Year over Year or Month over Month alerts

[#1]

I admin over a web site with very seasonal and cyclical patterns (even within in a single week), as most eCommerce sites are so I am hoping this is not a difficult thing to do.

I want to set up daily alerts that monitor transactions on every day either on a month over month or better yet a year over year basis. Meaning if the transactions change by more than 25% when compared to the same day of last month ( e.g. 4/5/18 and 3/8/18) or 1 year ago (e.g. 4/5/18 and 4/6/17) send an alert

So is there a way I can build an alert (maybe using calculated metrics functions and segments) that will only trigger based on a threshold compared to the same day month over month or year over year?

Thnx

Jeff

[#2 · Accepted solution]

1. Drag a dimension and metric into a workspace project, so you have a typical ranked report
2. Right click the metric, and select compare date range > custom (or choose last year)
3. Two new columns appear; one with the prior date range and the other with percent change
4. Right click the percentage change metric, and create an alert from it

This should put you on the right track to find what you need.

[#3]

It needs to be a dimension (not a date range). You can also use a segment as a dimension; the main thing is that it needs to be a ranked report and not a trended report.

[#4]

Set some basic alerts up as above watching an orders metric with a pretty low threshold and as of yet they have not worked. Currently working with Customer Care and engineering to debug.

Will update once we have information

[#5]

Conceptually it would absolutely work.

[#6]

Yes, did that right away

Conceptually do you think this will work to give me daily threshold/alert for comparing yesterdays orders to the same day 1 year ago?

[#7]

Certain individuals in Customer Care can look up the details behind those errors, so if you create a ticket you'll be able to determine what the issue is exactly.

[#8]

Ok that makes sense now and I successfully created an alert however with errors as follows

1. Set the date for the project/work space to yesterday (4/17/18)

2. Added the Device Type dimension

3. Added Orders metric

4. Right Clicked on Orders metric

4. Selected Compare time periods

5. Selected 4/17/17 (1 year ago from work space date) and checked use rolling dates

6. Right Clicked 'Other' row from Device type dimension

7. Selected Create an Alert from Selection option

6. Completed the alert using the Change by % threshold type  (received an error at the top attached) and entered 25

7. Saved Alert

Does that sound like it will work? My only concern is the error I got creating and every time I open the alert I get another similar error at top of screen.

So even though I created the work space and was able to create an alert my fear is there is something wrong as evidenced by the error messages and the alert will not work

[#9]

Thank you

Do you mean right click and “Add time period column”? I don’t see an option when I right click the metric value or the metric label for a “Compare date Range” in the menu

When I do that it still doesn’t work. I created a new work space. Dragged in the dimension the yesterday dimension (4/16/18), added our Orders metrics and then right clicked and selected Add time period column. I created a custom rolling date for Yesterday YoY, selected that and it shows zero (0) orders for 4/17/17. If I use the Yesterday YoY separately it works fine and shows the proper number of orders for 4/17/17

And it doesn’t seem to matter what time range I have set for the overall workspace to make sure both dates are included. I still get zero (0)

[#10]

Thanks at least that’s something but ideally as I mentioned I need a daily alert more due to the fact we operate multiple web sites all with releases and changes occurring at different times. But I’ll think about your suggestion to see if there is an adaptation of that I can use.

What I don’t understand is year over year is one of the most common type of trend reports used for Ecommerce organizations so I do not understand why it would have to be so difficult to set up a daily year over year comparison alert in Adobe given they have been doing this for 15 years or more.

[#11]

There may be a simpler solution requiring setting up of fewer segments .. but in the interim the following should give you what you need.

There are Day of Week, Day of Month, and Month of Year dimensions you could use. eg. the following would Give you the first Fridays in each month, which would give you the month on month alert or alternatively include the Month of Year to give you a year on year.