Review ClickTracks v5.0
Rating: 9/10
Web statistics. Kind of like politicians - they
say a lot, but you often come away feeling like they
haven't
really told you much at all.
I've been using a web analytics tool called ClickTracks for
some time now. I love this product because it quickly
makes sense out of nonsense, and it does so in such
a fun and useful way.
Those unfamiliar with ClickTracks
might like to look at a few past reviews here and here.
In essence, it's a log file analyzer that visually
displays how visitors interact with your
site. Thanks to it's easy-to-use visitor tagging
and tracking features, it's especially useful to
those at the pro end of the
SEM market,
usability analysts and those who need to measure
and track ROI.
ClickTracks are just about to release version Five
of this popular product, so I had a chat with the ever
affable John Marshall, CEO of ClickTracks, to see what's
new. For this review, I choose
to look at two major feature additions to the product
line, "The
ClickTracks Way" and "The
What's Changed" report.
The ClickTracks Way
Generally speaking, help files are rubbish. You can
seldom find the help you're after, and they tend to
infuriate, rather than educate.
Clicktracks v5 has
addressed this problem by including a context sensitive,
regularly updated side panel they call "The ClickTracks
Way". This side bar serves as a prompt context-sensitive,
in-program mechanism that suggests tips, articles,
movies and other appropriate content. Functioning under
the premise that 'you don't know what you don't know,'
The Way brings to the marketers' attention ways of
looking at or interpreting the data that they might
not have thought of before.
The data for the side bar
is updated regularly and, unlike that MS paperClip,
is genuinely useful. It's a nice way of exposing
the rich complexity of this product without being annoying
or intrusive.
The What's Changed Report
Google's
Zeitgeist is cool. Spotting rising and falling
trends is central to marketing strategy, and search
marketing is no exception. Ever craved one of your
own?
ClickTracks have included
a superb feature in the Pro release that calculates
the zeitgeist for your own sites. At a glance, you
can see what visitor areas are rising, the areas
that are falling and respond accordingly.
For example,
I
discovered that I'm getting a surge in popularity
from, of all places, China. So, Ni Hao! I am, however,
getting
less popular in ...erm.. Bulgaria.
You win some,
you lose some.
You could also use this feature to instantly track
new links, or other new surges of activity in your
marketing strategy that
may otherwise drift
under the
radar.
Search
marketers
can
use this feature to spot rising and falling search
queries and adjust their campaigns accordingly.
In essence, ClickTracks are expanding on their original
idea whilst staying true to their roots. The product
provides useful, visual analysis, rather than dry statistics.
As search marketing moves further into the realm of
professional marketing, professional standard analytics
will play an increasingly important role in client
acquisition and retention.
For those search marketers
considering their toolset acquisitions for the
coming year would do well to test drive this product.
Give
it a whirl at www.clicktracks.com.
Summary - New features in this release include:
-The What's Changed Report:
-The Before and After Visitor Label
-Geo-IP
-Easier Server Configuration
-The ClickTracks Way
-Page Views Per Visitor
-Six-month tab
-Reporting
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