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• Google Analytics Privacy Issues : Is It Really That Bad ?

  2 juin 2022, par Erin

  If you find yourself asking : “What’s the deal with Google Analytics privacy ?”, you probably have some second thoughts. 

  Your hunch is right. Google Analytics (GA) is a popular web analytics tool, but it’s far from being perfect when it comes to respecting users’ privacy. 

  This post helps you understand tremendous Google Analytics privacy concerns users, consumers and regulators expressed over the years.

  In this blog, we’ll cover :

  What Does Google Analytics Collect About Users ? 

  To understand Google Analytics privacy issues, you need to know how Google treats web users’ data. 

  By default, Google Analytics collects the following information : 

  • Session statistics — duration, page(s) viewed, etc. 
  • Referring website details — a link you came through or keyword used. 
  • Approximate geolocation — country, city. 
  • Browser and device information — mobile vs desktop, OS usage, etc. 

  Google obtains web analytics data about users via two means : an on-site Google Analytics tracking code and cookies.

  A cookie is a unique identifier (ID) assigned to each user visiting a web property. Each cookie stores two data items : unique user ID and website name. 

  With the help of cookies, web analytics solutions can recognise returning visitors and track their actions across the website(s).

  

  • First party cookies are generated by one website and collect user behaviour data from said website only. 
  • Third-party cookies are generated by a third-party website object (for example, an ad) and can track user behaviour data across multiple websites. 

  As it’s easy to imagine, third-party cookies are a goldmine for companies selling online ads. Essentially, they allow ad platforms to continue watching how the user navigates the web after clicking a certain link. 

  Yet, people have little clue as to which data they are sharing and how it is being used. Also, user consent to tracking across websites is only marginally guaranteed by existing Google Analytics controls. 

  Why Third-Party Cookie Data Collection By GA Is Problematic 

  Cookies can transmit personally identifiable information (PII) such as name, log in details, IP address, saved payment method and so on. Some of these details can end up with advertisers without consumers’ direct knowledge or consent.

  Regulatory frameworks such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) emerged as a response to uncontrolled user behaviour tracking.

  Under regulatory pressure, Big Tech companies had to adapt their data collection process.

  Apple was the first to implement by-default third-party blocking in the Safari browser. Then added a tracking consent mechanism for iPhone users starting from iOS 15.2 and later. 

  Google, too, said it would drop third-party cookie usage after The European Commission and UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched antitrust investigations into its activity. 

  To shake off the data watchdogs, Google released a Privacy Sandbox — a set of progressive tech, operational and compliance changes for ensuring greater consumer privacy. 

  Google’s biggest promise : deprecate third-party cookies usage for all web and mobile products. 

  Originally, Google promised to drop third-party cookies by 2022, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Google delayed cookie tracking depreciation for Chrome until the second half of 2023. 

  Why did they push back on this despite hefty fines from regulators ?

  Because online ads make Google a lot of money.

  In 2021, Alphabet Inc (parent company of Google), made $256.7 billion in revenue, of which $209.49 billion came from selling advertising. 

  Lax Google Analytics privacy enforcement — and its wide usage by website owners — help Google make those billions from collecting and selling user data. 

  How Google Uses Collected Google Analytics Data for Advertising 

  Over 28 million websites (or roughly 85% of the Internet) have Google Analytics tracking codes installed. 

  Even if one day we get a Google Analytics version without cookies, it still won’t address all the privacy concerns regulators and consumers have. 

  Over the years, Google has accumulated an extensive collection of user data. The company’s engineers used it to build state-of-the-art deep learning models, now employed to build advanced user profiles. 

  Deep learning is the process of training a machine to recognise data patterns. Then this “knowledge” is used to produce highly-accurate predictive insights. The more data you have for model training — the better its future accuracy will be. 

  Google has amassed huge deposits of data from its collection of products — GA, YouTube, Gmail, Google Docs and Google Maps among others. Now they are using this data to build a third-party cookies-less alternative mechanism for modelling people’s preferences, habits, lifestyles, etc. 

  Their latest model is called Google Topics. 

  This comes only after Google’s failed attempt to replace cookie-based training with Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) model. But the solution wasn’t offering enough user transparency and user controls among other issues.

  

  Google Topics promises to limit the granularity of data advertisers get about users. 

