What is the Difference between Google Analytics and Kissmetrics?

One of the most common questions we get from people is how Kissmetrics is different from Google Analytics. We understand the curiosity. Both services are in the analytics space, so it’s easy to think they’re the same tools.

However, there are a number of differences between the two services; for example, how they handle tracking, what use cases are best, and what you can and can’t do with each tool. We’ll get into all that in this post.

As a matter of clarification, we’ll be discussing the differences between Google’s Universal Analytics and Kissmetrics. Universal Analytics is the next version of Google Analytics and will soon be what every Google Analytics account uses by default.

How Google Analytics and Kissmetrics Track People?

At its core, Kissmetrics analytics is focused on people. As you’ll soon see, every visit to your website gets tied to a person. Google Analytics added people tracking as a feature. It is not at the core of the product. Most people use Kissmetrics to track individual people while most people who use Google Analytics will never touch that feature.

When tracking people, you need two things to verify their identity:

User Identification – Your analytics tool must be able to identify users when they tell you who they are.

Signing In – Users must be able to sign in and identify themselves on each of their devices.

But, even if an analytics tool helps you identify users as they log in, they all handle it a little differently.

Let’s go through how Kissmetrics and Google Analytics handle people tracking.

1. What Happens to Session Activity Prior to Registration or Logging In? 
   When a person visits your website for the first time, both Kissmetrics and Google Analytics assign an anonymous ID to that person.                                                  
   For Google Analytics, the visit and registration must take place in the same visit session. If a person visits your website, leaves, and then comes back 10 days later and registers, only the last session is tied to the user ID. The first session is lost. Google Analytics connects data from only the session in which the user was identified. The only way around this is to find a way to identify people during as many sessions as possible.                                                                                    
   With Kissmetrics, all data from a person’s previous sessions is assigned to an alias. That’s the core tracking summary of the two. But, they can differ depending on the situation.
   
2. What Happens to Data from Sessions after Someone is identified?

   Sayed visits your site, registers, logs out, and closes the browser. He comes back a week later and doesn’t register or log back in. What happens to the data from the second visit?

   Google Analytics isn’t as simple. You’ll need to send the user ID every time there’s a Google Analytics hit. So every piece of Google Analytics data needs a user ID attached to it. There is session unification that will stitch together any other hits that happen in the same session. But, every session needs a user ID defined in order to connect that session to a person. In Sayed’s case, Google Analytics would assume that his second visit was a different person.

   
   

   With Kissmetrics, all this data still gets tied to Joey because his device was cooked.
3.      What Happens to Session Activity from Several Devices?

        Sayed registers on your site from his desktop.

        A week later, he visits your site on his iPad but doesn’t log in.

        Later that day, he visits your site again, this time logging in with his iPad.

        With Kissmetrics, all the data from his desktop gets assigned to hid alias               once he registers. When he visits on his iPad, Kissmetrics assigns his a new           anonymous ID. Kissmetrics doesn’t know this visitor is Sayed until he logs in       on his iPad. Once he logs in, all the sessions from his iPad are tied back to the       ID;    he originally created when he registered on his desktop.

         Sayed registered on his first visit, so the activity from that session gets tied to       his newly registered User ID. Since Sayed’s second visit was on a new device       and he didn’t log in, that data gets lost.

         All his sessions going forward (on the same device) will be correctly assigned       to his. The same goes for when he visits on another device. Once he logs in           on a device, the data from that same session gets tied back to the User ID that       was assigned when he registered on his desktop.

   
   

        Remember that Google Analytics connects data only from the session in              which the user was verified.
   
   

       4.   What Happens When Multiple People Use the Same Device?                                     Brenda is looking for tickets to a show tonight. She visits your site via a hotel               PC, doesn’t find any tickets that she likes and leaves.

    Steve also is looking for tickets. He visits your site using the hotel’s PC, finds     tickets that he likes, and registers and pays for them.

   How do Kissmetrics and Google Analytics handle this?

   With Kissmetrics, the data from Brenda gets assigned to Steve once he              registers. So, all previous visits to your site from that same computer get tied      to Steve. There is no technical way around this.

