Average Session Duration (Different results where placed)

[Jordanmn]

Hi,

I have been looking at average time on site in our instance and I am seeing different results depending on where I place the metric/dimension in the freeform table (screenshots attached). Has anyone else seen this in their instance? If so, what prompts the different results. 

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

For reference (so other people don't have to download the images):

avgtos1.png

avgtos2.png

Time is a calculated metric in Adobe's system, it's all based on Time Stamp B - Time Stamp A... so there are bound to be some variations... but this one is rather extreme...

My thoughts are that since technically, metrics are more designed to be at the top, and not as breakdowns (yes, you can swap them, but Dates don't roll when along the top, and other factors cause some oddities), I would say that the second one is having some issues performing proper calculation... 

I can't really speak in detail about why the math is odd.. but I would be more trustful of the first variation as it's added in the more "standard" / "intended" way... but it would be interesting to send this to client care and try to get more information as to how the math on the timestamps is processing to result in such different values...

[Josh__Stephens]

I too sometimes find that the time metrics can be sort of confusing.  

It's always nice to have a gut check to make sure they seem to make sense.