Key Metric Differences Based on Structure of Table

[PaigeQ]

Hi!

I am looking for some clarity on the date ranges within Adobe Analytics. Why are the two numbers different? And which one is more accurate for monthly reporting?

[MandyGeorge]

What is the date range that you have in your panel?

The purple date ranges that you add to the table override the panel date range, so we know what date range your first image has. But knowing what date range you're using for your second image would be helpful.

[PaigeQ]

August 2025

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Agreed, even with the date range overriding the panel range, the specific "Aug 2025" breakdown dimension, this should be limited to Aug... but I get it, in the image without the purple date range, if the panel range was something like "Aug 1 to Aug 28, 2025" that could explain a difference, but then I would expect that variant to be smaller, not larger... 

I don't think that is the cause of the discrepancy... 

[PaigeQ]

For better context, here is the full workspace with the two tables. For the second table with the "Jan 1 - Dec 31 2025" I added the "Month" dimension but only displayed the August numbers.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I think there is something happening with your Segment that is causing the difference... I am willing to bet, if you do this without that segment, your numbers will match.

Can you share the definition of the segment?

[PaigeQ]

You're right! I removed the bot segment and they are the same. Does the segment apply differently to the different applications of dates? 

[Jennifer_Dungan]

It all depends on what the segment is doing... because segment logic can be at different scopes, have basic to complex logic, etc you can't really make generic assumptions.

In this case, the issue is that you have a VISITOR scope segment.

So, in the simple example:

You are only looking at Visitors in Aug... so, Visitors that had any of those tracking codes or user agents (in Aug) are excluded.

However, in the "date range" example:

You are looking at Visitors from the entire year up to now.. any visitor who matched that criteria in any of this years months will be excluded.

This is why the values are lower.

Let's look at a simple example for a single visitor:

Visit 1 (Jan)

• Page a
• Page b
• Page c

Visit 2 (March)

• Page d
• Page e

Visit 3 (August)

• page f
• page g

Now, in an example of "Exclude Visitors with Page b"

When you look at August in isolation, this visitor did not look at page b, therefore the visitor will be included.

But when I am looking at the current year, this visitor did look at page b in their first visit in Jan, and therefore they will be excluded.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I am unable to replicate this behaviour in my own data... for me, the values match.

Do you happen to have any segments that could be affecting the calculations?