Metric missing - Average Time Spent on Pages on the Site Content -> Pages Report list of metrics

[david_chaplin]

Hi,

I am using Adobe Analytics v15.

According to the manuals and all the forums relating to the metric "Average Time Spent on Page" it should be available on the report @ Site Content -> Pages.

But, it simply does not appear on the list of available metrics.

Am I missing something here?

Thanks

Dave.

[andrew_r-GrfLbX]

It's missing for me as well. Have checked my permissions etc can't find a reason for it disappearing

[andrew_r-GrfLbX]

Had a very unhelpful chat with Client Care who basically said this metric doesn't exist and to use average time per visit which is complete nonsense!

[david_chaplin]

I've now had numerous conversations with Client Care on the ticket system, and they have said the metric does not exist, but that we can use Analysis Workspace. I've read about Workspace and how to access, but we don't seem to have the buttons available in Adobe Analytics to access. Not really getting very far with this one.

Bit of a tough one for the support team I think - the tool is so extensive that to be master of all knowledge about what it can do might be asking a lot. I sense they might be reading the manuals the same as us and we are all concluding different things.

Also think the time per page metric for single page visits (which is what I'm after) might not be something that can even be measured technically?

[andrew_r-GrfLbX]

The metric has never existing in workspace unless you create it as a calculated metric but I've never been able to get a calculated metric to match the built in R&A one. The metric was there in R&A up until a couple of weeks ago. I used it on a weekly basis as it forms part of our KPIs.

You are right that you wouldn't get any time for single page visits as the time is calculated from one page view to another so there wouldn't be anything to calculate the time.

You could use DTM to fire a timer every xx seconds which would get you this information but would need to be aware that every trigger would be another server call for billing purposes.

[andrew_r-GrfLbX]

Could someone at Adobe please look in to this missing metric? Without a doubt it existed within the last month. I think since the last MR it has disappeared from reports and analytics.

[kristinr8966887]

Same thing here!  I use this metric regularly and this month when I went to pull it, it was missing!  Any response yet from Client Care?  Average time spent per visit does not provide the same data that I am looking for. 

[david_chaplin]

I heard from Client Care. They first told me that the metric does not exist! Then they told me I could use Analytics Workspace to see the results, which I don't have. All in all, not very helpful at all.

[andrew_r-GrfLbX]

Client Care have finally confirmed that the metric is missing and its been raised as a bug to engineering who are working through it. At least it's finally been acknowledge but all in all not a great experience!

[kristinr8966887]

Thanks!  I hope they are able to resolve the issue.

In the mean time, I created a custom metric that reports a similar value: Total Seconds Spent/Page Views.

[Gigazelle · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone, thanks for your input!

There's currently a bug open for this. It is still being discussed internally on how to best address it. If you would like to be updated on the status of the bug, create a ticket with Customer Care stating that you're missing Average Time Spent on Page, and mention bug AN-130920. The agent can tie your incident to the bug from there with minimal hassle.

It was mentioned that 'Average Time Spent per Visit' will give you similar data; the only difference is that if a page is viewed multiple times in a single visit, they are combined instead of separated. For example, If you spend exactly 1 minute on the following pages:

A > B > A > C > A

Average Time Spent per Visit should show 3 minutes for A, 1 minute for B, and 1 minute for C. Average Time Spent on Page would show 1 minute for A, B, and C. However, in the following example:

A > B > C > D > E

Average Time Spent per Visit and Average Time Spent on Page would be exactly identical. Hope this helps!

[kristinr8966887]

Thank you for your reply! Just to clarify your above example, is E the last page in the visit or second to last page?  There was some discussion among my teammates who maintain that the time spent on the last page of a visit is not recorded and would not be included as part of the visit length.  

[santhoshb133464]

Yes, that is pretty much right, Kristin. Last page's activity time doesn't attribute into the visit length. Avinash has explained it beautifully, PFB.

Standard Metrics Revisited: #4 : Time on Page & Time on Site