More important are the static segmentation and resulting costs that multiple tags imply. Although our site is predictably part of various CMP Web segments, it's also a member of unpredictable segments. It's natural for visitors to CMP's sites to search along technology or business lines, for example. To track this across multiple Web sites, you need still more segments--and additional unique tags. This increases the amount of data gathered by the Web analytics services, and consequently, the cost of the service.
Tags are only one of the ways to segment sites. Almost all the analytics services we tested could also segment by URL and directory structure, among other methods. But when user behavior is determined and the sites to which it applies need to be identified after the fact, as in our testing on live CMP sites, a more dynamic segmentation is needed. This requires a database and query mechanism, which wasn't the norm. Only Omniture's SiteCatalyst ships with one.
We tested services, but there are also many products available. In choosing between the two, consider the amount of data: The more you have, the more it costs to use a service. And data-intensive shops likely have some in-house expertise and the infrastructure required to run a product.
Services do have one financial benefit, especially if you're struggling to get resources dedicated to making the most of your Web presence. That is, services cost hard dollars, while the amount of time allocated by in-house resources is often fuzzy. A service defines and dedicates resources, and builds a cost basis for possible future in-house resource cost justification. If you have a monthly bill of "X" and can bring the work in house for "X-1," you've got a case.
Be aware, though, that service providers succeed based on cost sharing, so you may be hard-pressed to run the service cheaper. On the other hand, service providers succeed because they tend to take a one-size-fits-all approach; if you want granular control, and data analysis represents a competitive advantage, do it yourself.
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