Here’s something email marketing managers can ponder while sitting in their cubicles. Which has the better analytics platform: Adobe Analytics (AA) or Google Analytics (GA)? 

It’s likely that the average email manager has no control over the choice, although the result will affect the email program and possibly the person’s career.

Even if they do have sway, the person will have to choose one of two brands in this duopoly, judging by 2019 State of Digital Marketing Analytics In The Top 1000 Internet retailers, a recent study by Cardinal Path in partnership with ObservePoint.  

Just about all the firms in the Internet Retailer 1,000 use analytics, while those in the top 50 achieve 126% adoption, due to the adoption of more platforms.

It’s also somewhat likely that these firms use both systems. Of 212 companies that have AA installed, 73% also have GA.

That doesn’t work both ways, however — only 18% of the 840 GA users also have AA.

“This suggests that organizations running Adobe see the benefit of running GA in parallel, but that organizations running GA are less likely to see the benefits — or be able to pay for the benefits — of running Adobe in parallel,” the study states.

Overall, Adobe has a 56% share among the Top 50, but GA has an 84% share of firms ranking from 51 to 500 and 89% with those in the top 501 to 1,000 range.

Adobe is popular with enterprise retailers with complex data analytics needs and the desire to integrate analytics with other functions.

The only real third choice for the Top 500 is IBM Analytics, which has a decreasing share.

However, there is competition within certain functions — for example, with tag management. Tealium narrowly leads among the top 50. Use of tag management systems grew by 20% from 2017 to 2018.

When it comes to testing and personalization, Google Optimize is the leader, but Adobe Target wins among the Top 50, while Optimizely has fallen by 31.7% year-over-year.

Digital management platforms suffered declines of up to 63% within the Top 250, possibly due to the rise of customer data platforms, which grew by 76% between 2017 and last year, the study concludes.

But back to the duopoly. Both leaders expanded their solutions last year — Adobe in part by acquiring Marketo and Magento, and Google by forming the Google Marketing Platform with DoubleClick Digital Marketing and by integrating the Salesforce Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud with Google Analytics 360.

Good luck choosing between the two.