The difference between Google Analytics and Kissmetrics

The methods for identifying users in Kissmetrics and Google Analytics work differently. There are some differences below.

When tracking users, any analytics system should be guided by one of two assumptions:

·                     Each visit from one device is made by the same person.

·                     Each visit is considered a visit by a new user until he identifies himself.

Kissmetrics follows the first assumption. If a user visits your site from a computer, tablet or phone, Kissmetrics recognizes it only once - when a person signs up - and binds all the data from this device to his/her account.

Google Analytics, on the other hand, assumes that every visit to the site is made by a new user. The only way to get around this is to identify people during each session to see everything they do.

Kissmetrics is not a copy of Google Analytics. Although both tools are designed to collect analytics, the usefulness of using a particular service depends on company’s situation.

With Google Analytics, a company can understand how visitors interact with its site. Kissmetrics allows to see how customers use company’s product, identify the main channels for attracting users, document data on split tests and much more. That's why, in order to get a complete picture of the business, companies must combine the capabilities of both tools.

 Google Analytics is recommended if:

You want to track the number of visitors and visits. Kissmetrics can also track visitors, but using the service just for the sake of it does not make sense.

You want to track the bounce rate, the time spent on the page, and the outputs. For these metrics, Google Analytics is suitable, which can show where people leave the site - without the link to how this will affect your conversions. In Kissmetrics you can see from which part of the funnel they are leaving.

You want to track in general only the registration process or the order process. Google Analytics will give you the ability to track funnels (compound goals) by sessions, not real users.

Kissmetrics is recommended if:

Collect data on profits that help to make decisions.

Detect channels of attracting customers.

Track and optimize the sales funnel.

Get an understanding of how customers use the product.

Find points of multiple revenue growth.

Thus, Kissmetrics is more focused on studying customer behavior and optimizing the funnel. If you need an in-depth analysis and it's important to find a link between marketing and profit, the combination of Kissmetrics + Google Analytics will be the most appropriate option.

Tools like Kissmetrics provide user analytics — more of a UX function — how engaged are users on average, cohort-based retention analysis, what actions have specific users performed.

Google Analytics excels at web analytics — more of a marketing function — what pages were visited, from where in the world, what browser were they using.

While GA has some cohort-based visualization, they're not very useful to UX because they're analyzing visitors, not users — perhaps they have some value to marketing function.

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/google-analytics-and-kissmetrics/

More analytics posts are here: http://haneenalansari.blogspot.com/2017/05/why-web-analytics-implementation.html