Stop the Guessing Game: Peek Into Your Competitors' Google Analytics

With 4.66 billion internet users - that’s 60% of the world’s population! - it’s no wonder that 2.5 quintillion (that’s EIGHTEEN zeros) bytes of data are created every day. The power that lies in this data can mean the difference between success or failure for many a B2B or B2C business.

Used correctly, companies can mine tons of data to find valuable insights about their customers and potential customers. This information can then be used to target their advertising better and extend more personalized offers. As companies have realized the value of customer data, they have become more focused on hiring data analysts and trying to leverage the information to make better business decisions.

There’s no question that first party data (i.e. data that a company can collect from its own assets, such as attributions, page views, and transnational data) is extremely valuable, providing a wealth of information that can directly impact the acquisition of new customers and increase conversions. But, in today’s competitive marketplace, first party data is no longer enough.

Companies need to answer important questions in order to increase conversions, and first party data simply cannot provide all of the necessary information. There are also new privacy regulations that limit the use of data, and, finally, the sheer mass of data out there can be paralyzing as marketers don’t know where to begin searching for the most usable information. 

First Party Data is No Longer Enough

First party data provides significant information about existing customers - demographics, buying preferences, etc. As the data was collected with permission, it is owned by the company and doesn’t introduce complicated privacy issues. Relying solely on this type of data, however, presents companies with the following difficulties:

Competitor Blindness

First party data provides a great picture of what a particular company is doing and who its customers are, but it does not provide any insight into what is happening with competitors. Understanding who the top competitors are and how they are driving sales and increasing their own conversion rate is critical information that can help a company grow and overtake those competitors.

By only focusing on their own first party data, companies can get so caught up in their analysis that they neglect to pay attention to what is happening in the rest of the market. They may then easily miss the rise of new competitors. In many industries, new companies join the fray on a regular basis and it’s important to monitor their activities to see what can be learned from them and what actions can be taken to beat them. 

Too Many Channels to Monitor at Once

It is impossible to be everywhere at once. Companies that are collecting and analyzing their own data need to be tracking where their customers are, all over the web. This means looking at social media activity, Google searches, monitoring ad performance, and more. 

Consumers are constantly discovering new channels and new sources of information. More and more people (businesses and individuals alike) are turning to places like Reddit and Quora when they are seeking advice and recommendations for new products. Tracking each new data source that crops up is a huge challenge for companies especially with a limited marketing staff. 

Hard to Benchmark

Benchmarking performance against others in the same field is an important success measure. This is something that many marketers struggle with because, while they can readily see their own results, they don’t have access to competitor data and thus can’t judge how they are doing relative to other big players in their industry.

While a company might be making tons of sales on one particular channel and assume that they are doing well, a competitor could actually be making double the sales on the same channel - they just don't know about it. Without broader market awareness, companies struggle to get a true picture of their own status and are very likely to be missing out on opportunities to increase conversions and revenue. 

Limited Knowledge

The first party data that a company collects provides plenty of information about how customers and potential customers behave when they are on that company’s website. But as soon as they click away, first party data does not provide any information about what they are doing next.

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What companies really need is a way to know what these potential customers are doing and what sites they are visiting once they choose to leave the company’s site without completing a purchase. What else are they searching for? What sites are attracting them and why?  

Current Realities Driving Need for 3rd Party Data

In addition to the limitations caused by a reliance on first party data, there are also changes to the market and regulatory environments that are making it more difficult to collect the data in the first place.

Websites have long relied on “cookies” to collect information about users' online behavior that marketers could then use to inform their strategies. With the passing of the GDPR in Europe and similar rules in other countries, it is becoming harder to gather and use data from cookies. In fact, Google plans to phase out cookies completely from their browser (although they have delayed the launch date of this plan several times).

Apple has also significantly increased their data privacy protections with their App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature that enables users to opt out of sharing their data. Companies from Meta, to Snap, to Peloton have all suffered as a result of this change. If the massive conglomerates are seeing a negative impact, the effect on smaller companies is even more significant to their bottom lines.

How Konnecto Can Help

Companies are no longer able to rely on first party data to get the information they need, and at the same time competition is heating up across industries making it more crucial for companies to get their hands on valuable data that can give them the upper hand.

Konnecto is the first to provide a solution for marketers that addresses all of the key challenges, using the power of data science to collect 3rd party information in full compliance with all privacy regulations. 

To perform optimally, marketers need to use data to answer the following:  

• What is drawing customers to competitors? 
• What is causing them to convert? 
• What actions can be taken to capture those customers and redirect them? 

By reverse engineering the buyer’s journey from the discovery phase up until completion of a transaction, Konnecto’s powerful AI-based solution quickly identifies the most significant vulnerabilities and provides clear insights and tactical recommendations of specific actions to take.

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The marketing team does not have to trawl through hundreds of rows of data collected from disparate sources, nor do they have to spend hours looking for trends and trying to make business decisions based only on high level insights.

Instead, Konnecto removes all the guesswork and tells marketers exactly what they need to do to see real results and increased conversions. All of this information is shared without the need for complicated integrations or reliance on soon-to-be-obsolete cookies and is always in full compliance with all privacy regulations.

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Contact us to start your journey towards increased conversions!