Want an affordable web analytic tool, try Clicky

Ryan Ruud, CEO and founder of Lake One Digital said, "When you have a clear understanding of what you're trying to accomplish, Google Analytics will be a lot easier, and much more fun." Until a business reaches the stage of fully embracing Google Analytics there may be a need to look for a supplemental software that is more user friendly, quicker and provides a timely snapshot of some specific areas that dives deeper into the data on a website. One reason why Google Analytics is the most popular analytics tool globally is not only that it is collects amazing data but because it is a free service, however note it comes with limitations. For the analytical geeks out there, Google Analytics offers a full blown premium version that carries a hefty price tag beginning at $150k annually and typically this monetary investment would not be suitable for the average small business owner.

This discussion is not intended to trash Google Analytics because there are many great benefits and, as mentioned above, it is a free tool that would obviously be the most popular recommendation with a frugal Chief Financial Officer at the helm. However, if you are like me, a novice at web analytics, Google Analytics can still be a daunting task with a steep learning curve. The abundance of data and the metrics can be confusing and challenging to navigate. It has been said that Google Analytics is not intuitive and is often time consuming with the variety of different reports, setting up goals and tracking conversions. However, since Google is the most popular search engine, it would be impractical to simply ignore Google Analytics, and more viable to utilize and leverage the data from it.

Another reason why analytical professionals seek alternative tools is, although Google Analytics is a robust software, it gives pause to some who are uncomfortable trusting all of their data with one resource. Therefore, in order to fill in the gaps an analyst may seek a supplemental software not to replace Google Analytics, but instead work along aside and enhance the data.   

There are a variety of analytical tools on the market and one that has recently received excellent reviews is Clicky. It is clean, quick and has everything that you basically need to know. A quick rundown of Clicky is a user friendly, easy to navigate system that is mobile friendly because it doesn’t use flash components and offers real-time-analytics. The user can analyze up to 3,000 site views per day with the free version for one website. To name a few of the terrific features: merging with Twitter data, heat maps, and site uptime tracking in addition to monitoring page visits, email alerts and it provides detailed data and information about every visitor to the website. Below is a chart, provided by Clicky, that visually demonstrates an abbreviated overview and comparison with Google Analytics on a variety of features.

Let’s look further at some of the key features.

Dashboard – The dashboard is easy on the eyes, and has the ability to view multiple websites and real-time data on a single screen. This is extremely helpful for a professional blogger who is managing different websites and must keep track of all the different activity throughout the day. The dashboard gives a complete analysis with: top content, visitors, top keywords, visitor behavior, which includes video views or downloads, bounce rates and keyword ranking. If a blogger uses WordPress, there is a plugin that allows the user to visualize the Clicky stats integrated into that dashboard. As compared to Google Analytics the user must go through a sequence of clicks to visualize data individually. Although the new and improved dashboard appears to be visually appealing, it cannot compare to Clicky. The most common complaint is that Google Analytics is time consuming, awkward and clumsy.

Heat Maps – A heat map is a visual communications tool that tells an analyst instantly what is most viewed on the website. Why would this be important? Simply, heat maps reveal what areas of landing pages get the most clicks, defines sections of the page that the user hovers over with the mouse as well as areas on the website that do not have links, and identifies where visitors focus their attention. A heat map visually tracks almost every possible visitor interaction including mouse click, mouse movement, page scrolling and browser attention. All of this data is used to increase micro conversions on a website. Leveraging the quantitative data acquired from Google Analytics with the qualitative data from a heat map creates a quick, powerful tool that increases micro and macro conversions. Another way to look at the usefulness of heat maps is that the data curated from Google Analytics shows us the “what” on a website is at risk and a heat map shows us exactly “where” on the website it is occurring and turns the big data into an easy to understand visual tool. An example is a landing page with a variety of call-to-actions. The heat map can reveal which one is working and fix the one that isn’t. Analyzing the heat map can also demonstrate the cold areas of where the user exits the page. Using the data to re-work an offer or re-write content can increase the probability of a conversion or get the user to perform a task in a timely manner. In an article by Moz, a heat map software tool assisted with increasing the conversion rate by 87% in one month. That is pretty impressive. Google Analytics does not record information to create page heat maps. What Google Analytics does offer is a paid extension through Session Cam’s Session Replay, Heat maps and Web Analytics.

Real-Time Data – Real-time data helps marketers implement their strategy and accurately make necessary changes based on the data that is happening in a given timeframe. For example, there is an offer and the website is receiving a high rate of page views but none of the visitors are taking action. If the web analytics professional identifies an issue with the activity, it can be quickly corrected so as not to lose any further potential leads. Using the Spy tool gives real-time activity of the user, location, the operating system and even provides when the web browser is being used.  As compared to Google Analytics the real-time function is delayed and limited.

Testing – According to Kaushik, “A/B testing is the cheapest way to start testing because you use existing resources and the complexity isn’t difficult.” A marketer understands that testing is one element in their arsenal that can instantaneously increase performance. Clicky offers split testing, A/B testing and even an iPhone app called ClickyTouch all in real-time. Clearly, Google Analytics offers A/B testing, but the testing feature with Clickly is much easier to use and intuitive.

Cost – Clicky is extremely affordable and offers a 21-day free trial offer, which is a nice introduction. The monthly fee is $9.99 and includes 1,000,000 page views per month. There are other plans that can run $19.99 per month and customized options where the fee varies. Compare this to Google Analytics where the premium version begins at $150,000 per year. Clearly this is a huge investment and an enterprise must ask itself if it will provide a good return. Most businesses simply cannot initially afford this type of monetary investment.

Conversely, if a website is generating $1 million in revenue and an investment in Google Analytics Premium is $150k, a business would only need to increase revenue by 1.5% to pay for this version. Something to think about.