  But it’s still a web user surveillance method. With Google Topics, the company will continue collecting user data via Chrome (and likely other Google products) — and share it with advertisers. 

  Because as we said before : Google is in the business of profiting off consumers’ data. 

  Two Major Ways Google Takes Advantage of Customer Data

  Every bit of data Google collects across its ecosystem of products can be used in two ways :

  • For ad targeting and personalisation 
  • To improve Google’s products 

  The latter also helps the former. 

  Advanced Ad Personalisation and Targeting

  GA provides the company with ample data on users’ 

  • Recent and frequent searches 
  • Location history
  • Visited websites
  • Used apps 
  • Videos and ads viewed 
  • Personal data like age or gender 

  The company’s privacy policy explicitly states that :
  

  

  Google also admits to using collected data to “measure the effectiveness of advertising” and “personalise content and ads you see on Google.” 

  But there are no further elaborations on how exactly customers’ data is used — and what you can do to prevent it from being shared with third parties. 

  In some cases, Google also “forgets” to inform users about its in-product tracking.

  Journalists from CNBC and The New York Times independently concluded that Google monitors users’ Gmail activity. In particular, the company scans your inbox for recent purchases, trips, flights and bills notifications. 

  While Google says that this information isn’t sold to advertisers (directly), they still may use the “saved information about your orders in other Google services”. 

  Once again, this means you have little control or knowledge of subsequent data usage. 

  Improving Product Usability 

  Google has many “arms” to collect different data points — from user’s search history to frequently-travelled physical routes. 

  They also reserve the right to use these insights for improving existing products. 

  Here’s what it means : by combining different types of data points obtained from various products, Google can pierce a detailed picture of a person’s life. Even if such user profile data is anonymised, it is still alarmingly accurate. 

  Douglas Schmidt, a computer science researcher at Vanderbilt University, well summarised the matter : 

  “[Google’s] business model is to collect as much data about you as possible and cross-correlate it so they can try to link your online persona with your offline persona. This tracking is just absolutely essential to their business. ‘Surveillance capitalism’ is a perfect phrase for it.”

  Google Data Collection Obsession Is Backed Into Its Business Model 

  OK, but Google offers some privacy controls to users ? Yes. Google only sees and uses the information you voluntarily enter or permit them to access. 

  But as the Washington Post correspondent points out :

  “[Big Tech] companies get to set all the rules, as long as they run those rules by consumers in convoluted terms of service that even those capable of decoding the legalistic language rarely bother to read. Other mechanisms for notice and consent, such as opt-outs and opt-ins, create similar problems. Control for the consumer is mostly an illusion.”

  Google openly claims to be “one of many ad networks that personalise ads based on your activity online”. 

  The wrinkle is that they have more data than all other advertising networks (arguably combined). This helps Google sell high-precision targeting and contextually personalised ads for billions of dollars annually.

  Given that Google has stakes in so many products — it’s really hard to de-Google your business and minimise tracking and data collection from the company.
  

  They are also creating a monopoly on data collection and ownership. This fact makes regulators concerned. The 2021 antitrust lawsuit from the European Commission says : 

  “The formal investigation will notably examine whether Google is distorting competition by restricting access by third parties to user data for advertising purposes on websites and apps while reserving such data for its own use.”

  In other words : By using consumer data to its unfair advantage, Google allegedly shuts off competition.

  But that’s not the only matter worrying regulators and consumers alike. Over the years, Google also received numerous other lawsuits for breaching people’s privacy, over and over again. 

  Here’s a timeline : 

  • 2019 : UK citizens issued a class action suit against Google for imposing cookies to override users’ privacy settings in the Safari browser. 
  • 2020 : US citizens pushed for a $5 billion class-action suit for tracking their activity through browsers set in “private” mode.
  • 2022 : Another class-action lawsuit in the US for deceptive privacy controls and unconsented location data tracking by Google mobile apps. 
  • 2022 : Google reached a $100 million class-action settlement for breaching Illinois biometrics privacy laws in Google Photos. 

  Separately, Google has a very complex history with GDPR compliance. 

  How Google Analytics Contributes to the Web Privacy Problem 

  Google Analytics is the key puzzle piece that supports Google’s data-driven business model. 

