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Google has taken its first step to tie its recently acquired Web analytics service more closely to its pay-per-click advertising program.
As part of a price cut for the Urchin On Demand software announced Tuesday, Google Inc. also added a feature that allows users to import data about the costs of pay-per-click ads directly from their Google AdWords accounts.
By pairing the advertising data with Web analytics, Google is offering users another approach for tracking their return on investments from AdWords campaigns, a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
Google acquired Urchin Software Corp. in March in a move viewed as a way of providing more tools for analyzing the effectiveness of Googles ad offerings, especially as competitors such as Microsoft Corp.s MSN division prepare their own pay-per-click programs tied to detailed demographic information.
The purchase also led to speculation that Google could unleash a price war in the Web analytics market since Google has been known to heavily discount or give away software from many of its past acquisitions.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Google appears ready to battle on price, slashing the monthly subscription rate for Urchin On Demand by 60 percent. The service now costs $199 a month, down from $495 per month.
In a statement, Google said it slashed the price to make Urchin affordable for all types of Web sites, whether large or small.
Along with the price drop, Google expanded the number of Web sites users can track with the software.
Urchin On Demand can now support reporting on as many as 50 Web sites rather than only one, Google said.
The price covers as many as 100,000 page views per month, and users can add 1 million more page views for an additional $99 per month.
Urchin On Demand is targeted both to Web site owners as well as advertisers to track site visitor statistics and performance data about various types of online ads.