Business Analytics

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Goals, Metrics, KPIs, Dimensions, Targets

It is surprising how often these "simple" things come up. "What is the difference between a metric and a key performance indicator (KPI)?" "What is a dimension in analytics?" "What is segmentation?" "Are goals metrics?" And many more. There seems to be genuine confusion about the simplest, most foundational, parts of web metrics / analytics. So in this short post let's try and see if we can fix this really basic problem. Definitions and standard perspectives on these terms will be covered in this post: 1. Business Objectives 2. Goals 3. Metrics 4. Key Performance Indicators 5. Targets 6. Dimensions 7. Segments A standard definition will be provided, but more than that my hope is to solidify your understanding with concrete examples and pictures. The post will end with a "Web Analytics M easurement Framework" – a very lofty name for something that will help you put your understanding of this post into practice. Business Objectives:

This is the answer to the question: "Why does your website exist?"

Or: "What are you hoping to accomplish for your business by being on the web?" Or: "What are the three most important priorities for your site?" Or other questions like that. Without a clearly defined list of business objectives you are doomed, because if you don't know where you are going then any road will take you there. The objectives must be DUM B: Doable. Understandable. Manageable. Beneficial. 90% of the failures in web analytics, the reasons companies are data rich and information poor, is because they don't have DUMB objectives. Or they have just one (DUMB) Macro Conversion defined and completely ignore the Micro Conversions and Economic Value. Your company leadership (small business or fortune 100) will help you identify

business objectives for your online existence. Beg, threaten, embarrass,...