Our experts help a reader make sense of online marketing metrics and the companies that provide them.

Question:
I am an advertising salesperson for strong B2B publications. I know the importance of including online aspects in a full marketing campaign, but I don't feel completely confident about the vernacular and especially about the differences in measuring metrics: for example, DoubleClick, Google Analytics, etc. Can you help me?

Answer:
One of the selling points of online media for marketers is that everything is measurable. That sounds great in theory, but as you've discovered, that's easier said than done.

With a vast array of metrics out there, and little standardization (yet), people have made an entire career out of helping marketers sort this out. Indeed, an entire cottage industry has grown out of it.

Because there are a lot of people and organizations focused on the topic, Dave Smith, a recognized expert in media planning and metrics, suggests you begin by reading the trades and attending as many conferences as you can.

For starters, check out these articles by Brandt Dainow, CEO, ThinkMetrics.

In "Web Analytics 101," Dainow defines all the terminology and how the terms fit together. He follows this up with "Framework for Performance Assessment," in which he explains how the terms connect to each other to describe the complete online customer cycle. And in "Comparing Apples and Oranges," he describes how to integrate online and offline metrics.

Together, these articles form the basis for an understanding of measuring online marketing efforts.

To break it down even further, Jim Sterne, the founding president and chairman of the Web Analytics Association and the president of Target Marketing, provides this general guide to metrics:

He says what's important is to learn the difference between ad server metrics, web metrics and web analytics.

"DoubleClick and other ad serving networks report on the number of ads they serve -- and a lot about to whom they are serving as well as lots of cool behavioral targeting stuff," Sterne says. "Web metrics reveal the size of the internet, the number of people, the most popular sites, and the general behavior of online mouse manipulators. Web metrics are the purview of companies like comScore, Hitwise and Nielsen NetRatings.

"Web analytics is all about the activity that happens on one website. Where did they [the visitors] come from? How long did they stay? What did they read/buy/comment on? How often do they come back? That's what Google Analytics does for a living along with companies like Omniture, WebTrends and Coremetrics."

As far as the differences between different company products, however, Dainow explains that no one knows. "What goes on inside them is proprietary," he says. "The numbers between two systems will never match."

These articles explain why (without going into specifics on any single product):

Things That Throw Your Stats (Part 1)
Things That Throw Your Stats (Part 2)

I hope that helps.

As a final piece of advice, I recommend also reading Tom Hespos' "Web Analytics Pitfalls to Avoid."

If anyone else has thoughts on the topic, please add them to comments below. And send me your questions -- yours might get featured in the next Dear Dawn!

Dawn Anfuso is senior editor, iMedia Connection. Read full bio.