Actionable Web Analytics: Using Data to Make Smart Business Decisions Review

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(More customer reviews)Actionable Web Analytics is both well thought out and well written; but it's geared for big business (or medium size at least). If you're a general manager or executive type getting involved with web analytics this is a great book.
However, it's not geared toward the start-up entrepreneur. One of the sections talks about getting your "team" involved... your team being your: CMO (chief marketing officer), web team manager/leader, designer, information architect, usability expert, copywriter, developer, web analyst, strategist, channel manager, segmentation lead, etc. ,etc. For this I joked to my girlfriend that I guess i can have my meeting in front of the mirror! I'm all of these titles I guess. Another section talks about a company that incorrectly spent $150,000 per month on web analytics. While they did mention that this money was somewhat illspent, for entreprenurs this is totally irrelevant.
I gave it a good rating (4 stars) simply because I think the audience the authors intended (corporate types) will get a great benefit out of it. The book is particularly useful if a reader needs to put together a cohesive argument to someone else (e.g. upper management) that analytics (basically measurements) can help with making a company's website more profitable. To that end, the book does a great job!

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Knowing everything you can about each click to your Web site can help you make strategic decisions regarding your business. This book is about the why, not just the how, of web analytics and the rules for developing a "culture of analysis" inside your organization. Why you should collect various types of data. Why you need a strategy. Why it must remain flexible. Why your data must generate meaningful action. The authors answer these critical questions—and many more—using their decade of experience in Web analytics.

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Cult of Analytics: Driving online marketing strategies using web analytics (Emarketing Essentials) Review

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(More customer reviews)Yes this is true, people seem so much fascinated about the tools these days. If you have one of the strong performing analytics tools like Omniture, Coremetrics, WebTrends, Google Analytics, etc you feel happy and contended that you are moving in the right direction but this is just a hallucination. And you know that at every month end when you send the excel report of your KPI's to the stakeholders and it just goes unnoticed as they don't know what to do.
Once you read this book, understand what is being told here, I bet you would know exactly what you have to do with those tools that puke data. The author has stressed on the entire process of Web Analytics which includes advance level understanding of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), Benchmarking and even how to make your organization Web Analytics friendly.
I loved the How to Develop KPIs chapter. I read it twice - thrice, though mine is just a lead generation website but for me the Micro Level KPIs formulas were helpful. Second most important thing is the REAN model on which the author has stressed. I tried to ignore it at first thinking that its just another technical term to get famous but it turned out that if I think and plan according to the REAN model, the understanding and implementation becomes very easy of KPI's, reporting, Dashboard creation and other things. But this is a secret which I am not going to disclose to anyone in my organization because it simplifies things too much.
In all ... implementing the high end tool is of no use if at the end of the month you do not have any thing to action upon. In order to understand the actionable elements you need to get deeper (both Macro and Micro level) of your KPIs. If you believe Avinash Kaushik's 90 / 10 rule then this book is to help you in the 90 part.
Thanks ! Chandan Sharma
(Certified Google Analytics Individual, Certified Google AdWords Professional & Certified Usability Analyst from Human Factors International)

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If you want to understand and get true value from your online content you need to understand how it is used by your customers. If you work with web analytics and online search optimization, this book will provide you with the tools and insight you need to do just that.

Even more, it will give you an actionable plan to transform the culture of your organization into one that uses web analytics on a daily basis, focusing on real changes you can make to your department and processes to transform the way your business works.

With examples from dozens of companies ranging from small businesses, to consumer sites like Amazon, to some of the largest companies in the world including Tesco and Google, Cult of Analytics demonstrates just how to apply web analytics to your business.

* Unique: demand from marketers for a guide to building web analytics into business* Real-world examples show what does and doesn't work online to meet online business objectives * Covers both the technicalities of web analytics and the strategy behind using them in one handy guide to give marketers the complete picture

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Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity Review

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(More customer reviews)As with most books, I started by taking a look at a few sample pages of the book before getting deep into it. My first data point was page 248: where Avinash describes elegantly a case study on measuring offline applications using Google Analytics. Exquisite. Than, on page 279 he shows how to analyze video influence on revenues. Amazing.
After leafing through the book for a while I went back to the beginning and I really enjoyed the way Avinahs Kaushik links the content; bringing basic and important concepts and very advanced techniques side by side. The book has a friendly tone, i.e., it feels like walking down the street and talking to a friend. Avinash knows when to soothe the reader and let him know that this might be frustrating or difficult, he does not pretend to give all the answers.
A central theme on Avinash philosophy also in his previous book (Web Analytics: An Hour a Day) is that people will bring change, not tools. So, even though he proposes several techniques for choosing vendors, he puts in in its place: if you don't have people, you better look for them, no tool will help you. For every $100 you have, you should invest $90 on people and $10 on tools.
This book describes a holistic approach of the Web Analytics field which he defines as "the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from your website and the competition, to drive a continual improvement of the online experience that your customers, and potential customers have, which translates into your desired outcomes (online and offline)."
The book treats all the aspects that need to be understood in order to have a successful web strategy: clickstream data, testing, Voice of Customer, social, mobile, video, you name it. In addition, you will learn about planning and growing a web analytics career, so if you are serious about your career, this book is for you.
Concluding, 'Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity' is a landmark on the Web Analytics field and a must buy for anyone looking to grow and succeed in the Internet.

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Adeptly address today's business challenges with this powerful new book from web analytics thought leader Avinash Kaushik. Web Analytics 2.0 presents a new framework that will permanently change how you think about analytics. It provides specific recommendations for creating an actionable strategy, applying analytical techniques correctly, solving challenges such as measuring social media and multichannel campaigns, achieving optimal success by leveraging experimentation, and employing tactics for truly listening to your customers. The book will help your organization become more data driven while you become a super analysis ninja!
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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