  If Google was to release a privacy-focused Google Analytics alternative, it’d lose access to valuable web users’ data and a big portion of digital ad revenues. 

  Remember : Google collects more data than it shares with web analytics users and advertisers. But they keep a lot of it for personal usage — and keep looking for ways to share this intel with advertisers (in a way that keeps regulators off their tail).

  For Google Analytics to become truly ethical and privacy-focused, Google would need to change their entire revenue model — which is something they are unlikely to do.

  Where does this leave Google Analytics users ? 

  In a slippery territory. By proxy, companies using GA are complicit with Google’s shady data collection and usage practice. They become part of the problem.

  In fact, Google Analytics usage opens a business to two types of risks : 

  • Reputational. 77% of global consumers say that transparency around how data is collected and used is important to them when interacting with different brands. That’s why data breaches and data misuse by brands lead to major public outrages on social media and boycotts in some cases. 
  • Legal. EU regulators are on a continuous crusade against Google Analytics 4 (GA4) as it is in breach of GDPR. French and Austrian watchdogs ruled the “service” illegal. Since Google Analytics is not GDPR compliant, it opens any business using it to lawsuits (which is already happening).

  But there’s a way out.

  Choose a Privacy-Friendly Google Analytics Alternative 

  Google Analytics is a popular web analytics service, but not the only one available. You have alternatives such as Matomo. 

  Our guiding principle is : respecting privacy.

  Unlike Google Analytics, we leave data ownership 100% in users’ hands. Matomo lets you implement privacy-centred controls for user data collection.

  Plus, you can self-host Matomo On-Premise or choose Matomo Cloud with data securely stored in the EU and in compliance with GDPR.

  The best part ? You can try our ethical alternative to Google Analytics for free. No credit card required ! Start your free 21-day trial now. 

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

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• CRO Audit : Increase Your Conversions in 10 Simple Steps

  25 mars 2024, par Erin

  You have two options if you’re unhappy with your website’s conversion rates.

  The first is to implement a couple of random tactics you heard on that marketing podcast, which worked for a business completely unrelated to yours. 

  The other is to take a more systematic, measured approach. An approach that finds specific problems with the pages on your site and fixes them one by one. 

  You’re choosing the second option, right ?

  Good, then let’s explain what a conversion rate optimisation audit is and how you can complete one using our step-by-step process.

  What is a CRO audit ?

  A conversion rate optimisation audit (CRO audit) systematically evaluates your website. It identifies opportunities to enhance your website’s performance and improve conversion rates. 

  During the audit, you’ll analyse your website’s entire customer journey, collect valuable user behaviour data and cross reference that with web analytics to find site elements (forms, calls-to-actions, etc.) that you can optimise.

  

  It’s one (and usually the first) part of a wider CRO strategy. 

  For example, an online retailer might run a CRO audit to discover why cart abandonment rates are high. The audit may throw up several potential problems (like a confusing checkout form and poor navigation), which the retailer can then spend time optimising using A/B tests. 

  Why run a CRO audit ?

  A CRO audit can be a lot of work, but it’s well worth the effort. Here are the benefits you can expect from running one.

  Generate targeted and relevant insights

  You’ve probably already tested some “best practice” conversion rate optimisations, like changing the colour of your CTA button, adding social proof or highlighting benefits to your headlines. 

  These are great, but they aren’t tailored to your audience. Running a CRO audit will ensure you find (and rectify) the conversion bottlenecks and barriers that impact your users, not someone else’s.

  Improve conversion rates

  Ultimately, CRO audits are about improving conversion rates and increasing revenue. Finding and eliminating barriers to conversion makes it much more likely that users will convert. 

  But that’s not all. CRO audits also improve the user experience and customer satisfaction. The audit process will help you understand how users behave on your website, allowing you to create a more user-friendly customer experience. 

  A 10-step process for running your first CRO audit 

  Want to conduct your first CRO audit ? Follow the ten-step process we outline below :

  

  1. Define your goals

  Start your CRO audit by setting conversion goals that marry with the wider goals of your business. The more clearly you define your goals, the easier it will be to evaluate your website for opportunities. 

  Your goals could include :

  • Booking more trials
  • Getting more email subscribers
  • Reducing cart abandonments

  You should also define the specific actions users need to take for you to achieve these goals. For example, users will have to click on your call-to-action and complete a form to book more trials. On the other hand, reducing cart abandonments requires users to add items to their cart and click through all of the forms during the checkout process. 

