Which Web Analytics Tool is Right for Me? Comparing SiteCatalyst and Google Analytics

Adobe SiteCatalyst collects web site visitors’ online analytics data such as page views and visits and provides a data processing and a reporting platform.  SiteCatalyst is part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud, which is branded as the “most comprehensive set of marketing solutions” and includes tools for analytics, social, media optimization, web experience marketing, targeting and cross-channel campaign marketing.

As part of this rebranding of the product into the cloud, the name SiteCatalyst was officially changed to Reports & Ana­lyt­ics in July 2013, although a search for SiteCatalyst brings you directly to the Adobe analytics page, and articles written after that date still refer to the product with that name. I will use the familiar name for this product while comparing it to Google Analytics.

This article compares SiteCatalyst to Google Analytics by answering a few basic questions.

What’s your budget?

SiteCatalyst offers similar tools to Google Analytics (GA), but at a price. While GA is free to use, the fee for SiteCatalyst could cost more than $100,000 a year, although exact cost is determined by your specific needs. This is a huge contrast to the free cost of GA.

On the positive side, now that SiteCatalyst is part of the “analytics suite” users will be able to use two other tools that were previously available at an additional cost. One of the tools, Discover, is a segmentation and reporting program, and the other, ReportBuilder, allows users to import data into Microsoft Excel. Of course, as Greco reports, this upgrade would likely come with a price increase.

Avinash Kaushik has a 10/90 rule that is worth considering when choosing an analytics tool. He believes that companies should invest 10% in the tool and 90% in the people who will use the tool (Kaushik, 2010). He believes that the people are what makes the tool worthwhile, otherwise you are “simply data rich and information poor” (Kaushik, 2010). After spending $100,000 on SiteCatalyst, that requires quite a large budget for the web analytics team.

How experienced are you with analytics software?

             SiteCatalyst is a powerful product, but it is not as user-friendly as Google Analytics. As one user says, “One [GA] is easy on the eyes; the other takes a bit longer to love."  In fact, SiteCatalyst requires a trained professional to implement it and that it requires a lot of work to set up.

The benefit of SiteCatalyst is that once it is in place, the software will be set up to do exactly what you want it to do, tracking the metrics according to your established goals. The customization afforded by SiteCatalyst may be what some companies need, particularly in combination with the complete analytics suite that Adobe now bundles.

Google Analytics is easy to use. Rather than a complicated implementation and set up, anyone with access to the backend of a website can apply the Google Analytics Java Script code to the site. Google offers clear directions on taking this step, and within 24 hours the code starts to collect analytics.

Once installed, users of both products have access to customer service. SiteCatalyst offers 24-hour support, including online videos, guides and tutorials for free. Additional training is available at a cost.

Google offers free tools, both written and video, to help users implement the product. In addition to a User Forum, Help Center and three-week Digital Analytics Fundamentals course, Google also offers Analytics Academy which dives deeper in data analysis.

How much customization do you want and need?

SiteCatalyst also offers more custom variables than Google Analytics. Custom variables are segments of visitors organized by any criteria you identify, such as common user characteristics, specific pages visited or actions taken. Using custom variables allows the analytics team to view data related to specific groups instead of all traffic in aggregate.

Site Catalyst allows 75 traffic variables, 75 conversion variables and 100 event variables. Chianis notes that GA allows five variables per page, while Ingle states that Google’s Universal Analytics offers 20 variables, an increase, but still not as customized as SiteCatalyst. Both tools allows you to set an expiration date on the variable, but SiteCatalyst allows multiple variables to be stacked on top of each other so analysts can note a sequence of events.

How does it track data?

With SiteCatalyst users can have suites of data for microsites, but all data suites can feed into a large suite that incorporates data for the whole site and one dashboard can be used across all data suites. A benefit of viewing the data for microsites within the entire website is that it is possible to see how a visitor moves between microsites.

Rather than data suites, Google Analytics uses profile filters that permanently apply filters to the data. GA has predefined filters and custom filters. Predefined filters include some basics that most sites will want to view, such as:

·      Exclude/Include only traffic from a specific ISP domain

·      Exclude/Include only traffic from a specific IP address

·      Exclude/Include only traffic from a specific hostname

·      Exclude/Include only traffic from a specific subdirectory.

GA custom filters are developed according to specific needs of your company. They may include or exclude traffic based on a specific dimension such as a campaign, audience information, location or event; or may connected to use of lower or upper case letters. Advanced filters are also available. This article offers a lot of detail about GA's profile filters.

It is important to note that once filters are applied in Google Analytics, they are permanent and cannot be removed. When filters are applied, a raw data profile should always be maintained so that there will be a backup file.

How long do you want to keep back-up data?

If you want to keep back-up data for your website indefinitely, SiteCatalyst will meet your needs as long as you continue using this product. Google Analytics stores data for just over two years. But how long do you need to keep web data?

Avinash Kaushik points out that web data has a shelf life, and there is no need to keep it around indefinitely. He recommends keeping click-level, detailed data for a year and session-level aggregated data for longer, as long as it fits in a spreadsheet (Kaushik, 2010).

Kaushik’s reasons are simple and all end in the phrase “change too much.” What changes? Your visitors and the browsers and devices they use; your computations, or how you measure things on the web; your systems – content management system, new web language or new applications; your website itself as you implement new technology and improvements based on your analytics; and finally your people, or the team that takes care of your website and its data (Kaushik, 2010).

 What web analytics tool would I choose?

Some expert analytics users combine SiteCatalyst and Google Analytics to monitor their websites. Sarah Ingle notes that she uses GA for quick and easy answers, but sometimes she needs to dig deeper for information and SiteCatalyst is the better tool. That may make sense for a seasoned analytics professional, but at this early stage of my analytics exploration, I can’t imagine delving deeper than the depth that Google Analytics offers.

GA’s free cost means that I could allocate dollars to consultants who can help me set up the best goals and automatic tracking to meet my needs. Committing to a richer analytics suite, such as SiteCatalyst and its sister components, would appeal more to a large company with a team trained in managing analytics and focused on making their website work to its fullest.

Your turn

Have you tried SiteCatalyst? If so, would you ever give it up and solely use Google Analytics?