The Metrics section answers “how are we doing right now”: a few key numbers for the chosen period, each with the previous period, the plan target and a trend chart.
What you see here
The section is a row of cards, one per metric. A card holds:
- The metric name — as it is named in the project’s metric catalogue. Hover the name to read what the metric is made of.
- The value for the period — in large type. Currency, the percent sign and the decimals come from the metric’s own settings; there is no separate label next to the number.
- Previous period and change — the value over the previous equal stretch and a Δ such as
+12%or−8%. Hover the change and the tooltip names the dates it was compared with. - Plan — the line appears when a plan is chosen in the section: the target for this metric and the percentage completed.
- Trend chart — a line over the chosen period; the area beneath it is the same stretch of the previous period. Hovering the chart shows both points with their dates.
The numbers are calculated by the same engine as the report tables: a metric on a card and the same metric in the Plan vs actual section over the same period give one value.
Set it up for your question
The section toolbar sits above the cards. In the top row on the right:
- Period — the pills
7d,30d,1mand others; hovering shows which dates they are. The calendar button next to them sets an arbitrary range. While the section shows the period of the whole report the chosen pill is dimmed; as soon as you pick a period here the section lives by its own — Use report period in the ··· menu brings the common one back. The set of pills is edited there too, with Configure periods… - View — the Show trend charts toggle and the Confidence mode (see “How to read it”).
- Plan — the list of the project’s plans. No plan removes the plan line from the cards.
- Metrics — what the section is made of.
In the bottom row of the toolbar:
- Grouping — the chart step: Auto (by period), By day, By week, By month. On Auto the step is chosen by the length of the period.
- Filter — project segments and your own field conditions; limits the data of the whole section. A condition set at report level is shown as a From report pill and cannot be removed here.
- On the right — the chosen period as dates.
Choose which cards appear
Press Metrics:
- Tick the metrics you need in the Show column. The list is grouped the same way as the project’s metric catalogue, each group carries a “selected / total” counter; there is a search at the top, and the All row ticks and unticks everything at once.
- In the Display order block, arrange the selected metrics with the arrows — the cards follow that order.
- Press Apply. Until you do, nothing is saved, and closing the popover discards the edits.
The Default set button restores the composition KO suggests itself and drops the manual order.
A metric that has no data source in this project is inactive in the list — the tooltip says why it cannot be chosen.
The period, the composition, the plan and the filter are stored in the report, not in your browser: everyone who opens this report sees them.
How to read it
The colour of the change. Green — the metric moved for the better, amber — it dropped, red — it dropped by 15% or more. What counts as “better” is set by the metric itself: for spend and cost per lead, growth is not an improvement.
Multiples instead of percentages. From a tenfold change the label becomes ×25 or ÷14 —
a long percentage reads worse.
The percentage of plan is shown only when the card’s period matches the plan’s period: a
monthly target and a weekly window are not comparable, and the percentage would be a lie. In
that case a note with the plan’s period stands instead of the number. The tone: from 95% —
green, from 80% — amber, below — red; for metrics where less is better the scale is inverted.
Metrics that are not in the plan show – on the plan line.
A tilde before a number — the value is approximate: KO is showing a bound, not a measurement. That happens when there was spend but no events (“it will not be cheaper”) or when successes are zero across the whole volume (“no more than”). The tooltip names what the bound came from.
The small sample mark — the number was calculated on a handful of events, and the tooltip gives the interval the true value lies in.
Both marks can be removed or extended in View, the Confidence mode: Do not show — leave numbers unmarked, Mark — as described above, Mark with interval — show the interval next to the number.
– instead of a number, with a warning — there is nothing to calculate the metric from in
this project: it has a definition but no data behind it. The card stays in place so that a
chosen metric does not vanish from the row silently; the definition is edited in the project
settings, the Metrics area.
If there are no numbers
- No metrics selected — the section is empty. Tick metrics under Metrics in the toolbar.
- No data for this period — nothing was found for the chosen window. Take a longer period or drop conditions in the Filter.
- Nothing to calculate this metric from — the button leads to the Metrics area of the project settings, where the metric’s definition is edited.
- Could not load the metrics — the request failed; press Retry.
What’s next to this
- How a report works — the period, the filter and the sections a report is assembled from.
- Set up a new project — the timezone, currency and first day of the week that every number in the report depends on.
- Website tracking and Facebook Ads — where the visits, leads and spend on the cards come from.