  If you’re unsure where to start, we recommend reading our CRO statistics roundup to see how your site compares to industry averages for metrics like conversion and click-through rates. 

  You’ll also want to ensure you track these conversion goals in your web analytics software. In Matomo, it only takes a few minutes to set up a new conversion goal, and the goals dashboard makes it easy to see your performance at a glance. 

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  2. Review your analytics

  With your goals in mind, the next step is to dive into your website analytics and identify pages that need improvement.

  Consider the following conversion metrics when analysing pages :

  • Conversion rate
  • Average time on page
  • Average order value
  • Click-through rate

  Ensure you’re analysing metrics aligning with the goals you set in step one. Average order value could be a great metric to track if you want to reduce cart abandonments, for example, but it’s unsuitable to get more email subscribers.

  3. Research the user experience

  Next, you’ll want to gather user experience data to better understand how potential customers use your website and why they aren’t converting as often as you’d like. 

  You can use several tools for user behaviour analysis, but we recommend heatmaps and session recordings.

  Heatmaps visually represent how users click, move and scroll your website. It will show where visitors place their attention and which page elements are ignored. 

  Take a look at this example below from our website. As you can see, the navigation, headline and CTA get the most attention. If we weren’t seeing as many conversions as we liked and our CTAs were getting ignored, that might be a sign to change their colour or placement. 

  

  Session recordings capture the actions users take as they browse your website. They let you watch a video playback of how visitors behave, capturing clicks and scrolls so you can see each visitor’s steps in order. 

  Session recordings will show you how users navigate and where they drop off. 

  4. Analyse your forms

  Whether your forms are too confusing or too long, there are plenty of reasons for users to abandon your forms. 

  But how many forms are they abandoning exactly and which forms are there ?

  That’s what form analysis is for. 

  Running a form analysis will highlight which forms need work and reveal whether forms could be contributing to a page’s poor conversion rate. It’s how Concrete CMS tripled its leads in just a few days.

  Matomo’s Form Analytics feature makes running form analysis easy.

  

  Just open up the forms dashboard to get a snapshot of your forms’ key metrics, including average hesitation time, starter rate and submission rates. 

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  5. Analyse your conversion funnel

  Next, analyse the conversion funnel to see if there’s an obvious bottleneck or several pages where visitors abandon your desired action. Common conversion abandonment points are shopping carts and forms.

  

  For example, you could find there is a drop-off in conversions between checking out and making a purchase or between booking a demo and signing up for a subscription. Understanding where these drop-offs occur lets you dig deeper and make targeted improvements.

  Don’t worry if you’ve got a very long funnel. Start at the bottom and work backward. Problems with the pages at the very end of your funnel tasked with converting customers (landing pages, checkout pages, etc.) will have the biggest impact on your conversion rate. So, it makes sense to start there. 

  6. Analyse campaigns and traffic sources (marketing attribution)

  It’s now time to analyse traffic quality to ensure you’re powering your conversion optimisation efforts with the best traffic possible. 

  This can also help you find your best customers so you can focus on acquiring more of them and tailoring your optimisation efforts to their preferences. 

  Run a marketing attribution report to see which traffic sources generate the most conversions and have the highest conversion rates. 

  

  Using marketing attribution is crucial here because it gives a fuller picture of how customers move through their journey, recognising the impact of various touchpoints in making a decision, unlike last-click attribution, which only credits the final touchpoint before a conversion.

  7. Use surveys and other qualitative data sources

  Increase the amount of qualitative data you have access to by speaking directly to customers. Surveys, interviews and other user feedback methods add depth and context to your user behaviour research.

  Sure, you aren’t getting feedback from hundreds of customers like you do with heatmaps or session recordings, but the information can sometimes be much richer. Users will often tell you outright why they didn’t take a specific action in a survey response (or what convinced them to convert). 

  Running surveys is now even easier in Matomo, thanks to the Matomo Surveys third-party plugin. This lets you add a customisable survey popup to your site, the data from which is automatically added to Matomo and can be combined with Matomo segments.

  8. Develop a conversion hypothesis

  Using all of the insights you’ve gathered up to this point, you can now hypothesise what’s wrong and how you can fix it. 

