WebAnalyticsDemystified Report Says "Spend Your Money!"

New Report from WebAnalyticsDemystified [SearchEngineWatch]
WebAnalyticsDemystified: The Problem with Free Analytics

Over at SEWatch, they posted yesterday about this report, put out by WebAnalyticsDemystified, which talked about the "problems" associated with free analytics. More properly, the report ought to be titled so that its subject matter is made more clear: the report actually exposes some of the problems with how free analytics programs are used. It doesn't delve into any conspiracy theories about Google using all the data collected by Google Analytics, or anything like that. It just says that companies not willing to spend the money on analytics software are less likely to see high ROI on the money they spend paying an employee to track their website with free software.

*ahem*... Well, duh!

One thing I noticed in the findings of the report that seemed screwy was their finding about ad-hoc usage. According to the report,

"35% of free analytics users reort only an ad-hoc use of the tool, as opposed to less than 20% who used a paid for solution."

Hmmm... Did that say 20%? Obviously, if you don't pay anything for a piece of software, you're going to be less likely to use it in a productive, systematic way. I'm not surprised by the 35% number. But 20% of paying users report "ad-hoc" usage? That's atrocious. And, since the number is so large, I don't think it helps them prove their point. Rather, it just shows that most people out their don't have a very good idea of how they should use their analytics software, including those who pay for it. I would never have thought that 20% of people paying for web analytics would report just ad hoc usage. Shows what I know...