   On the other hand, Google Analytics will report the correct data in this case.    Since Brenda visited the site but didn’t register, her session is lost. Since Steve     registered on the same session as his visit, that data gets correctly tied to him.

5. What Happens When Multiple People Are Logging in on the Same                 Device?

    Let’s go back to the previous example with Brenda and Steve using the same       device to access the same website.

    This time, Brenda logs in, looks at a bunch of tickets, and then logs out. Steve     comes by later that day and registers.

    How does Kissmetrics handle this?

    When Brenda visits the site and logs in, all the data gets correctly tied to her.

    But, when Steve visits and registers, Kissmetrics still thinks it is Brenda               visiting the website. Anything that Steve is before he registers tied back to           Brenda’s customer ID. Once Steve registers, Kissmetrics sees this as a new         person and connects all future data to his customer ID.

    With Kissmetrics, you can do a clear Identity call. This would clear Brenda’s     ID once she logs out and assign a new anonymous ID when the next person         visits from that computer. Then, once Steve registers, all the data from                 Brenda’s blog out to Steve’s registration gets tied to Steve’s customer ID.

    You will be able to do this only during logout events. You won’t be able to         reset all named ID’s after each visit.

    Google Analytics handles this correctly. When Brenda visits and logs in, all      the data from her session gets tied to her ID. Then, when Steve visits and           registers, all the data from his visit gets correctly assigned to him.

• Tracking Summary

Analytics need to make one of two assumptions when tracking users:

· Each visit from the same device is coming from the same person.

· Each visit should be treated as a new person until they identify themselves.

Kissmetrics assumes that activity on one device is coming from the same person. If one of your users visits your site on their desktop, tablet, and phone, Kissmetrics will recognize them once they sign in and tie them back to their customer ID.

Google Analytics assumes that each visit is from a new person. The only way around this is to identify people in each session in order to see everything that person does.

• Use Cases

Kissmetrics is not a replica of Google Analytics. Yes, they both are analytics tools, but they each have their own use cases. Let’s run through some common use cases and which tool is a better fit.

Tracking Visitors and Visits

If this is what you want to track, go with Google Analytics. While Kissmetrics can track visitors, it doesn’t make sense to use it if that’s all you want to do.

Tracking Bounce Rate, Time on Page, and Exits

Use Google Analytics for these metrics. You cannot currently track these in Kissmetrics.

• Funnels

You can set up funnels in Google Analytics, but there are a few disadvantages:

·   When you set up funnels, you can view data going forward only. You will not be able to view data that happened before the funnel was set up.

·   You can track consecutive steps that people go through only if they are on the same visit. So, the data is gone if people complete a process over multiple visits or drop out of the defined path. If you want to track only sign-up flows or e-commerce checkout (you won’t be able to track the number of people who put an item in the cart), you can go with Google Analytics. You won’t be able to build your entire customer acquisition funnel.

By contrast, the Kissmetrics funnels are able to retrieve historical data. So, you can set up your sign-up funnel and view how it has been performing over the months that you’ve been tracking. And, it doesn’t matter if someone visits your website today but doesn’t complete the funnel until six months later. Kissmetrics retains all their data.

• Conversion Tracking

Some people may want to get a little more advanced with their analytics and begin tracking conversions. By tracking conversions, you’re looking at the percentage of people who have done some important action on your site, such as signing up for your newsletter, downloading a white paper, or placing an order.

With Google Analytics, you’ll have to set up goals. Also, there is a 90-day limit with conversions. By default, conversions have to happen on the same visit. This is useful if you’re testing and want a conversion to happen right away, such as signing up for a trial. But, if you want to go deeper, it’ll get a little more challenging. The only way around this is to use multi-channel funnels. You’ll have to use a specific report and be careful about which conversion data you’re looking at.

In Kissmetrics, you’ll need to set up a funnel report to track conversions. A common funnel report is tracking the number of people who have signed up or placed an order. Here’s how it might look for a SaaS company:

Here, we are looking at people who have visited the site, signed up for a trial, and then converted to paying for a subscription. For an e-commerce company, a sales funnel might look like this:

In this funnel, we’re tracking the number of people who visited the site, placed a product in their cart, and then proceeded to purchase.