  Here’s a template you can use :

  

  This could end up looking something like the following :

  Based on evidence gathered from web analytics and heatmaps, moving our signup form above the fold will fix our lack of free trial signups, improving signups by 50%.

  

  Make sure you write your hypothesis down somewhere. Matomo lets you document your hypothesis when creating an A/B test, so it’s easy to reflect on when the test finishes. 

  9. Run A/B tests

  Now, it’s time to put your theory into practice by running an A/B test.

  Create an experiment using a platform like Matomo that creates two different versions of your page : the original and one with the change you mentioned in your hypothesis. 

  There’s no set time for you to run an A/B test. Just keep running it until the outcome is statistically significant. This is something your A/B testing platform should do automatically. 

  A statistically significant result means it would be very unlikely the outcome doesn’t happen in the long term.

  

  As you can see in the image above, the wide header variation has significantly outperformed both the original and the other variation. So we can be pretty confident about making the change permanent. 

  If the outcome of your A/B test also validates your conversion hypothesis, you can implement the change. If not, analyse the data, brainstorm another hypothesis and run another A/B test. 

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  10. Monitor and iterate

  You need to develop a culture of continuous improvement to succeed with conversion rate optimisation. That means constantly monitoring your conversion goals and running tests to improve your metrics. 

  While you don’t need to run a conversion audit every month, you should run audits regularly throughout the year.

  How often should you conduct a CRO audit ? 

  You should conduct a CRO audit fairly regularly. 

  We recommend creating a CRO schedule that sees you run a CRO audit every six to 12 months. That will ensure you continue identifying problem pages and keeping your conversion rates competitive. 

  Regular CRO audits will also account for evolving consumer behaviours, changes in your industry and your own business goals, all of which can impact your approach conversion rate optimisation. 

  Run your CRO audit with Matomo

  A CRO audit process is the only way you can identify conversion optimisation methods that will work for your site and your target audience. It’s a methodical, data-backed strategy for making targeted improvements to send conversion rates soaring. 

  There are a lot of steps to complete, but you don’t need dozens of tools to run a CRO audit process. 

  Just one : Matomo.

  Unlike other web analytics platforms, like Google Analytics, Matomo has the built-in tools and plugins to help with every step of the CRO audit process, from web analytics to conversion funnel analysis and A/B testing. With its accurate, unsampled data and privacy-friendly tracking, Matomo is the ideal choice for optimising conversions. 

  Learn how to increase your conversions with Matomo, and start a free 21-day trial today. No credit card required.

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• 7 Best Marketing Attribution Software in 2024

  22 février 2024, par Erin

  It can be hard to accurately track the impact of your marketing efforts across marketing channels and campaigns. That’s where marketing attribution software comes in. 

  It goes beyond basic web analytics solutions that just look at the final click. Instead, it shows how different channels, content, and ads are performing at every step of the buyer’s journey, which gives a more accurate picture than just focusing on the last click.

  In this guide, we’ll cover the basics of marketing attribution, list the top marketing attribution software and explain how the issue of privacy is transforming the web analytics industry.

  What is marketing attribution ?

  Marketing attribution is the process of assigning credit to each touchpoint in a buyer’s journey that leads to a desired action (such as a conversion or sale) in order to understand the effectiveness of various marketing channels and campaigns in influencing the customer’s decision-making process.

  Marketers use software tools like website analytics to to track and analyse customer interactions across different touchpoints, allowing them to attribute conversions or sales to specific marketing efforts and optimise their strategies and budgets accordingly.

  Why is marketing attribution so important ?

  If you don’t track your campaigns correctly, it’s easy to spend thousands (or even millions) in an ineffective way. A 2022 survey by Australian marketing agency Next&Co revealed their clients wasted AU$5.46 billion in ineffective ad spend.

  

  That’s 41% of all the ad spend tracked by Next&Co in 2022. A wasted marketing spend percentage this high isn’t exactly a recipe for a high marketing return on investment (ROI). And yet, it’s the average.

  Why is that ? 

  Most companies don’t actively track the results of their marketing campaigns actively enough.

  By improving your marketing attribution, you can determine which channels, ads, and campaigns work and which don’t. Then, you can move the budget from ineffective channels to effective ones.

