Yahoo Web Analytics: Another Yahoo Analytics product discontinued
People keep asking us what will become of Conversion Analyst / Yahoo Web Analytics?
The current state of the software seems as though it will only be available for Yahoo customers, specifically large advertisers or Yahoo Store users. While it is not a complete demise of this analytic platform, it is another disappointing use of a technology purchased by Yahoo. This is especially disappointing since it had some serious advantages over Google Analytics.
- Ip tracking allowed more insight into conversion attribution and customer visits prior to purchase
- Last Visitor Details Which Displayed individual visitor sessions, allowing you to see the referring url, keyword, pages viewed, conversion, etc. to a specific visitor
- Revenue & Cost retrieval of data for both Google AdWords and MSN AdCenter. YWA could also calculate your ROAS for each channel as well. This can now be done with reporting software but not google analytics.
- Increased demographic dataincluded users areas of interest data along with the user location, age and gender.
- Increased access to historical data. YWA would allow access all the way back to 2002.
- Tracking up to 50 unique conversion goals and actions.
Unfortunately, this leaves Yahoo Web Analytics users in a bind and in need of a quick solution to their web analytics software.
The Situation:
As of August 31st 2012, clients using YWA will lose all data prior to the last 2 months and will no longer gather additional data. On Oct 31st these users will lose all of their historic analytic data. At that point they will no longer be able to access their accounts unless they are a Yahoo Store Customer.
The Problem:
With no past data, the benchmarking process of marketing channels and campaigns starts over. All A/B testing, traffic data, keyword and KPI data will all be lost. This is highly important information for analysts, marketing managers, executives and all personnel all the way to the top. Without knowing your history, you are doomed to repeat the past. Marketing decisions based on very short term data may miss the larger scope of a strategy.
The disappearance of valuable data that has been gained over past months and even years is what we all use to optimize our own marketing initiatives and to show improvement strategic results to our clients. While much data can be salvaged with a professional migration service, much of the data that is unique to YWA (such as user IP information) will inevitably be lost in the process.
The Solution:
The first course of action is to export the data into CSV files that has been gathered in YWA. You can do this yourself, however the data is not displayed in a friendly way and unless you are an excel wiz, it will be difficult to decipher. An analytics professional will be able to do this for you easily. Our tech support has a process in place to export the data, refine it and upload it in reporting software so that it can be usefully displayed and acted on.
Anyone who is using YWA as their main analytics platform needs to choose, and install their next analytics platform. We recommend contacting a Google analytics professional and having a discussion about the key performance indicators that are valuable to you and your analysts. (Engine Ready can help with this) These may include on site actions, conversion data, revenue data, traffic data etc. Not all of the same data can be tracked specifically in Google analytics so there may be a need to shift the KPI focus depending upon your new analytics solution. A program like Strategy Analyzer is able to display the specific data that you focus on and can be customized depending on those metrics.
Strategy Analyzer is one program that will allow you to visualize the exported data and compare it with your next analytic solution. Automate your reporting and visualize your data with Strategy Analyzer.
Knowing the power of Analytics and how important it is to successful marketing strategies, Engine Ready and MOZ will be hosting an SEO meetup in downtown San Diego on Tuesday night, December 21st. Come on out to learn about the latest developments in the SEO world, and to see some short presentations. MOZ CEO, Rand Fishkin, and Engine Ready CEO, Jamie Smith, will be there among other professionals to network with.
The event will be held at the San Diego Beer Company, located at Broadway and 6th Ave. For more information, check out the MOZ event calendar or Eventbrite. And by the way, if for some reason you need more incentive to come, the first two drinks are complimentary.
If you are part of the YWA situation feel free to contact us and we can help you!
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