• A/B Testing

In Google Analytics, you can set up content experiments to act as your A/B testing tool. To run the test, you’ll have to build out two separate URLs (i.e., www.example.com/control and www.example.com/variant1). This can be challenging if you’re testing your home page, as there may be hundreds of backlinks to one URL. You’ll be able to get around this if you have developers on your team. But, it’ll be more difficult if you’re left to your own devices.

Another downside is the conversions must happen on the same visit. If people leave your site between steps, they won’t get counted.

With Kissmetrics, you can integrate with an A/B testing tool like Optimizable and connect that data to the A/B test report. All your data gets connected back to actual people. Here’s what the report looks like:

You can view people by clicking on a number under the People column, which shows you all the people in the variation. Or, you can view only the people who converted by clicking on a number under the Conversions column.

• Cohort Reports

People can be divided into groups, or cohorts, based on actions they took. A prime example of this would be tracking login retention over time. With a cohort report, you would track people who logged in during a specified time range (typically a day or week), and then you would see how often those people log back in (by day or by week) after that specified time range. Here’s what a report like that would look like in Kissmetrics:

You can’t get anywhere close to this with Google Analytics.

• Using Google Analytics in Conjunction with Kissmetrics

Google Analytics can provide a world of insight into how visitors interact with your website. Nearly every website you visit uses it, including the blog you’re on now. We also use it on our main Kissmetrics.com page.

At the end

Many of our customers use Google Analytics alongside Kissmetrics. We use Google Analytics to get session data, view a general engagement on a page (time on page and site), and check referral data. We use our own product for our web app to get insights into how our customers are using our product, discover our customer acquisition channels, track our acquisition funnel, document our A/B tests, and gather data that can help us make better decisions

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The Golden rules of blogging and why you should follow them

The general approach, which bloggers adopt to write a post, is to proclaim the subject of the topic at the beginning. What about playing the guessing game?

You need not prolong the guessing game but do not come straight away to the topic.

We’re living in the era of blogging. Truth is each one of us has stories to tell, interests to share, thoughts to communicate with others. We all carry the distinctive and unique lines of our life and love to spill them out on the ever-continuing page of the internet.

In this post, I shall unveil the secret style of writing content, which is surely going to infuse more interest in the readers’ mind to read your post.

The secret is ‘Why, What and How.’ This secret works fantastic with Google.

Let’s take three instances:

A blog post talking about the product

A blog post saying how to use the product

A blog post talking of the problems in your daily life, a product which can fathom the problem and how to use it.

Don’t you think the third style will impress you more if you were a reader? Yes, that’s what I am talking about. The formula of ‘what, why and how ‘works the best with readers.

Keeping this in mind though, it’s in no way easy to maintain a popular blog with good content that (on top of it all!) comes often enough for readers to decide to stick around. You may be hooked on politics or economics; you may absolutely love fashion trends and wish to cover the current spring model reviews or you may be a hopeless geek fallen for the web design beauty - the struggle will be there for sure. Having a blog, no matter if it’s a non-profit personal one or a business-driven website is a responsible thing to do. Even picking your blog's colors can be tough! And it’s very easy to go downhill even after an initial wondrous start if you don’t play by the rules and have the different aspects of successful blogging thought out.

Let’s get straight to the point and see at some important things you should do so your blog gets a fine chunk of attention.

1. Don’t fire in all directions – find a niche and expand on it

   It’s just like in the movies – the bad guys fire in all directions and don’t hit anything. The protagonist aims carefully and shoots only once, but does it right.

   The internet is full of websites that expand on many fronts but don’t offer in-depth insight on any of them. Stand out from the rest by defining your passion and improving your knowledge of it. It’s good to be realistic throughout the process – there are smaller and bigger niches, so if yours is a small one, the exposure will be less. Smaller niches tend to have a strong, close-tied community though, and with growing internet users with each day passed you are sure to find yourself expanding – just a bit more slowly.

