Predictive analytics will change the way you do web analytics
Everybody is talking about predictive analytics as the next thing in AI. But how great is it, and can it really be used to automate the analytics process or is it just another tool for experts? Learn what it means for a Digital Marketer in this walkthrough.
Until now, Web Analytics tool has been designed for experts
It would not be a bold statement to claim the web analytics has not changed substantially over the last 15 years. Yes, applications like Google Analytics now look nicer, and it has much more features.
Overall they have however not changed much. They are fundamentally designed for experts who know how to attract business value out of the tool and then present it to the ones who will take action on the findings.
Your options
So If you are a digital marketer then you a left with a set of options that are not ideal. You can either learn how to use web analytics yourself, you can hire someone to do it for you, or you can wing it and ignore insights into your customer’s online behavior.
The answer?
So, is predictive analytics the answer to your digital marketers analytics pain of being in control of your own analytics, or is it just another tool for the experts?
To be able to answer this you need to understand what Predictive analytics is and how it can work for you.
The concept
The graph below shows where conceptually predictive analysis is compared to regular analytics disciples. As a digital marketer, the critical point for you is that predictive analytics start with your business needs and work your way down towards data. If predictive analytics is done well, does it the mean that you do not need to spend time understanding data?
An advanced spelling checker
Think of predictive analytics as an advanced spelling checker. As long as you get valid output, you do not need to understand how it works. The differences being that Predictive web analytics tells you how to improve your online business. If you need to interpret data, then yes, but you can now make data-driven decisions without understanding how the calculations are done.
Does it work?
So, on a conceptual level everyone will agree that such an approach is better and more valuable, but does it work? And what can it actually produce findings of value to you?
User Journeys
One of them looks at User Journeys, but not how you would typically do it. It uses an understanding of your traffic in general and on the specific user journey to automatically identify where you have the best potential to improve your drop out rate. So you do not have to spend time doing so.
The algoritms will tell you …
And it does not stop there. The algorithms will tell you:
- Which pages it makes sense for you to improve
- How much you can expect to improve your drop out rate with
- How many more conversions you will get if you follow the recommended actions
Patterns of value to your business
Quite a lot actually. Because the algorithms in predictive analytics are configured to look for patterns that can improve your online business. They will look for ways to identify segments of user behavior that both have substantial business value to you, and can be well defined.
Conversion improvements
This sounds a bit theoretical, so an example might help. The Canecto application has different features that all look for the best way to get more conversions out of a website.
You are in control
For a digital marketer, this means that you are in control. You know where to focus and what you can expect from your efforts. And best of all you do not need someone else to do analytics for you. You are in control.
User Journeys are just one of the features that Canecto includes in the reports. You also get recommendations on what actions to take on your marketing, social media, content and remarketing.
