Supermetrics brings efficiency to business analytics

Collecting online data is increasingly important for companies, but managing its many different sources from online advertising and social media to website traffic, is time consuming. Helsinki-based Supermetrics has developed an easy way to tackle this: aggregate all the data into a single service.

“Our solution saves time as you do not have to log into different services the check the data, everything is collected into a one view,” explains founder Mikael Thuneberg.

So how does this work? Supermetrics’ data collection tools tap into selected online services (such as Google, Facebook and YouTube), pull the data to either Excel or Google Sheets and turn them into a business reporting system for web analytics, social media and online marketing. All information updates automatically and visualisations and reports are easy to create. The tools are free to trial after which there is a monthly subscription fee.

While many rival services offer predefined data sets and visual dashboards, Thuneberg says the strength of Supermetrics is the scope of data it provides.

“We bring in the raw data and our customers can spin it anyway they want, it is a very flexible tool. If you want in-depth access to the data, you have it. You can decide exactly what you want,” he argues. “A couple of companies are doing something similar, but I would say we are the strongest player in this market.”

So far this sales pitch has convinced thousands of companies around the world (including Dyson, Greenpeace and BBC Worldwide) to sign up and almost 35 per cent of Supermetrics’ clients are based in the USA.

Help from Google

Supermetrics was born from Thuneberg’s own frustrations with data collection. Seven years ago he was working at Sulake (creator of online community Habbo Hotel) and in charge of reporting data from 20 different country editions of Habbo.

“It was very time-consuming, a lot of copy-pasting, and frankly felt like a fool’s errand,” Thuneberg recalls. “I thought this should be automatised. I do not have a background in programming, but I created a few simple automation scripts and shared them online for free.”

This caught the eye of some people in the Google Analytics team who highlighted the scripts as the best solution for accessing Analytics from Excel. As a result, Thuneberg was flooded by messages from interested users and six months later (early 2010) he started a one-man operation to develop analytics tools.

As demand grew Thuneberg decided it was time to think bigger. Supermetrics was born in 2013 and today has six employees in Helsinki. The company has been profitable from the day one and built a global clientele entirely through word of mouth. For this Thuneberg gives a big nod to an influential supporter.

“People in the Google Analytics team have been excited by our tools and blogged about us often. I have also invited to present to their biggest advertisers at annual Google Analytics conferences,” he explains. “This visibility has been a huge help.”

Constant growth

Supermetrics is now looking to expand its team and introduce new tools. A key addition will enable direct data import to user’s own data warehouses, something the startup is now testing with one of Finland’s biggest media agencies.

“[Our aim] is to become a service that brings together all possible data sources and combines them with all the places where data is used,” Thuneberg says.

He admits he has come a long way from starting a software company without any previous entrepreneurial or even programming experience, but only speaks highly of his experiences so far:

“I never thought I would become an entrepreneur. I made all sorts of silly mistakes at the start and it has been a great learning experience. But I would recommend entrepreneurship to anyone.”