Government and commercial sites have some key differences in acquisition, forms, and tracking outcomes. Government sites are less focused on acquisition and do not market services at the individual property level. Their forms can be much longer, with over 100 fields to ensure accuracy for benefit claims. Outcomes are often determined offline, making it hard to track the full online journey. However, they also share similarities in using agile processes, relying on developers to implement code, and sometimes needing to challenge other experts to get the right analytics focus.

1. COMMERCIAL/GOVT
SITES; SIMILARITIES AND
DIFFERENCES IN
MIKE SUTER-TIBBLE

2. TEXT
DIFFERENCES - ACQUISITION
▸Generally, govt services not that bothered about acquisition
▸Don’t get this at individual property level (gov.uk is our
biggest referrer)
▸Comms campaigns / services being marketed are the
exception

3. TEXT
DIFFERENCES; MEGA-FORMS
▸Contact / lead gen forms might be 7-10 fields
▸Carers’ Allowance has over 100 fields; can be 50 screens
long
▸Very concerned about accuracy of responses (for benefit
claims)
▸Use sessionControl quite a lot

4. TEXT
OTHER DIFFERENCES
▸Most outcomes are offline, so hard to track
▸Online journey is simply submitting the application
▸Decisions about whether (and how much) to award are offline
▸Do a lot of data linking/uploading outcomes into GA
▸Analytical background of web analysts
▸Content is defined by GDS - no images!
▸Test different releases rather than A/B test

5. TEXT
SIMILARITIES
▸Agile
▸Rely on Devs to implement code!
▸Customers often need help to understand what they want to
measure, and with statistical concepts like significance
▸Designers/copywriters don’t always like their ‘expertise’ being
challenged
▸Can be difficult to convince people analytics is more than
playing about with standard reports in GA