  Even if you can only identify half of your wastage, this could be 20% or more of your total spend. Just imagine what your bottom line would look like if your marketing budget were 20% more effective.

  That’s the power that marketing attribution, when done right, brings to the table. It’s the road to a higher marketing ROI.

  Common marketing attribution models and how they’re different 

  The default model for attributing completed goals in most analytics tools is either the last interaction or the last non-direct interaction.

  However, some multi-touch models can help you get a more holistic view of the impact of your marketing efforts.

  

  • Last interaction model : attributes the conversion to the final interaction or referring source (campaign or ad).
  • Last non-direct interaction model : attributes the conversion to the final touchpoint that was not a direct visit to your website. (For example, if a search ad took them to a product page, the user bookmarked it and returned directly the next day to finish the purchase. The credit would go to the search ad as it’s the last non-direct touchpoint.)
  • First interaction model : attributes the conversion to the first referring event alone.
  • Linear model : gives equal value to every touchpoint throughout the customer journey. 
  • Time decay model : gives more value to touchpoints the closer they were to the actual sale.
  • Position-based model : gives more value to the first and last touchpoints — often 40% each, while splitting 20% among the rest.

  You can read our guide dedicated to marketing attribution models for more details on these models.

  Types of marketing attribution software and the impact of privacy regulations

  Until recently, digital advertising was the “scientific” advertisers’ utopia. Everything could be measured, with cookies from giants like Google and Facebook stalking every user across the web.

  But with the advent of regulations like GDPR and the CCPA, you can no longer blindly trust Google Analytics or the Meta Pixel without consequences.

  Multi-channel attribution tools with third-party cookies and GDPR

  Google, Meta, and other companies used to track and combine user data from their own platforms and websites across the web that installed their tags. These third-party cookies have long been under fire and have caused several GDPR fines.

  

  The alternative : analytics platforms with first-party cookies

  In a post-GDPR digital marketing landscape, a compliant-by-default web analytics platform like Matomo is a more reliable and accurate alternative.

  Plus, with a platform like Matomo, you don’t need to rely on data from digital advertising platforms like Facebook Ads and Google Ads. You can accurately track referral sources using our campaign tracking parameters.

  7 best marketing attribution software in 2024

  Below is the list of our favourite marketing attribution tools in 2024. If you find and use one that suits your needs correctly, you can quickly boost your marketing performance.

  1. Matomo — Accurate and easiest to set up for marketing attribution

  Matomo is a privacy-friendly web analytics suite that empowers you to accurately attribute marketing efforts and gain valuable insights while prioritising user privacy and compliance.

  Matomo integrates with e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce and Magenta. That makes it easy for B2C marketing teams to track the revenue impact of their campaigns.

  

  You can also compare a variety of attribution models against each other. B2B teams can use our API to integrate Matomo with their CRM.

  Pros :

  • Relies on first-party cookies for tracking, ensuring accurate data collection and attribution of user actions
  • Includes additional features like Heatmaps, Session Recordings, Form Analytics, A/B Testing, and more
  • Easy to set up and use
  • Features most common multi-touch attribution models

  Cons :

  • Limited to owned channels (website and e-commerce store) due to first-party cookies and data (but you can integrate other data sources through a CRM)

  Pricing

  The self-hosted version is free. The cloud hosted version starts at $19 per month and includes a 21-day free trial. No credit card requierd. 

  Try Matomo for Free

  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

  Start for free

  No credit card required

  2. WhatConverts — Great option for leads-based businesses with high ad spend

  WhatConverts is a marketing attribution tool with a focus on lead tracking. With most web analytics setups, it adds call and text tracking to the typical form-only tracking.

  

  Pros :

  • Reliable call and text tracking
  • Revenue attribution to specific leads (and, by extension, campaigns and ads)

  Cons :

  • Focused exclusively on leads — little utility for e-commerce companies 

  Pricing

  The cheapest plan starts at $30/month but does not include analytics integrations or form tracking. To access this and advanced flow tracking and attribution features, you need the Elite plan, which starts at $160/month.

  3. HubSpot Marketing Hub — Ideal CRM for larger B2B companies

  HubSpot is a marketing CRM with attribution features for tracking and analysis.

