40+ Online Analytics Tools

When you think about online analytics tools, chances are you immediately think about a specific niche of your online model where a significant issue resides.

Unfortunately this causes a lot of problems, as many of us become fixated on the problems in front of us and don’t realize that the problem is being caused by congestion, mis-direction, lack of attention, or simple loss of traction.

If we think about online analytics like an interstate road that has cars zipping down it at 75… there are all sorts of things that affect how and when travelers reach a specific destination.

Some things that go wrong at 75 mph…

You are in the wrong lane
You missed a sign
Its raining, the roads are slick
You are pre-occupied
There is an accident
Someone thought road-work was a good idea
You are simply on the wrong road!

As traffic managers… why should we care?

We should realize that many cases of traffic conversion and monetization are direct ramifications of process points previous to “where we are looking.”

We can’t always help people be better drivers… but if we can control the environment to limit distractions, improve visibility, reduce accidents, and optimize routes we can get a much higher percentage of travelers from A to B to C (and back to A.)

This is where a strategic understanding of online analytics helps to quantify and qualify the process points before, during, and after.

As you browse this list of tools that cover all sorts of problem areas, keep in mind some of the top questions you should be using to manage traffic.

Is this process helping or hurting the user experience?
Does it meet the expectations of the audience?
Do is exceed the expectations of the audience?
Do you know how they got on the path? (first-touch attribution)
Do you know how they got off the path? (last-touch attribution)
How long does the path take? (time to completion/conversion)
Do they stop on the path? (ads, content, pages, sites, profiles touched)
Did they experience this with friends? (social sharing, group decision)
Where did they get lost?
If/when they became lost, what did they do?
When they arrived, did they want to do it again?
What metrics did the trip influence
(how much gas, how many pit-stops, dollars spent, speeding tickets earned)
Did any of them have unusual patterns?
(why did some drive around to the back entrance?)

Measuring the behavior…

When we think about those questions we also need to remember business fundamentals around

cost of acquisition
engagement/retention
monetization
lifetime value
cost of delivery

We can use all of those strategic insights to drive our decision to the online analytics tools will collect the data we need.

REMEMBER:

The data we collect about our users, the way they travel from A to B, and what the total experience involved becomes a critical cog to understanding what, when, where, why, and how our business can make more efficient revenue decisions.

75+ Online Analytics Tools
top-level categories

App Analytics

Competitive Tracking

Dashboard Tools

Email Analytics

Lead Analytics

Mobile Analytics

Site Analytics

Social Data Behavior

Usability Testing

Video Analytics

Visitor Tracking

Web Optimization

Web / Site Analytics

Hopefully these tools give you some remarkable new ways to create insight to your data.

If you can recommend a tool, please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading

Christopher Burgess (@burgessct) says:

August 24, 2012 at 5:04 pm

Excellent piece and prodigious list. Well done!

@burgessct says:

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@SebKuehn says:

August 26, 2012 at 4:15 am

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@gocountly says:

September 7, 2012 at 5:58 pm

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September 19, 2012 at 12:15 am

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@SkyGlue says:

October 13, 2012 at 12:23 am

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@agjs says:

November 19, 2012 at 4:14 pm

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Ryan Connors says:

February 4, 2013 at 3:03 pm

This is a great list Barry thank you for sharing it. I work at a website analytics company called Apptegic and we hope to earn on spot with the great companies above.