Online analytics provider WebTrends Inc. claims hundreds of its customers have switched to its first-party cookie solution since the company released its latest third-party cookie rejection study two months ago.
According to the Portland, OR, company, customers who switched to its first-party cookie service reported a 300-percent-plus jump in accuracy compared with data collected via third-party cookies.
Customers using the first-party cookie solution are said to have tracked an average 10 percent to 15 percent more unique visitors and 13 percent to 30 percent more repeat visitors than the numbers seen using third-party cookies in the same period.
A deeper analysis reveals an incremental impact on the number of visitors attributed to campaigns, WebTrends claims, with some sites tracking 10 percent to 30 percent more visitors responding to specific marketing campaigns.
The first quarterly update to this WebTrends report shows that third-party cookie blocking continues to grow at varying, unpredictable rates, affecting the accuracy of all metrics.
In other news, Fireclick Inc., Digital River's Web analytics service in Minneapolis, launched a public version of its Fireclick Index at http://index.fireclick.com. This detailed report card for benchmarking online businesses is free to companies interested in comparing their e-commerce site performances with others in the fashion and apparel, electronics, catalog, specialty and outdoor and sports markets.
Using this index, companies can compare based on select business verticals as well as marketing and e-commerce metrics. There are 30 metrics in total, including traffic, revenue, site performance and campaign effectiveness.
The metrics are compiled from the live statistics of participating Fireclick clients. Data is treated anonymously.
Meanwhile, Web analytics provider Omniture Inc. expanded the curriculum of Omniture University. The first expansion since the training program was launched in September now encompasses more than a couple of dozen on-demand training modules and more courses for marketers using Omniture's SiteCatalyst service.
Finally, SageMetrics said European Internet service provider Virgin.net increased its run-of-site ad inventory yield by up to 50 percent since it started using the SageAMP behavioral targeting solution.
Mickey Alam Khan covers Internet marketing campaigns and e-commerce, agency news as well as circulation for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