  

  The platform is very broad — encompassing CRM, email automation and other tools — which makes it challenging to use effectively. The price tag is also quite steep for smaller companies and marketing teams.

  Pros :

  • Concretely tracks revenue to multiple different touchpoints and marketing channels
  • Includes several different multi-touch attribution models
  • Allows offline conversion tracking

  Cons :

  • The price point is too high for smaller teams
  • Cam be difficult to set up effectively

  Pricing

  Since marketing attribution is only included in HubSpot Marketing Hub’s Professional and Enterprise plans, pricing starts at $800/month (paid annually). If you commit for a year but pay monthly, the price is $890/month for the professional plan. This goes up with additional add-ons and as your contacts increase as well. 

  4. ActiveCampaign — Good CRM option for small B2B companies

  ActiveCampaign is a CRM and marketing automation platform that can help you trace leads and revenue back to their source.

  

  Although it has a similar scope of features to HubSpot, it is more affordable and slightly easier to use for beginners.

  Pros :

  • Tracks sales revenue back to specific marketing touchpoints
  • Powerful marketing automation features

  Cons :

  • B2B companies may need to purchase two plans, one ActiveCampaign marketing and one CRM.

  Pricing

  Unlike HubSpot, ActiveCampaign offers a much more affordable plan, starting at $29/month billed annually (for up to 1,000 contacts). The marketing and sales CRM bundle starts at $93/month with up to five users.

  5. Salesforce Data Cloud for Marketing — Ideal CRM for enterprises

  Salesforce is a robust and feature-rich CRM that many enterprises rely on for their sales teams.

  

  That makes Salesforce’s marketing attribution platform a logical choice for existing Salesforce users.

  Pros :

  • Uses prospect and sales data from CRM to attribute revenue
  • Revenue prediction analytics
  • Lead scoring to help your sales team focus on high-value leads

  Cons :

  • Difficult to set up and use
  • Clunky and aged user interface
  • Relatively high price point

  Pricing

  The limited Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Growth plan starts at $1,250/month, billed annually. To access advanced cross-channel journeys, you need the Pro plan, which starts at $2,750 monthly.

  6. Terminus — Great for account-based marketing

  If your marketing team uses an account-based marketing (ABM) approach, Terminus might be the right option for you.

  

  It offers ABM tools like target account event tracking and revenue attribution tools for your marketing campaigns.

  Pros :

  • Advanced multi-channel revenue attribution tools with a wide range of reports
  • Track intent touchpoints back to target accounts
  • Reliable revenue predictions help you focus your marketing activities

  Cons :

  • Complex and difficult to set up, understand and use effectively
  • Lacks native integrations with many common advertising platforms and analytics tools

  Pricing

  Terminus offers no standard pricing plans. You must contact their sales team for a custom quote based on your needs.

  7. Adobe Analytics — An analytics for enterprises

  Adobe Analytics is part of the Adobe Experience Cloud, with plenty of big data analysis tools for enterprises. Although the platform is quite powerful, it is equally complex and difficult to use. The price point is also prohibitive for many smaller companies.

  

  Pros :

  • Very extensive reporting tools
  • Predictive analytics give you solid leading indicator for future campaign performance
  • Track multiple digital touchpoints across the entire customer journey

  Cons :

  • Like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics aggregates your visitor data by default, making compliant “consent-free tracking” — tracking user actions without asking for consent — impossible according to GDPR. (See more differences in Matomo’s comparison against Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics.)
  • Prohibitively expensive for most smaller companies
  • Very steep learning curve for setting up and using it correctly

  Pricing

  Adobe Analytics uses usage-based pricing — which means they adjust the pricing based on the traffic volume to your website. Still, their lower price points aren’t exactly SMB-friendly — multiple sources put Adobe’s lowest starting price point at $2,000–2,500 per month.

  Get accurate marketing attribution with Matomo (without privacy concerns)

  Matomo allows you to do marketing attribution effectively and accurately without compromising your users’ privacy. By default, we only use first-party cookies and offer consent-free tracking – meaning no more annoying cookie consent banners (excluding in Germany and the UK).

  If you want to boost your marketing performance without disregarding your users’ privacy, get started with our 21-day free trial. No credit card required. It’s time to make more informed decisions about your marketing campaigns.

  Try Matomo for Free

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

  
  

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