Data visualisation

A thoroughly entertaining beginner’s guide to data and analytics

Confused by cross-channel analytics? Bewildered by big data? Stupefied by structured data?

Well I’m not surprised. Who wouldn’t be?

It’s a big world of complicated words, terms and phrases that can intimidate even the most digital savvy of webmasters wishing to dig deeper into the information their website has been quietly amassing over the last few years.

Help is at hand though, in the form of this very beginner’s guide.

I have written it in the form of a glossary, as it seemed the clearest method of presentation. Not only is it alphabetical but it should also make logical sense if you read it in order.

This is for anyone whose had a rudimentary glance at Google Analytics, or spent a little time in the Site Stats of their WordPress site, or has a copy of our Measurement and Analytics Report but has yet to open it. 

We call these people the intrigued but slightly baffled. Welcome, you’re in good company!

Google Analytics Benchmarking is back: Here’s what you need to know

Benchmarking, for those that were in the know, was once a fantastic feature of Google Analytics.

Discontinued in 2011, and then followed by the removal of Adplanner the following year, meant it became a lot harder to contextualise the great work marketers were doing and get valuable market information.

Alternatives for benchmarking have always been available, based on toolbar tracking or proprietary stats vendors for example, but those that used Google Analytics benchmarking reports loved the feature for its simplicity, the fact that it was perceived to be well informed, and of course it was free.

Well, as announced on the Google Analytics blog today, this ever popular feature has been revived.

For those that opt in to anonymously share their data, version one of the new implementation is being rolled out to all Google Analytics Universal users, with promises of much more to come in the future.

tennis

How Wimbledon is using big data to engage millions

With the sporting focus of the summer firmly set on the football World Cup, some may have forgotten about the imminent sporting championships on our own doorstep.

In a few days’ time, Wimbledon will open its gates to the world’s best tennis stars, together with almost half a million tennis fans.

The number engaging with the two-week tournament digitally is set to be exponentially higher until the gates close on the 6th July. 

Five tips for using behavioural analytics to combat fraud

When we tell businesses that getting to know their customers is vital, it’s not just so that they can provide the best possible customer experience for them.

Getting to know your customers is most crucial when it comes to helping businesses identify enemies disguised as customers.

Fraud is becoming increasingly widespread since the dawn of ecommerce and as it becomes more and more sophisticated, we need greater visibility to fight malicious activity on our websites.

google-analytics-logo

A first look at Enhanced Ecommerce for Google Analytics

Launched during the Google Analytics’ partner summit, Google has taken a fairly huge step in customer understanding by releasing ‘Enhanced Ecommerce’ functionality across the platform.

This latest update is a major change to specifically understand customer behaviour and the effectiveness of merchandising efforts, away from attempting to understand products within GA using transactional data alone and covers a number of new opportunities.

The changes include a series of funnel based reports, widening of the use of the Product ID dimension and Google Tag Manager support for the new functionality, all available through any standard GA account (Universal Analytics only).

Social data: don’t miss the boat

In the movie Mallrats, there’s a clip where one character, William, stares into a Magic Eye image, waiting to see a sailboat hidden in the picture.

Packed lunch in hand, he’s determined to stare until he finds it. Yet William’s frustration only grows as many passerby and children see the boat while he only sees the ‘white noise.’

For me, the conversations at Econsultancy’s recent Social Media Roundtable in New York highlighted the challenge for the enterprise to see the sailboat, camouflaged by the white noise of vast digital data.

Pimp my user experience!

Do you remember that ridiculous programme “Pimp My Ride” on MTV hosted by the even more ridiculous ‘rapper’ Xzibit?

Well Xzibit and his creative mechanic friends were ahead of their time as they recognised the importance of personalisation and creating something that was tailored to individual interests.

An admirable philosophy that should be applied to web platform content.

Five examples of customer-facing dashboards

Here are five examples of customer-facing dashboards. 

The British Airways example below is perhaps the most intriguing. It’s not particularly complex, however, it’s an interesting example of how a brand in a sector traditionally poor at displaying information can seem innovative by simply presenting account history back to the customer.

The same perhaps still applies to mobile phone operators. Take a look and see what you think.

The importance of high quality product data

If advertisers want to be truly multichannel then they need to have access to, and control of, their product data.

By extracting product data from several different sources, you can fulfil any required channel marketing application. 

Data can be extracted directly from your ecommerce site, existing data feeds or an API, and can then be distributed into hundreds of different online channels, increasing the visibility of your products in front of online consumers.

However, it all hinges on having high-quality product data that is comprehensive, accurate and consumable. 

1 2