Companies want to know who is visiting their web sites and what pages they click through. That takes tags.
A tag is a piece of software—a conversion pixel or Javascript clip tag—that tracks the user experience at the web site level. Piwik Pro, the analytics platform, has just added Piwik Pro Tag Manager to its Piwik Pro web analytics tool suite.
Together, the user gets a seamless integration between the marketing and analytic tools in Piwik Pro, with the analytic side providing the needed data to make better decisions that sharpen marketing efforts, noted Maciej Zawadzi?ski, CEO of Piwik Pro.
Users should get faster and cheaper web site analysis and implementation of site changes. Tags can be added cheaply with no extra work on the IT side. By cutting IT overhead, users can focus more on crafting an implementing their marketing strategies.
In the past, IT departments had to write programs to find and extract tags from reams of web site data. That process could take anywhere from several weeks to several months, Zawadzi?ski, said. With Piwik Pro, that process is now reduced to several minutes, he said. And it is the user, not the IT department, who is in control. Something closer to real-time analysis is now possible.
The tag manager also allows users to test tags while the web site is in isolation, before it goes online, Zawadzi?ski added. That way, testing can be done in a controlled environment.
There are some serious differences between the U.S. and European markets when it comes to gathering data. “We have a bit more regulation,” Zawadzi?ski also noted. Consumers logging on to web sites in Europe can “opt out” of data sharing, which Piwik Pro will recognize by not attaching a tag to that user’s visit. Corporate users still have full control over their data and tags, either stored in-house or in the cloud, he added.
The tag manager is a part of Piwik Pro, the paid version which is more fully featured than the free version offered at Piwik’s web site. “We have no plans to migrate premium functions to the free side.” Zawadzi?ski said.
Like all software companies, Piwik Pro has to accommodate change and market demand. Yes, the company has a mobile platform offering, but it is not as robust as its cloud and on-premises product offerings. Piwik’s mobile platform is only for the analytic product, fine if you “need high level data on the go,” Zawadzi?ski said.
Video is increasingly becoming more common in online marketing. Piwik enables marketers to determine how much web traffic is coming from different sources, and how to turn those contacts into conversions, Zawadzi?ski said. Users can measure the cost of the video effort versus the gain in business, and decide if the effort was worthwhile.
