Table of contents
- What is web tracking?
- How does web tracking work?
- What do web tracking tools do?
- Web tracking tools - overview
If you operate a website, be it a corporate website that represents your company or a store with which you generate sales, you will not be able to avoid measuring success. Important KPIs for website operators are, for example, traffic and conversion. Traffic in this case means visitors to your website, conversion is when visitors have become customers. With web tracking tools, you can measure these and other KPIs and use them for your marketing strategy, for example to calculate the ROI of your online marketing measures.
Incidentally, this doesn't just apply to the B2C sector, where84% of customers research a product (online) before making a purchase. There are also decision-makers in the B2B sector who inform themselves online about products, services and other companies. This is where web tracking comes in: With web tracking tools, you can analyze who interacts with your website and how, and derive measures accordingly to increase your conversion rate.
What is web tracking?
Web tracking is the collection and analysis of visitor data and their interactions on a website. This information can be used to make several statements:
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Who are my visitors and are they also my desired target group?
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Which content is particularly interesting and which is not? And how can I change this to increase sales?
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Are there anyusability problemson the website that are preventing visitors from becoming customers?
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Are there any technical errors that need to be fixed?
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[...]
If the information and insights gained are integrated into the marketing strategy, the use of web tracking can help to optimize a website and generate business success.
How does web tracking work?
Differentiating between different visitors is essential for tracking. This is the only way to distinguish between different website visits (also known as sessions). There are several ways of differentiating and identifying visitors:
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Cookies: Cookies are small text files that are stored in the visitor's browser. They contain an ID that uniquely identifies the user and recognizes them when they visit the website again. In addition to web tracking, they are also used in stores, YouTube, for "Like" buttons or when logging in to a website. Due to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR ), website operators are obliged to inform their visitors about the use of cookies and offer them the opportunity to object to the use of cookies.
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Fingerprint tracking: Instead of storing a cookie in the browser, hardware and software features (device category such as desktop or smartphone, operating system, browser used, settings, installed software, IP address, MAC address, etc.) are stored on the server to identify a visitor. The combination of all these features results in a digital fingerprint that is unique for each Internet user. The big advantage here is that visitor tracking can also take place without consent to the use of cookies.
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Log file analysis: Servers automatically create logs for all interactions with a website. Among other things, the logs can be used to detect errors, identify hacker attacks, but of course also to track visitors to the website, e.g. the click path. Log files contain the date, time, IP address, browser and browser version, paths accessed and the previously accessed URL (referrer).You can find the standard for log files here. Together with other methods, very granular visitor profiles can be generated in this way.
Data protection should be observed here as a matter of urgency:
The collection, storage and processing of personal data is generally prohibited unless permission has been granted in the form of consent from the data subject or a legal regulation. The data you collect must be tied to a specific purpose and only collected if you need it for this purpose.
If you offer a newsletter, for example, the name is not required and may not be collected. You are also obliged to ensure the security of the data. (Read full article)
What do web tracking tools do?
There are various providers that present the data in a "human-readable" and visually appealing way or accumulate data in order to be able to draw even better conclusions. Some tools can also draw on other data sources, such as Google Analytics data from the Google Search Console. Below you will find an overview of various web tracking tools.
Web tracking tools - overview
Adobe Analytics
Adobe's web tracking and web analysis tool offers not only the usual analysis functions but also powerful attribution, which makes it easier to make marketing decisions. The software also offers predictive analytics through machine learning and AI.
Adobe Analytics is available in 3 license levels: Select, Prime and Ultimate, whereby prices must be requested in each case. You can find out more here: https://www.adobe.com/de/analytics/compare-adobe-analytics-packages.html
AT Internet
The French company AT Internet offers real-time segmentation, a tag management system and data mining solutions that can be used to connect data with other services via various interfaces, in addition to recording the most important KPIs.
AT Internet is available in two license levels: Business from €355 per month or Premium, although you will need to enquire about prices here.
You can find more information about AT Internet here: https://www.atinternet.com/de/
Econda
Econda specializes in e-commerce and can generate the exact customer value using the RFM method. The tool is versatile in terms of custom plugins, allowing users to build their tracking tool according to their needs, e.g. "Marketplace Revenue" for bundling all sales on various online marketplaces. In addition to the software, the company also offers training, consulting and workshops. For prices and conditions, you must contact a sales representative.
Further information about Econda can be found at https://www.econda.de/
etracker
The German company etracker offers web tracking primarily for store owners. The tool offers interfaces to all common content management systems such as Drupal and WordPress, as well as to Google AdWords and Shopware. The functions include web analytics, app analytics and UX analytics. etracker offers a trial version for 30 days including telephone support. After that, there are three license types: Basic from €9 per month, Pro from €19 per month and Enterprise from €99 per month, whereby the price must be requested from the sales department.
You can access the etracker test account here: https://www.etracker.com/test-account
You can find more information about etracker here: https://www.etracker.com/
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is probably the best-known web tracking tool and its basic version is free of charge. Analytics can be connected to Google Search Console and Google Tag Manager and even offers some interfaces for third-party providers. The tracking tool offers insights into the target group, user flow, visitor sources, visitor behavior and - if previously defined - information about conversions. This is particularly useful when used in conjunction with Google AdWords. Tip: Google Datastudio allows you to accumulate data from various sources, including third-party providers, and present it in a visually appealing way.
You can use the free version Universial Analytics directly if you have a Google account. For large companies, Google offers the paid version Analytics 360.
You can find more information about Google Analytics here: https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/de/about/analytics/
Piwik PRO
Piwik is also available in a free and a paid Pro version. Since January 2018, however, the free version has been calledMatomo, but the content is still the same product. The Pro version offers companies the opportunity to display the customer journey, create custom reports in a short space of time and even carry out intranet analyses. The tool is GDPR-compliant, but the provider is not very transparent about the price. The sales department must be contacted here.
You can arrange a demo here: https://piwikpro.de/demo-vereinbaren/
