I'm new to Adobe Analytics reporting - where do I start?
Or just looking for a concise list of all the features released to Analysis Workspace recently?
Bring on the tips!
Filters provide more control over what data is shown in a freeform table. There are now 11 filtering options, including equals, starts with, and contains any phrase.
Time-parting takes the timestamp of collected hits and breaks it into more meaningful dimensions, such as "Hour of Day" or "Day of Week". These dimensions are now out-of-the-box in Analysis Workspace.
You can drag any component into the panel segment drop zone to automatically create a new segment, saving you a trip to the Segment Builder.
From a freeform column header, you can select one or two metrics and quickly generate a calculated metric.
Dimensions can be added directly in the calculated metric builder to quickly create basic segments. You no longer need to leave your workflow by going to the segment builder!
Approximate count distinct will return the approximated distinct count of dimension items for a selected dimension. You can then use the metric in any report to understand the count of one dimension against values of other. For example, the count of unique customers by Marketing Channel.
Date aligning allows you to show different date range trends overlapped on the same chart, for easier range comparison in both tables & graphs.
Right Click > Copy + Insert lets you copy visualizations from one panel to another, and even across projects as well. Use this functionality to better organize your projects, or get a headstart by copying from templates!
Data source management was significantly improved over the last year. You can now use one table to source many visualizations, without creating duplicate underlying tables. In addition, from the table settings, you can see what visualizations are linked to a table & hide the source table itself.
A granularity selector is available for trended visualizations under its settings. Quickly adjust your data granularity from minute all the way up to year. The setting will adjust both the graph & the source table, saving you the steps of unhiding & manipulating the table.
There are several new additions to Fallout, including direct vs eventual steps, renaming touchpoints, comparing unlimited segments, and trending touchpoint conversion percentages over time.
You can segment a Map visualization by placing it in its own panel and applying a panel level segment. Compare two maps side-by-side by fitting two panels next to one another, and applying a segment to each. This trick can apply to any visualization that doesn't allow for a segment at the viz level, such as Flow or Cohort.
A hit counting method has been added to Histograms. You can now bucket numeric events, such as age, custom time events like page load time, or # of search refinements.
Curation allows you to narrow the scope of data shared with end business users, so that they can focus on the data points that matter to them. You can curate components at the report suite level with Virtual Report Suites; this level of curation will carry through to any Workspace projects that leverage the report suite. Alternatively, you can curate a single project with Project curation in Workspace. Both methods will reduce the left rail in Workspace to just those components you want the business user to leverage.
Additionally, you can rename components to be more relevant to the end business user through VRS curation.
There are several small descriptive updates you can make to a project before sharing it with colleagues to help it stand on its own & tell your data story more effectively.
- Customize panel & visualization titles
- Add descriptions to visualizations that have calculations so the user doesn't need to guess
- Use hyperlinks to link to internal documents or external help
- Use hyperlinks to link down to specific parts of a project, or even cross-link to another project
Edit series labels before sharing to make the visualization more readily understood.
You can manage multiple column settings at once by holding Ctrl and multi-selecting the columns. Text wrapping is now available too!
Custom templates are a great way to get users analyzing more quickly & helps to ensure they are following best practices defined by your organization. You can build in tables with the appropriate success metrics & calculations, as well as layer in visualizations to make the data come to life. End business users can then choose to start their analysis from one of the custom templates.
Custom templates combined with the copy + insert functionality is a great way for new users to get up & running quickly. They can open a template side-by-side with a new blank project, and then selectively copy over the visualizations they need for their analysis.
Ready for more content?
Visit adobe.ly/aaresources for a full list of Adobe Analytics Spark pages & other helpful resources.