Intervistiamo Piotr Korzeniowski, CEO of Piwik PROwhich tells us about the company’s performance and focuses on the termination of the Universal Analytics service.
– Who is Piwik PRO? How is it positioned at an Italian and international level?
Piwik PRO is a Polish company founded in 2013 by Maciej Zawadzinski and specialized in analytics aimed at analyzing the customer journey on the web and apps. The solution we offer to our customers is a proprietary analytics software called Piwik PRO Analytics Suite, privacy-friendly and with characteristics very similar to the paid version of Google Analytics. In addition to technological performance, however, we provide high-level support, ranging from onboarding to training to customer success management.
An extremely complete product, therefore, which today, in its free “Piwik PRO Core” version, is installed on over 10,000 websites worldwide and registers more than 1,200 new installations per month.
Moved by the objective of concretely supporting organizations in obtaining valuable information for their business while respecting consumer privacy and maintaining control over the data collected, we currently have a client portfolio of over 450 companies, including the European Commission, Fitch Rating and Crédit Agricole, with over 40 partners globally.
In Italy, specifically, we operate thanks to a network of partners which was enriched last year thanks to the signing of important agreements with Ogilvy (Milan), Digital Pills (Turin) and Alea (Pordenone).
– What are the growth strategies for 2023 and what is the customer target?
Our proprietary platform grew 50% in 2022, and the company recently surpassed $11M in annual recurring revenue. The will is to continue on this path: for 2023 we aim, in fact, at a 50% increase in global turnover, to double the commitment in France and Northern Europe, to strengthen the presence in the United States, especially in the healthcareand to further expand the network of partners in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
To achieve these goals, we have chosen to adopt a renewed business strategy with which to improve product performance, while maintaining the focus on privacy: already in the second quarter of this year, therefore, we will release an optimized e-commerce tracking and a new Customer Data Platform (CDP) for enrichment and activation of behavioral targeting.
In terms of customer target, very dependent on the plan you decide to use. Our free Core offer, for example, is not only the perfect choice for small and medium-sized businesses in any industry sector, but it’s also a great way – for anyone – to test the product. The Enterprise plan, on the other hand, is a solid option for all more structured organizations looking for secure and reliable analytics solutions. Historically we have been successful mainly in the government, financial, healthcare and telecommunications sectors, but today the key industry is that of consumer brands.
– The imminent termination of Universal Analytics will force a change of perspectives for users; What are the main critical issues in your opinion?
Universal Analytics it was the “gold standard” for the entire digital analytics industry: everyone knew it and knew how to use it. Google Analytics 4, however, is very different from its predecessor: while UA was aimed mostly at simple marketers, this new solution is intended for professionals – whether they are marketers, data engineers and developers – with high technical skills. Furthermore, the data collection model has profoundly changed, as it only contemplates events, and even the user interface, once so familiar, now appears very different. Added to this are some technical and performance problems. More importantly though, GA4 is by no means “universal” – unlike UA – it only works successfully in a limited number of use cases.
With GA4, Google therefore abandons the marketer. A professional who doesn’t have the time to learn all the technicalities of the new version and all the workarounds that it requires to be usable, but who nevertheless needs to be able to delve into what works (and what doesn’t) in advertising costs, in PR or SEO activities, without necessarily having to learn the language SQL or log in to BigQuery for creating reports. For the realization of a management presentation they can then turn to our functionalities of dashboarding or connect Piwik PRO to Tableau, Looker Studio or Power BI. Contrary to GA4, there are no API limits here.
– GA4 or the alternatives out there? How to choose?
There are several options. First you can choose GA4, if the company has an internal data team or is dependent on the Google ecosystem, with connections to Google Ads or BigQuery. Alternatively, you can adopt independent solutions for very basic reporting, especially in the absence of a marketing team or if you only need high-level statistics on the “right direction” of the contents produced by your site. However, alternatives like us remain a final option because we are able to offer a similar data model and “look and feel” but more quickly and also supporting event-based reporting (such as, for example, user flows or funnels based on events, easy access to raw data of events and sessions, etc.), or product analytics tools if the corporate digital experience revolves around a product and product-led growth is the priority.
– How to structure and grow a data-driven business plan?
For a data-driven business plan, some premises are necessary. First of all, it is essential to define your business objectives, identify the target customer, select the right metrics and strengthen a team (recommended action, as a core activity) or hire professionals.
Once these solid foundations have been laid, you can move on to the next steps. A data-driven plan requires investment in infrastructure that collects, catalogs and processes information efficiently and securely – a process that can be outsourced to vendors Saas or built in a pre-existing data warehouse.
Other expenses are then necessary for the extension of engineering, analytical, marketing and advertising skills within the team, which will help drive the business, generate insights and develop predictive models.
Promoting a culture of decision-making is also essential data-driven and constant experimentation to optimize communication, products, marketing and operations.
Finally, it is essential to continuously innovate and improve products and services based on customer feedback and data insights, adapting strategies according to changing market conditions and consumer needs.