Is it worth using more than one web tracker? [closed]

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It seems that Google Analytics is one of the best trackers right now, but I often see in some web pages that they use more than one tracker, like Mint, comScore, Quantcast, etc. So:

• What are the advantages of using more than one? Do they provide different analysis? Is Google Analytics not enough?
• Won't they conflict with each other?
• Do they provide consistent reports for the same tracking? (Like the number of unique visits on a single page)

Answer 1

Won't they conflict with each other?

No. Tracking software must be able to run inside all kinds of webpages without interfering with normal operations after all it is deployed on thousands or millions of websites (nobody would use a tracking product that might break his website and thus causes loss of revenue). So trackers can run side by side with all other kinds of scripts, including other trackers.

Do they provide consistent reports for the same tracking

They might occasionally agree on page impressions, but usually they disagree especially on aggregated values (either because they have different models e.g. as to what forms a user session or because the various script fail at different conditions or because users opted out of one tracking tool but not the other etc.)

What are the advantages of using more than one

GA works only with javascript enabled browsers, it does not track shopping carts (important e.g. if you need abandoment rates), it does not allow to collect personal information, it does not very well integrate with inventory management systems and other backoffice software, there is no way to show cancelled orders (which means that all transaction reports are necessarily wrong). There are possibly other reasons but at least for an large ecommerce outfit these are probably enough to have other software run alongside GA.

Plus you do not have access to raw data with GA, so you cannot reprocess historical data (or export data e.g. to aggregate numbers for multiple properties).

Is it worth using more than one web tracker?

If you run a large Ecommerce site or want to collect personal data, yes. For most people, no (you'll end up with multiple disagreeing reports and will spend too much time pondering which one might be correct).

Answer 2

There are occasions when you would want to use another tracking system along with Google. This could be bacuse they offer functionality that Google don't, or they report it in a better way for you - which Google don't.

However, I would bear in mind page speed and efficiency when adding tracking code to your website. You don't want to be in a situation where you have 10 different pieces of JavaScript firing on every page sending requests (albeit small) to 10 different systems that, essentially, report the same metrics in a similar or slightly different way.