Survey's positive outlook on analytics spend

US-- Online marketers plan to increase – or at least maintain – web analytics spending this year despite the gloomy economy, according to the results of a survey by the Web Analytics Association (WAA).

The WAA's 2009 Industry Outlook Survey, which canvassed opinion from 650 analytics professionals and marketers around the world, found 96% of respondents reporting plans to either increase spend or hold it at current levels. Respondents said that any increase in budgets would mainly be allocated to web analytics training.

Eighty-one per cent of respondents said they planned to spend on consulting and staffing to help them improve their website performance and the returns they get from online marketing campaigns, while 41% said they would be investing in behavioural targeting and paid search add-ons to work alongside existing analytics programmes.

But despite the optimism, WAA said that more than 40% of respondents highlighted funding as the biggest challenge they will face this year.

Author: James Verrinder

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