Scale Smarter With Better Analytics Teams

Drawing upon a decade of experience across agencies, in-house teams and freelance projects, Times One Hundred analytics specialist Toms Grinvalds has identified key patterns that unlock a company's full analytics potential. His insights reveal the essential elements that empower organisations to maximise the value of their analytics infrastructure and drive meaningful business growth.

In this article I want to explore what an optimal web analytics team structure might look like for different company types and sizes. As you might expect, team structure and leadership is a key component. Lack of clear processes and ownership over the analytics function predisposes the company to wasted analytics budget (and marketing budget), poor data quality, unrealistic expectations and frustration for everyone involved.

Unfortunately, I have seen my fair share of businesses where analytics and tracking is treated as an afterthought. Cases where great analysts have been let go as a cost saving exercise, only to realise six months later that your data has turned into an unreliable mess as there's no one left to coordinate and audit the infrastructure. Furthermore, other departments (IT, marketing, product) are running wild and making tagging changes left, right and centre, without realising how those changes will impact the whole tracking ecosystem. Forget about keeping clear and up-to-date documentation!

These scenarios can often be seen within large, global organisations that have substantial marketing budgets that directly rely on quality tracking.

Large organisations and data-dependant brands

In this context, by 'large,' I don’t necessarily mean organisations that are big in size (a large automotive parts manufacturer might not need the most advanced web analytics setup). Rather, I’m referring to organisations with high data usage, advanced digital marketing strategy and a substantial budget dedicated to it - think high-traffic e-commerce stores, SaaS providers, streaming platforms and similar businesses.

Sensitive industries such as banking, healthcare, or companies that rely on proprietary tracking technologies that give them competitive advantage, in most cases should consider having their own internal analytics department that takes care of tagging, data engineering and data analysis needs.

It’s vital for business leaders to recognise that if they want to have accurate and insightful data, web analytics can’t be treated as an afterthought and the complexity of this discipline needs to be recognised and appreciated

External agency partners should only be used for supporting technically challenging projects. Access to sensitive data should be limited whenever possible, in-line with compliance and security standards. Many privacy-conscious businesses prefer enterprise-level web analytics and tag management tools, sometimes even opting for on-premise rather than cloud-based providers. Companies like WebTrends and Ensighten offer strong technical support for their customers, reducing the need for external agency assistance.

Any other large organisation should consider using a specialist agency.

Why an agency and not a freelancer? It all comes down to SLA. An agency can provide a consistent, uninterrupted service - no issues with availability (ie. due to sickness), there are always backups, and they have a broad specialist talent pool to use for certain tasks/projects.

The agency can’t work alone. There needs to be an internal point of contact on the client side, an analytics project manager, product manager – or better still, a data analyst/engineer or someone from another technical field, like dev-ops. People from marketing, project management and senior leadership often provide incredibly valuable strategic input, but might not have the technical background and understanding about analytics nuances to properly support the agency with day-to-day tasks.

A lack of a primary point of contact who can coordinate work often results in more time required for the projects (which leads to higher fees) and frustration on the agency side, since it’s much harder to pin down the right person, gather requirements, or receive instruction in the right format and within the expected timeframe.

The internal point of contact serves as a bridge between senior leadership, the marketing team, the development team and the agency. Their role is to guide discussions productively and align expectations to ensure feasibility. By doing so, they help optimise time and resources, enabling the agency to focus on delivering high-quality results with fewer disruptions.

Mid-sized businesses and savvy brands

Companies that rely heavily on web data and digital marketing, but haven’t yet reached enterprise-level budgets or traffic volumes, fall into this category. Instead of enterprise tools, they opt for free or low-cost solutions such as Google Tag Manager, GA4, Piwik PRO, Matomo, or other lesser-known providers.

It might not be financially viable to maintain an internal analytics department or even a web analyst position. The best option is to use a web analytics agency, or a specialist freelancer to offer support when needed.

Just like with larger organisations, using an agency might be a safer option from an SLA standpoint.

Since there may not be an internal analyst or a clear internal analytics discipline with leadership capabilities, the ownership over the day-to-day management of the analytics function should be placed entirely into the hands of the agency.

This would help restrict tag additions and changes, data analysis, and dashboard creation for the right people, reducing errors and a drop in data quality. It’s not only a data quality issue, but also a compliance issue, since a person who isn’t experienced might add tracking technologies to the website/app in a way that’s not compliant with the GDPR.

Smaller businesses, B2B and nonprofits

This category includes any business with a website that wants to understand user behaviour, but doesn't require complex tracking such as small companies with limited budgets, or larger businesses that might only use their website for basic lead generation - such as manufacturers, trade businesses, or non-profits.

In most cases there isn’t a need for extensive support, just periodic project delivery and regular basic reporting support.

Using a freelancer might be the most cost-effective way to do it. As noted above, full ownership of the analytics function should be given to the freelancer to ensure high standards of data quality and compliance.

As the business grows and data usage needs change, there might come a time where switching to a specialist agency with more resources and experience will be a better option.

Summary

The success of a company’s analytics infrastructure depends on efficient team structure, clear ownership, and strategic partnerships tailored to its size and needs.

It’s vital for business leaders to recognise that if they want to have accurate and insightful data, web analytics can’t be treated as an afterthought and the complexity of this discipline needs to be recognised and appreciated.

About the author

Toms Grinvalds is a Senior Web Analytics Implementation Engineer with 10+ years of experience, including 8 years as a full-time contractor. Specialising in tracking tag implementation, user consent management, server-side tagging and complex tracking issue debugging, he partners with leading digital marketing agencies in the UK and US to deliver advanced analytics implementation solutions.