Google Analytics vs Nielsen Survey

Why are we doing this?

Many members complain that their Nielsen data and Google Analytics data are very different and struggle to
understand why. In an effort to discover some trends and find some answers, we need all OPA members to help us
with some comparative data so we can do some research.

Please fill in this questionnaire for as many of your sites as you are able to. We’ve also taken the opportunity to ask
some other information that will help us perform a better measurement function.

We recommend that you capture the data on paper first, working with the various reporting tools, as you will probably
need the input of more than one person for each site’s response. Please fill on one form per site.

Once completed, visit the OPA blog (http://blog.opa.org.za) from 1 August where you will find a link to the online
survey form to post the data digitally for analysis.

Thanks in advance. I know this is time well spent…

Josh Adler
OPA Head of Measurement | CEO Prefix / pMailer

Site / Submitter information

1. Please enter your

Site Name

2. State the Site

URL

3. Your Name and

Surname?

4. Name of
Publisher/Company

5. What is your
position in the Co?

6. Your Tel No

7. Your E-mail
General / Usage / Sentiment

8. Do you use Google Analytics for this site? Yes No

2. Do you use any other tools for this site? Yes No

3. If you use other tools what are they?

4. How often do you login to Site Census to see statistics on this site?

Daily Weekly Monthly Never

5. How often do you login to Market Intelligence to compare data for this site?

Daily Weekly Monthly Never

6. How often do you login to Google Analytics to see statistics on this site?

Daily Weekly Monthly Never

7. Have you set up email reports in Nielsen Site Census for this site?

No Yes - Daily Yes - Weekly Yes - Monthly

8. Have you set up email reports in Google Analytics for this site?

No Yes - Daily Yes - Weekly Yes - Monthly

9. Have you customized your Google Analytics Yes No

reports/dashboards for this site?

10. Which data do you feel you trust more? (tick one only!)

Nielsen Google My other stats

Tagging / Technical

11. Do you use Content Groups in your Nielsen tags for this site? Yes No

12. Do you use filters in Google Analytics for this site? Yes No

13. Where do you place your Google tags within the HTML code on this site?

In the Header / Before </body> Other position

top of page at the bottom of
the page

14. In which order do your tags run within your HTML?

Google tag first Nielsen tag first

15. If you run Google tags first or in the header, please explain why you’ve placed them there?

16. How does your CMS generate the tags?

Statically included site-wide within a global template

Dynamically generated for different sections with CG data
Different template sets with different static tags with CG data
Other

17. How often do you run a tag audit on this site?

Monthly Quarterly Annually Never done it

18. What do you do to “audit” your tags on this site?

19. What Ad-server do you use to deliver and manage ads on this website?

AdTech
DoubleClick
OpenX Hosted
OpenX (on our own servers)
 Other (remotely invocated)
Other (on our own servers)

20. Where are your Ad-servers located?

In South USA/Europe I don’t knows

Africa Outside SA

DATA SECTION: Before you start

- If you haven’t run Nielsen or Google tags since 1 Jan 2008, please fill in the periods you do have.
- Make sure you take your Nielsen data from Market Intelligence, not Site Census.
- Make sure your Nielsen data is Total Traffic (and not domestic only) so that we can compare to Google.
- To calculate (%ZA UB’s) in Nielsen please compare your SA traffic to your global traffic for the period.
- To get your (%ZA AUV’s) access the “visitors” section of your Analytics and filter at the country level.
- To get your %Dial-up access the “visitors” section of Google Analytics and see the Connection Speeds table.

Legend:
PI’s = Page Impressions | UB’s = Unique Browsers | ASD = Average Session Duration | %ZA UB’s = % of your
visitors that are from South Africa | AUV’s = Absolute Unique Visitors | TOS = Average Time on Site | %ZA
AUV’s = % of your visitors that are from South Africa | %DU = % of your visitors that are on dial-up
connections.

NIELSEN MI PI's UB's ASD %ZA UB

01/02/2008 – 28/02/2008

01/06/2008 – 30/06/2008

01/10/2008 – 31/10/2008

01/02/2009 – 28/02/2009

01/06/2009 – 30/06/2009

GOOGLE ANALYTICS PI's AUV's TOS %ZA UV %DU

01/02/2008 – 28/02/2008

01/06/2008 – 30/06/2008

01/10/2008 – 31/10/2008

01/02/2009 – 28/02/2009

01/06/2009 – 30/06/2009
What is this other tool? ________________

OTHER TOOL PI's AUV's TOS %ZA UV %DU

01/02/2008 – 28/02/2008

01/06/2008 – 30/06/2008

01/10/2008 – 31/10/2008

01/02/2009 – 28/02/2009

01/06/2009 – 30/06/2009

… That’s it…You’re done! Thank you very much!