Google is about to kill my business model. Words of wisdom welcome :-(
Background: Running www.ga-insights.com. We have ~200 paying customers, and $4k MRR.
We focus on getting your GA data into Slack & MsTeams in a data-rich way.
We also deliver anomaly detection & real-time alerting as an early warning system.
The biggest growth factor for us recently has been our alerting system, using ML to monitor GA metric data and informing companies/e-com/agencies when the data doesn't look right. An example could be a bounce rate spiking, e-commerce revenue dipping, or a particular browser conversion rate trending lower. We're really doubled down on these features as they resonate well with customers.
And now for the bad news. This key feature and our 12-month roadmap looks like it's going to be released into Google Analytics in the next 6 months (guess).
The 'reporting beta' is currently only available across unified web+app properties, but it includes pretty much everything we do for free.
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9517187?hl=en&ref_topic=9517421.
Ouch. It's hard to communicate exactly how much time and effort has gone into the business for all involved, and for me personally: whilst trying to balance a day-job on the side. So naturally I'm feeling quite deflated right now.
Looking at natural pivots now that don't involve building from the ground up again. Unifying ad data across Google & Facebook seems OK, but we'd need a differentiator. Applying our ML engine but for other data-sources is another evolution - but it also feels like a gamble.
Any advice welcome! Or a virtual hug.
First, take a deep breath. There is a way forward.
You cannot compete with Google's free. However, you can take a lesson from BaseCamp who managed to build an impressive business against MS Project. They focused on simplicity over multiple features. Find a niche and serve it.
A few ideas:
Expand into other metrics providers. There are many web analytic companies to connect to. Alternative Ad Networks too. This could give you a niche of the non-Google crowd. For example Constant Contact, WIX, ShareThis, StatCounter, etc...
Provide accounting/payment data matched to web metrics to help users gain insights outside of Google. Giving a picture of who their best customer is, what social media platform is most valuable to them, and more.
Monitor the user websites for problems too. We built something like this at an early web startup. A scheduled visit to various pages with an alarm when something was wrong. Alerting to server issues, non-200 codes, and the like.
My wife, business coach, and many consultants are non-technical business owners. They pay for tons of no-code tools. Most do not use Google as they cannot set it up without help. Instead, they pay for analytic services and always want more. Look into business coaches and small consulting shops as a great source of potential non-Google customers.
A good start is to contact Noah at App Sumo and ask what he wants. Plus, reach out on Linkedin to everyone who is a business coach. Several of them make millions from solo shops.
Thanks Todd. I appreciate the reply - will mull over some of your points.
x10 this ^. 1 feature google adds shouldn’t kill your business.
you can implement the feature identical to google, or better. Either way you know what people want. Competition is good, just means there’s a market. No market no money.
There was always going to be a “what next moment?” Can’t stop at one feature/offering.
I'm not sure it's accurate to say we only have 1 feature.
But the feature in question was the reason that we were able to sell 15k ARR packages instead of $10pm, so it was naturally the area that we focused on expansion and sales. Hope that makes sense.