Friday, October 10, 2008

Google Offers Free Web Analytics to Advertisers


Google is today releasing the latest version of its Urchin hosted analytics service - now dubbed Google Analytics - which will be free to AdWords advertisers and would likely attract more advertisers to sign up, reports ClickZ. Google began charging $199 per month for the service starting in May, lowering it from the $495 it was charging after it acquired Urchin in March.

In the latest version, which will be available in 16 languages, Google has added customized dashboards for different types of users: webmasters, marketers and executives. The software is also integrated with AdWords.

Marketers can access both website and AdWords analytics through one interface. They can also automatically tag each keyword and track it - as well as ROI, via the automatic importing of keyword pricing data. Initiatives in other channels - e.g., email, banner ads - can also be tracked.

Google has also developed a help center, including a section that explains key analytics concepts. And it has trained sales reps to help its larger advertisers.

"My suspicion is that the available market of companies that could benefit from Google Analytics numbers in the millions worldwide," according to JupiterResearch analyst Eric Peterson. "A secondary audience is the millions of bloggers in the world who don't have any visibility into the traffic their posts generate."

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