Creating period comparison widgets

This guide explains how to create widgets that allow you to compare data from different time periods.

A period comparison widget displays data grouped by selected date ranges, which makes it easy to compare data from different periods of time. There are two ways to create a period comparison widget:

• Using date comparison dimensions

• Using the "Compare to" toggle

Prerequisites

Before you complete the procedure in this guide, perform all of the following actions:

• Load your collected data into Adverity Data Storage.

Using date comparison dimensions

You can use the following date comparison dimensions in Adverity:

• Previous N periods

• Same period N weeks/months/quarters/years ago

For more information, see this explanation of Date comparison.

When creating a widget using a date comparison dimension, remember the following:

• This period refers to the date range selected in the date range filter. For more information, see Creating widgets with a date range filter.

  We recommend including the selected date range in the widget name so that it is clear which period is shown in the widget.

• For the Same period N weeks/months/quarters/years ago dimensions, the second period for comparison will be of the same length as the initially selected date range moved by an exact number of calendar units, for example, weeks or months from the initially selected date range.

  For example, if the first date range you select is the week from July 1st to July 7th, the second period will also be one week long and will be an exact number of weeks/months/quarters/years earlier or later than the first range.

Procedure

This example shows how to create a year-to-year (YtY) comparison for the Clicks metric by the Device type dimension using date comparison dimensions.

To create a period comparison table widget using date comparison dimensions, follow these steps:

1. Select the workspace you work with in Adverity and then, in the platform navigation menu, click Data Explorer.

2. In the secondary menu, from the From Data Mappings section, select the Device type dimension.

3. In the secondary menu, from the From Data Mappings section, select the Clicks metric.

4. In the secondary menu, from the From Adverity section, from the Date comparison group, select the date comparison dimension. By default, the "N" parameter is set to 1. This guide uses the Same period N years ago dimension as an example.

5. In the Date range section, select the time period for comparison. This guide uses This year as an example.

6. (Optional) To configure the "N" parameter, in the Dimensions section, click Same period N years ago, click Set N previous periods, set the new value for "N", and click Apply.

7. (Optional) To display each time period in a separate column, transpose the Same period N years ago dimension. For more information, see Transposing dimensions.

As a result, you have created a table widget comparing this year to the last year.

Using the "Compare to" toggle

When creating a widget using the Compare to toggle, remember the following:

• You can select the time periods for comparison with more flexibility independently from each other. For more information, see Creating widgets with a date range filter.

• You can select time periods independently from calendar units. For example, you can compare fiscal years.

• The time periods can be of different length. For example, you can compare This month to This quarter.

• The period comparison dimension displays the selected time periods in the way they are selected in the date range filter.

Procedure

This example shows how to create a widget comparing Last month to Last quarter for the Clicks metric by the Device type dimension using the Compare to toggle.

To create a period comparison table widget using the Compare to toggle, follow these steps:

1. Select the workspace you work with in Adverity and then, in the platform navigation menu, click Data Explorer.

2. In the secondary menu, from the From Data Mappings section, select the Device type dimension.

3. In the secondary menu, from the From Data Mappings section, select the Clicks metric.

4. In the Date range section, select the time period for comparison. This guide uses Last month as an example.

   The Compare to toggle allows you to select the date ranges flexibly from the calendar picker.

5. In the Date range section, enable the Compare to toggle. When you enable the toggle, Custom period dimension is automatically added to the list of dimensions.

6. In the Date range section, select the second time period for comparison. This guide uses Last quarter as an example.

7. (Optional) To display each time period in a separate column, transpose the Custom period dimension. For more information, see Transposing dimensions.

As a result, you have created a table widget comparing last month to the last quarter.