• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 1, 2005

Trying to speed up what it considers marketers' glacial adoption of Web analytics, WebSideStory today is expected to release a more user-friendly interface with the latest version of an analytics suite. Offered as an extended service, the "Active Dashboard" presents marketers with speedometer-like tools to gauge things like conversion rates and return on investment. It is also integrated with a new keyword bid management application to launch today, WebSideStory Bid.

"We understand that analytics adoption, which has moved at a glacial pace until recently, depends on marketers feeling comfortable with these tools," said WebSideStory spokesman Erik Bratt.

On the so-called Dashboard, marketers are encouraged to experiment with "what if" scenarios in real time, said Bratt. A marketer should be able to determine, for example, the impact on total monthly revenue when they increase their average order size by 5 percent.

A report put out by Forrester Research earlier this month found that an increasing number of marketers are using analytics tools to track consumer behavior, but Bratt and his colleagues are pushing for further adoption.

The company's new bid management product can reportedly support over 100,000 keyword bids per account, and all listing management can be performed through one centralized measurement console.

WebSideStory reported last week that its second-quarter revenue increased 78 percent year-over-year, reaching $9.4 million from $5.3 million. In February, the company acquired Atomz, a company that provides Web content management and search within sites, for about $40 million.