Comments on: Google Analytics Is Bad For Your Health http://marketfederation.com/google-analytics-is-bad-for-your-health/ Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:18:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: on-on http://marketfederation.com/google-analytics-is-bad-for-your-health/#comment-252 on-on Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:26:56 +0000 http://marketfederation.com/google-analytics-is-bad-for-your-health/#comment-252 One thing I would add is that a lot of guerilla online marketers are in love with Google analytics because they think it gives them accurate information about things like conversions, but as anyone who has monkeyed with web stuff long enough can tell you, the only truly accurate way to track something like conversions is at the database level, which is why affiliate networks use tracking gifs/scripts predictively, but why disputes about actual counts are always settled by actual data records. Only your server (or servers) can tell you exactly how many people showed up and exactly how many conversions are in your database - however a conversion is defined for you. The only other thing I'd add is in support of what you've said about giving data away. When you're running PPC campaigns, I've often wondered if it's wise to tell Google what your conversion rate is. On the one hand, they could use CR to buttress a flagging quality score if the CR indicated a lot of user preference for the content, but, on the other hand, they must also use CR to figure out how valuable certain keywords are and ratchet up their cost. It's all a bit of a black box, but I tend to favor not giving them the info since tracking the conversion yourself is more accurate anyway. Good article, btw. One thing I would add is that a lot of guerilla online marketers are in love with Google analytics because they think it gives them accurate information about things like conversions, but as anyone who has monkeyed with web stuff long enough can tell you, the only truly accurate way to track something like conversions is at the database level, which is why affiliate networks use tracking gifs/scripts predictively, but why disputes about actual counts are always settled by actual data records. Only your server (or servers) can tell you exactly how many people showed up and exactly how many conversions are in your database - however a conversion is defined for you.

The only other thing I’d add is in support of what you’ve said about giving data away. When you’re running PPC campaigns, I’ve often wondered if it’s wise to tell Google what your conversion rate is. On the one hand, they could use CR to buttress a flagging quality score if the CR indicated a lot of user preference for the content, but, on the other hand, they must also use CR to figure out how valuable certain keywords are and ratchet up their cost. It’s all a bit of a black box, but I tend to favor not giving them the info since tracking the conversion yourself is more accurate anyway.

Good article, btw.

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