Google is to launch a
free web analytics service that measures the effectiveness of websites and
online marketing campaigns.
Google
Analytics will allow customers of its
AdWords
service to see exactly how visitors interact with their website and how their
advertising campaigns are faring.
The hosted service will be available in English and 16 other languages, and
uses technology from San Diego-based Urchin, which Google acquired in March.
The proposal of a free service is likely to cause ripples in the web
analytics business. Urchin's products previously cost £308 a month, which Google
reduced to £124 a month.
Website owners will be able to see exactly where visitors come from, which
links on the site are getting the most traffic, which pages visitors are
viewing, how long people stay on the site, which products on merchant sites are
being sold and where people give up in multi-step checkout processes.
Google Analytics will be integrated with AdWords and will offer a new
interface within existing AdWords accounts. Marketers can also use the service
to track banner, email, non-paid and paid search advertising campaigns from
other ad service providers.
Three summary views are available for executives, webmasters and marketing
officials.
Julian Smith, online advertising analyst at
JupiterResearch,
said: "This is good news for Google and for its small to medium advertisers
which so far have found it hard to gain good analytics on their advertising
campaigns. It will help them become more sophisticated in their approach to
online campaigns."
Microsoft includes
analytics in its
adCenter
keyword ad campaign tool, which will compete with Google AdWords. AdCenter is in
beta testing in France and Singapore.
Key competitors in the analytics field are
WebSideStory,
Coremetrics, and
Webtrends.
Do you agree?
Have your say on this article