There
are a few different web analytics tools available that a business could use for
their business. Here’s a list of a few
to consider, but I’ll focus on just one comparison to GA (Google Analytics).
1. Adobe – pretty much a direct competitor
to GA but geared more toward enterprise and business users.
2. Hubspot – Lots of basic analytics
capabilities but also integrates in a CRM
3. SEMrush – great tool for keyword
research for both SEM and SEO and helps you narrow in on what keywords to
target, but more limited in pure website analytics
4. Data Studio – technically still Google,
but worth calling out separately because it’s a visualization platform that can
use any data source, including GA.
I’m
going to focus on Hubspot. Founded in
2006 and headquartered in Cambridge, MA.
Hubspot goes beyond web analytics and provides tools to manage social
media, content, SEO, and websites. To me
it definitely provides an advantage given the user-friendly interface and that
fact that it’s one portal to see data associated with a CRM, marketing
campaigns, sales activity, and customer service. All these categories are set-up in “Hubs”…see
what they did there? All this said, the
biggest difference versus GA is that it integrates with a CRM. If you are running GA, then you need a
separate CRM, and the data doesn’t really talk to one another. You have to manually access reports from both
systems and try to make heads or tails of the insights and performance. With Hubspot it’s all under one system or “roof”. The CRM feature from Hubspot provides
insights against specific contacts and it actually has contact information. The
marketing hub allows you to drive lead generation, automate in-bound campaigns
at scale, and provides analytics. The sales
and service hubs are geared towards outbound sales activity like email (which
you could also tag in GA), and customer feedback. Hubspot actually provides Live Chat (GA does
not). Live Chat is a common feature
available for websites today, but they don’t always integrate easily with other
systems if from another company. In GA
you can tag Chat leads, but you won’t get much more engaging information than
that.
There
are several common features and functions between Hubspot and GA. They both provide website traffic reports,
but GA has many more layers of data and as a result delivers much more in depth
information. Page Views is a common
metric with both of these tools. Sources
and Goal Setting is another common functionality with both Hubspot and GA. Conversions are also available with both platforms,
but GA shows tracking for every interaction with every session, whereas Hubspot
does not. As a marketer, and website
manager, I would want to see the details and be able to aggregate and track
that data over time.
There
are some major differences in the two, and in these topics GA is the clear
winner. This is primarily the broad
reaching and depth of analytics for websites.
In this arena GA delivers so much more data. Sometimes this is noted as overwhelming, and
I can relate given the last five to seven years of my career being thrown into
the deep-end with GA. It just takes
time, practice, patience, and some outside guidance (thanks Professor and every
other mentor I’ve had along the way).
Segmentation is a good example of the depth of analytics GA provides
that Hubspot does not. You just can’t
get segmentation by device, referral source, etc… and you definitely can’t get
Cohort Analysis from Hubspot. Another
difference in the two is the SEO reporting.
In the article I read (Ford, 2019) he denotes that SEO reporting is
better with Hubspot because it makes reports more actionable and easier to read
with their visualizations. Maybe I sort
of agree with this. My experience with
Hubspot is limited in real life, and capped only by my research for this blog
post. Although, admittedly I did have a discussion
with a reliable colleague about it too.
GA does provide good insight on SEO but only through Search Console, and
that’s not always available to everyone.
Technically it is another tool to have to learn. See what I mean about the depth of GA…it’s
really the depth of Google! As I
mentioned previously Hubspot has a CRM hub that is actually offered free with
their service. GA is NOT a CRM. In this match Hubspot is the clear
winner. They can give data to analyze
customer interactions down to the contact level. GA doesn’t provide any contact information
(because they can’t given PII laws). GA
isn’t a CRM, there isn’t a feature to allow customers to opt-in with GA. Businesses need to have a CRM for that, which
ultimately leads to different systems.
Furthermore, Hubspot makes it easier to analyze and manage this information
because just like their other hubs the CRM hub visualizes the customer journey. If I’m thinking about this from a marketing
perspective… not every marketer is a data geek, or wants to navigate through GA
on their own. I find this especially
with higher level marketing professionals.
My VP and CEO at Hanesbrands didn’t want to see piles and piles of
numbers from GA, they wanted to know what the data said, what to do about it,
and wanted it in an intuitively easy to understand format. With Hubspot visualization approach it could
be very applicable for this.
Not
surprisingly, I have an opinion about what one could or should do when it comes
to picking one of these platforms. Web
Analytics are absolutely necessary if you are running a website, but a CRM is
also necessary if you want robust information about your customer. Hubspot provides both to make it simple, but
it really lacks the depth of data a true website analytics person would
want. The bottom line is that you need
both. GA is a necessary evil to run
websites, and a CRM is a necessary evil.
Even if you chose Hubspot because you get a free CRM and great
visualizations…you’ll still need GA. It’s
inevitable that questions will arise that can only be answered by GA, and not
by Hubspot. That said, the choice really
needs to be driven by what is needed and applicable for the goals of your
business and role that analytics plays for that specific business. I got through all of that and didn’t even
post a chart or a report…so unlike me. J
REFERENCES
E. Ford. November 7, 2019. HubSpot Vs Google Analytics: A Comparison of
Website Analytics Tools for Marketers. Retrieved from: https://supermetrics.com/blog/hubspot-vs-google-analytics
Hubspot.com. Retrieved from: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/reports/why-do-hubspot-and-google-analytics-not-match
No comments:
Post a Comment