The 98-page report is based on a survey of almost 900 client-side respondents, and follows five similar studies carried out between 2008 and 2012.

What are the barriers that prevent you from having an effective online measurement strategy?

In contrast, for supply-side respondents the most commonly cited barrier their clients have is a lack of understanding/don’t know what to measure (42%), followed by lack of budget and resources (39%) and a lack of strategy (35%).

Frustrations with web analytics

Respondents were also asked about their main frustrations regarding web analytics and data.

As this word clouds shows, company respondents focused on a lack of multiple factors: consistency, strategy, time, investment in people. Others wrote about siloed departments and teams, and too much data noise.

What are the main frustrations relating to web analytics or, more broadly, to data in the context of your business requirements?

On the supply side, agency frustrations centred on a lack of client understanding of the data and the costs involved. 

A lack of management buy-in was also prevalent, as were outdated internal systems and technologies. Finally, the results demonstrate the challenge businesses face when it comes to integrating disparate datasets, as the main frustration of a number of agencies was the inconsistency of datasets.

What are your clients’ main frustrations relating to web analytics or, more broadly, to data in the context of their business requirements?