Switching from Omniture to Google Analytics

Omniture, the mega-expensive tracking system has a lot of pluses, but it is adamantly NOT free.  It is quite expensive — north of $80K depending on the site.  Google Analytics, one of it’s main competitors, is free.  FREE!  What happens when you switch (and you will)?

Well, the big thing is expectation management.  Reports will change.  Baselines will change.  Everybody on the team needs to know this.  Remind everybody of the savings.

And then, double-track for a few months.  Run both.  See how they behave.  Google has segmentation; Omniture has great pathing.  Feel it out.

Then figure it out.  Why’s the bounce rate so fucked?  Well, you didn’t setup your GA event / click tracking using a separate profile.  Change it.  There’s no way you’ll waste $80,000 during the switch, so do it.

All business decisions are made with incomplete information.  Google Analytics data may be different than Omniture Site Catalyst, but it’s everything you need.