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Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

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Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#121

Post by samb1729 »

smt88 wrote: post #26
samb1729 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart I am very much onboard with this idea. The notion that it is a requirement that businesses track individual customers’ actions in order to succeed is pervasiv…

Disclaimer: I hate Google Analytics because I hate Google, I hate monopolies, and I hate excessive hoarding of user data. I think the necessary aspects of tracking can be maintained without having all the bad aspects, but we need to break up the ad companies first. > without watching exactly how every customer looks at shelves This is absolutely not true. Do you have experience with managing brick and mortar stores?…

> This is absolutely not true.

I disagree, and I would prefer the entirety of my phrasing be quoted:

> Brick and mortar retailers manage to reach an acceptable level of business without watching exactly how every customer looks at shelves by just selling things people want or need [...]

I am referring to the enormous number of independent retailers, not just the small number of ultra-wealthy retail giants. Note I was careful to say "acceptable level of business" rather than "absolutely maximised profits", because I don't necessarily agree that it is a requirement that all people make as much money as they can possibly manage.

If you were to make the argument that monitoring customers' actions is a means to make more money, I wouldn't disagree. I just don't think that all businesses will fail miserably without it.

> Do you have experience with managing brick and mortar stores?

Yes. They're small shops that serve a well-understood need for the local population and produce a sustainable income for everyone involved. No need to do much more than that for me.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#122

Post by nitrogen »

Dudeman112 wrote: post #93
smt88 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tracking is not just about improving conversions. It's primarily about understanding if your ads worked. It doesn't matter how good your product is if you can't tell anyone about it, and you can't spend a bunch of money telling people about it if you don't know which ad networks are giving you bang for your buck.

I think you're being silly. As long as your product is good enough, no one needs a marketing budget or to measure if marketing is working. And everyone has the resources and time to make their own analytics tools, if they need it, instead of relying on existing solutions

I used to think that way. My customers liked my products, but I didn't really get many new customers. I doubled down on improving the technology. Then I ran out of money.

"If you build it, they will come" is only very rarely true, and chances are there was some kind of submarine marketing going on anyway that you just didn't know about.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#123

Post by misterbwong »

Enginerrrd wrote: post #5
heipei wrote: post #3

Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…

>Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. This is part of why costco is so success…

I echo your sentiments on Costco but this is an argument for different metrics, not an argument against analytics.

There is no chance that Costco doesn't use analytics. They might not A/B test their online button colors for highest conversion rate, but I'd bet they have their own set of analytics to determine product quality, sales, returns, viability, etc.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#124

Post by atombum »

mrtksn wrote: post #78
heipei wrote: post #3

Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…

Let's think about it. Are games doing analytics? Games are essentially UIs that people pay for the privilege to use. Although I am sure that contemporary game makers use analytics to understand user behaviour and optimize for in game spending and engagement, at least in the bigger games probably the core experience comes from creative human processes. The more the analytics the further optimised the game would be tow…

I think for companies like Activision, EA, analytics drive a massive amount of their decision making.

I would even go so far as to posit that Blizzard (a master of psychological manipulation), most decisions are driven by analytics based optimization for engagement FIRST, then mechanics and creative design get to come play.

I have no evidence, nor am I an insider, just an observer and scholar of games.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#125

Post by dheera »

heipei wrote: post #3

Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…

PSA: Add this to /etc/hosts if you don't want other sites collecting info from you via Google Analytics/Ads

    0.0.0.0 googleanalytics.com
    0.0.0.0 googlesyndication.com
A more complete list of things worth adding to /etc/hosts here (I'm not affiliated with this):

https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#127

Post by karpierz »

mrtksn wrote: post #78
heipei wrote: post #3

Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…

Let's think about it. Are games doing analytics? Games are essentially UIs that people pay for the privilege to use. Although I am sure that contemporary game makers use analytics to understand user behaviour and optimize for in game spending and engagement, at least in the bigger games probably the core experience comes from creative human processes. The more the analytics the further optimised the game would be tow…

A prime example of analytics driving games is Slay the Spire, where they would record every decision you made and outcomes in the game to better balance the experience and give the player interesting decisions.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/314975/How_Slay_the_Spir...

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#128

Post by sizzle »

janpot wrote: post #80
crazygringo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. Huh? Analytics is how you focus on your product. By instrumenting your product with analytics, you can find out if customers are using your new useful feature or if they can't find it. If they're performing a task quickly because it's easy, or slowly because they're struggling with the UX. And you find out that customers on a certain mobile device are suffering…

> you can find out if customers are using your new useful feature or if they can't find it How do you find out if your "useful" feature isn't as useful as you thought it was? Or is it really always "the user can't find it"?

You could talk to your users... (i.e. UX research), observe them using your website or product and ask them non leading probing questions to see what the intent is behind the behaviors affecting your bottom line. Qualitative research methods are a rich source of insight that is typically underinvested and underutilized.

Analytics (quantitative data) can help you find areas of bottlenecks to explore further by doing qualitative user research and getting to the ‘why’ behind the people problems standing in the way of your metrics you are tracking (retention, adoption, etc.). This is called ‘triangulation’ using quant and qual research methods to understand your users more deeply than just looking at data can achieve.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#129

Post by novok »

Mauricebranagh wrote: post #94
heipei wrote: post #3

Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…

Google just need to offer an on-prem version of GA - that would sole so many of my problems. The problem with your view is you have X resources to get things done - how do you measure the ROI or even get an idea of possible strategies. Of course you can go back to the 1960's mad men era "its toasted" approach to marketing, but that's not the best use of resources.

The choice isn't GA or no analytics. You can do local server side analytics yourself if you wanted to, and even buy an on-prem product from someone out there that does the same.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#130

Post by PeterisP »

arcturus17 wrote: post #101
Dudeman112 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're being silly. As long as your product is good enough, no one needs a marketing budget or to measure if marketing is working. And everyone has the resources and time to make their own analytics tools, if they need it, instead of relying on existing solutions

Are you being facetious? Everyone has the time to roll out their own analytics? Where do you work, Google?

While developing your own analytics seems like overkill, you definitely can host your own analytics, using one of the many solutions where all the analytics data are kept on your own servers.
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