’d be decreasing their budget by any amount, and 41.3% said budgets would remain the same from 2009 to 2010.

n=448 n=437




Do you plan to decrease, maintain, or increase your budget for each of these tools?

Looking at investment in individual tools, we see the highest number (198) of respondents indicating an increase in budget for conversion optimization, and website performance optimization is also a priority—177 said they’d increase budget, and 202 would maintain it. Customer segmentation, advertising optimization, traffic, and page view monitoring are high on the list as well.

It’s interesting to notice how many said predictive analytics (152), multivariate testing (138), cross-channel metrics (135) and behavioral targeting (132) were not applicable to them.

82

95

99

106

114

119

122

129

129

135

162

164

177

198

17

13

17

22

20

17

12

16

15

21

13

13

11

5

154

161

163

187

142

192

150

243

194

182

155

193

202

138

152

135

129

97

138

83

132

28

76

81

81

43

23

72

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Predictive Analytics

Cross Channel Metrics

Reputation Management

Online Competitive Analysis

Multivariate Testing

Dashboards

Behavioral Targeting

Traffic & Pageview Monitoring

Customer Satisfaction Analysis

Advertising Optimization

Customer Segmentation

Navigation & Usability

Website Performance Optimization

Conversion Optimization

increase decrease maintain N/A

n=437




Very effective organizations: Do you plan to decrease, maintain, or increase your budget for each of these tools?

If we look at the responses of organizations that are very effective at using web analytics data to inform online business activities, we see similar trends compared to the general population—conversion optimization is at the top of the list, and navigation & usability is third. However, customer segmentation rates higher here, with 13 respondents saying they will increase budget, 13 saying they will maintain it, none planning to decrease it and 4 indicating it’s not applicable.

n=4373

5

7

9

10

10

11

11

11

11

11

12

13

17

0

0

1

0

1

1

0

2

0

1

0

0

7

21

16

12

14

12

14

13

12

14

13

16

14

13

7

4

7

8

5

6

3

5

3

3

3

1

2

4

3

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Traffic & Pageview Monitoring

Online Competitive Analysis

Cross Channel Metrics

Reputation Management

Predictive Analytics

Advertising Optimization

Multivariate Testing

Dashboards

Behavioral Targeting

Customer Satisfaction Analysis

Website Performance Optimization

Navigation & Usability

Customer Segmentation

Conversion Optimization

increase decrease maintain N/A

n=30



Increase16%

Maintain83%

Decrease1%

Increase28%

No change69%

Decrease3%


What are the staffing plans for your online analysis department in 2010?

When it comes to investing in online analysis, we see that 28% plan to increase their staffing levels, and 69% intend to keep them the same. Only 3% plan to decrease their staff levels. When we look at organizations that say they are either effective or very effective at using web analytics data to inform online business activities, 37.3% say they plan to increase staffing levels.

As for customer data privacy, very few survey responders (1%) plan to decrease their oversight. In fact, 16% plan to increase it and 83% intend to keep oversight at current levels. Large organizations intend to increase it more than smaller ones. Looking just at companies with revenue of more than $1 billion, 21.6% plan to increase it, and 78.4% plan to maintain it.

n=447

Do you plan to increase, maintain, or decrease your level of customer data privacy oversight?

n=444



Key Findings

We surveyed over 700 professionals in the web analytics industry to find out what their progress and plans are in 2010:

• Where does web analytics live in their organization?• What channels are they currently measuring?• What are their most important KPIs, and how have they changed?• How effectively does web analytics data inform online and offline business activities?

From the results of our survey, we gained insight into web analytics in business-to-business organizations in 2010.

1. Investments in Web Analytics are Increasing: Just over 56.1% of organizations surveyed said they will increase their online analysis over 2009. Only 2.7% said they would be decreasing their budgets. The rest (41.3%) said spending would remain unchanged. Most of the organizations plan to increase or maintain their investment in tools that optimize conversion and website performance as well. And when asked about their staffing plans, 28% said they intended to increase staff in their online analytics departments in 2010. Only 3% said they planned to decrease them.

2.OrganizationsAreConfidentAboutOnlineMeasurement:Nearly 43% of those surveyed said they’re effective when it comes to using web analytics data to inform online business activities. And 7.1% described themselves as very effective. Offline fares less well—just 22% said they are effective using web analytics to inform offline business activities, and only 2% indicated that they are very effective.

Larger revenue doesn’t always mean more effective measurement. In fact, the group that said they were most effective at using web analytics data to inform only business activities was the one with less than $100 million in revenue—52.9% said they were effective or very effective.

3. Web Analytics Needs a Good Home: Most respondents (69%) said the marketing department is where web analytics lives, and very few (2%) said they outsource it. The organizations with the most effective use of online analytics say that web analytics lives in marketing departments (63%) or analytics centers of excellence (23%)—and none of them outsource their web analytics. On the other hand, of those who say they’re very ineffective, 27.3% say web analytics lives in IT, and 6.1% say that they outsource it.

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