   As for bigger niches – they may be over-saturated with other websites and seem a hopeless realization field. Instead of worrying, analyze your competition, see what it offers the audience, and improve over it. People value quality and insight. If you provide them these, you’ll be good to go.
2. WHY…. Instigate the need

   It is a general trend with people to be happy with what they are using. It is when they read or hear about better and advanced products they feel the urge to switch product.

   It is exactly this ‘WHY ‘which you need to instigate within your readers.

   Let me explain this with an example. If you are running a ‘skin care and beauty ‘blog, a new fairness product is out in the market which you have to promote.

   It is no brains to start talking of the product from the start. Instead, forewarn your readers, what if they are not using the right fairness cream?

   Tell them how a wrong cream can result in loss of natural oils and essentials of skin. How a well-balanced cream can enhance the glow of skin from within and also give smooth and supple feel naturally.

   
   

   This is a simple marketing approach, which you should strategize in your blog.
3. Provide regular content but be merciful to yourself

   You’ll hear many people telling you that you have to post often in order to engage your audience. You’ll hear advice to never sacrifice quality over quantity too. Both of these are true, but let me add something of my own:

   Post regularly enough but don’t strain yourself too much. Match your own pace.

   Different people have the different pace. Don’t try to match up with others at all costs. Define a comfortable frequency for you and stick to it. If you strain yourself, you may become nervous, feel pressured and deliver a less qualitative content. Not to mention that you won’t be having fun while writing on the thing you’re passionate about – a nightmare no one wants to see happening in his/her life.

   
   

   Another thing to look out for is when to post your content. Experts differ slightly on this topic, but the morning hours of working days to seem the best bet for exposure. Blog analysts from Kiss metrics have a terrific graph you’ll want to have a look at as to optimize your blogging habits.
4. WHAT…. The Next Level

   Once you are successful in creating the environment of need the next step is ‘WHAT‘.

   You have to hit the rod now. You have in a way developed the demand criteria of your readers, so now introduce the product.

   
   

   Talk about the new ingredients and features of the advanced product. Spill out all the information of the product to help your readers know and understand the attributes of the product well.
5. Speak the language of your niche & audience without sounding fake

   Different niches have different slang. Words like “business angel”, “cha ching”, “joint venture” or “WFOE” are natural to the business blogger and a technological terra incognita for the blogger who’s into internet memes and popular culture.

   Remember you have an audience and you have to live up to the common dictionary you share with these people. Utilize the specific terms whenever it’s needed, but don’t overdo it. You’re not writing an academic essay, you’re giving insight into a specific topic. Don’t fake it, it’s easy for forced writing to be exposed and if the case is such, people will be easily put off. Be concise.

   
   

   Overall, be genuine, think about the slang of your niche and expectations of your readers, and try to combine them in the best way possible. And while we’re on the topic of writing – be precise, use short sentences, watch out for the grammar and be straightforward. Everybody loves simplicity that delivers knowledge. 
6.  You are a part of a community – act like it
   Blogging is rarely fit for lone wolves. You are a part of a whole ecosystem and it’s good to navigate through it and communicate with the others inhabiting the internet forest. Other bloggers in your field are not your enemies. You are competitors for the audience’s attention, but you can draw knowledge and good practices from each other. Socialize with them, discuss the common topics you care about, why not even guest blog to each other.
   Whenever there is competent competition, the end-user benefits from this. This is a basic rule of economics, and while blogging isn’t exactly economics, it’s true that readers will only benefit from an insightful exchange between niche bloggers.
   Another aspect is communicating with your readers. Always be sure to enable comments on in your blog. Whenever it’s possible (and that should be often enough), answer to the comments of your readers and establish a personal connection. A community gets closer via reciprocation so be sure to pay attention to your audience and treat them well.

At the End

I can safely say that blogging isn’t rocket science, but it’s a very unique blend of art, journalism, content creation, marketing and social knowledge. If you want to be successful at it you have to combine these and somehow manage to balance them out. It sure may seem very engaging, time-consuming and scary (and it can be), but if you play out your cards well, it’s one of the most enjoyable things to do.

So go out there. Grit your teeth. Flex your mind. Clench your fists over the keyboard. Get ready to blog!

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