Using Custom Reports

When the standard Webtrends Analytics reports don’t meet your requirements, or when you want to provide focused reports for specific business needs or users without creating a new profile each time, you can use Custom Reports to design reports with only the content you specify. Webtrends allows you to use a large number of preconfigured components to construct a custom report, or you can design your own components and provide information about how Webtrends can track them.

This chapter describes how to use the preconfigured custom reports included in your Webtrends installation, including some specialized reports such as the Campaigns and Products. For users of Webtrends Custom Reporting, this chapter provides some guidelines for customizing the preconfigured reports and for combining dimensions and measures to create their own reports. Finally, it provides a reference to the preconfigured custom reports, the dimensions and measures they use, and (where relevant) the Webtrends query parameters used to create them.

Understanding Custom Report Components

Each custom report consists of one table and its associated graph(s).

To create a custom report, you specify the following elements:

• One or two dimensions. A dimension is a type of information that you want to track. Typically, a dimension is non-numeric. For example, a dimension can be an object such as a Webtrends content group or a product category such as sports apparel. A report can contain a Primary Dimension, which is displayed in the first column of a Webtrends report table, and a Secondary Dimension, which is displayed in the second column. When you define a dimension, you provide information about how Webtrends can identify the information you want to track in your Web activity data and how it should be analyzed.

• One or more measures. A measure is a method of quantifying information. When you create a custom report, the measures you select determine how Webtrends counts the information described in the dimension settings. For example, you can measure Campaign activity using the measures Visits, Page Views, and/or Revenue. You can select up to 20 measures per custom report.

• Optionally, a lookup table. Custom report lookup tables are translation files or databases that can translate encoded or other obscure information found in your logs into more readable language. Typically, you associate a lookup table with a dimension. For example, you can use a lookup table to translate product SKU numbers into product names, so report users can easily see which products your site users purchased.

  Note

  To specify a translation file, you need to use the Advanced settings when configuring a dimension or measure. Using Advanced settings requires the Custom Reports in Advanced Mode user right.

• Optionally, a custom report data filter. Filters narrow the data analyzed within the custom report. Custom report filters are only applied to the custom report, not to the general profile data.

Designing Custom Reports

When you design a custom report, you should ask yourself some of the following questions.

Where will Webtrends Analytics find the information you want to report on? If you want your site to record the information you need, you may need to set up custom tagging on your pages. Your custom reports may also depend on your configuring advanced features such as Content Groups and Scenario Analysis. When you choose dimensions, make sure you know how Webtrends will track them.

How often and when should Webtrends Analytics collect data? Some kinds of data give the same result for every hit during a visit. Others give a different result with every hit. Some measurements only make sense when collected once per visit. Think about what kinds of data you want to measure, and when Webtrends should measure them to get the most meaningful results.

Who will use the report? Webtrends allows you to specify up to 20 different measures per custom report, but only a few of these may be relevant to the person who needs the report, and using many measures increases processing time and can affect performance. This question may also help you decide whether to use translation files, and give you guidance as you name your reports and report columns and as you provide Help text.

How much data will this report generate? Depending on the dimensions you choose and the structure of your data, you may encounter problems with very large table sizes that can affect performance. You may need to adjust table limits, filter your data very precisely, or reconsider your strategy for isolating the data that interests you. For more information, see “Optimizing Reports Using Table Limiting.”

Combining Dimensions and Measures

Custom reports allow an enormous number of combinations of dimensions and measures. Not all of these combinations will provide meaningful data. Another way to think about creating meaningful reports is to think about what kinds of dimensions and measures work together meaningfully. Dimensions and measures can be classified as hit-based, visit-based, or visitor-based. Combining a higher-variability dimension with a lower-variability measure can lead to inaccurate data.

A dimension is hit-based if it changes from hit to hit within a single visit. For example, content groups, products, and campaigns are all hit-based dimensions because it is possible for each a visitor to click in a different one for each hit. Hits, page views, and clickthroughs are all hit-based measures.

A dimension is visit-based if it does not change or occur multiple times within a single visit. For example, each visit typically has only one referring site and one geographical location such as a country. Visits, visit duration, visit depth are all visit-based measures.

A dimension is visitor-based if it does not change for an individual visitor, even across visits. For example, each visitor has only one initial campaign or initial search engine. Visitor-based measures include unique visitors and unique buyers.

If you select a visitor-based dimension, you can safely use visitor-based, visit-based and hit-based measures. If you select a visit-based dimension, you can use visit-based and hit-based measures. However, you can only use hit-based measures with a hit-based dimension. Measuring a visit- or hit-based dimension using a visitor-level measure such as unique visitors produces inaccuracy in proportion to the percentage of repeat visits within the chosen time frame. For example, if you create a report using content groups (hit-based) as the dimension and unique visitors (visitor-based) as the measure, your data becomes increasingly inaccurate over time as the same visitor returns to the site and views different content groups.

Summing Measures Across Visits

If you want to report on visits rather than individual hits, you can choose to sum a measure across visits. Summing is a measure-specific setting that determines whether Webtrends adds all the hits in a single visit and treats them as one entity. Summing across the visit assigns to the corresponding dimension the sum of that measure for all page views during the visit. Because this setting is only significant when Webtrends counts a measure more than once per visit, it is only available when you select All Hits or Hits That Match Specified URL in the When to Measure dialog.

This behavior can be confusing when the dimension changes within a visit. For example, suppose you create a report with Campaigns as the dimension and Revenue as the measure, summing the Revenue across the visit. If a single visit generates two purchases, one for $10 and one for $20, the report shows $30, the sum of all purchases, for each campaign viewed during the visit.

When the dimension does not vary during a visit, as shown in the following example, the Revenue (sum) and Revenue (no sum) measure values are the same for each dimension item. However, note the difference when the measures are calculated as averages. (Keep in mind that the Average Revenue is the average per order, not per visit.) For Average Revenue (no sum) the average revenue per order for Missouri is $25 ($10+$20+$30+40)/4=$25). With summing across the visit enabled, however each order event is assigned the sum of the purchase values for the visit, and the Average Revenue (sum across visit) is calculated as ($30+$30+$70+$70)/4=$50.

Creating and Enabling Custom Reports

This section contains a brief overview of the configuration steps required to create a custom report and enable it for a profile. It also contains a more detailed step-by-step configuration sequence.

How to Set up Custom Reports

To create a custom report and include it in the reports for a profile, you need to complete all three of the following steps:

1. Use the settings in Web Analysis > Report Configuration > Custom Reports to configure the report. For more information about the configuration choices for creating a custom report, see “Understanding Custom Report Components” as well as the Help for each dialog.
2. On the Reports dialog in the Advanced settings for the profile, select the check box for the custom report.
3. Use the settings in Report Designer > Templates to make sure the custom report is included in a template that the profile is using. You can ensure that a template includes all custom reports, including newly configured ones, by adding the entire dynamically updated Custom Reports folder to the template.

How to Configure Custom Reports Details

The following steps provide a more detailed guide to configuring and enabling custom reports. You can supplement these steps using the context-sensitive Help for each dialog.

The following illustration shows an overview of the process used to create a custom report.

To create and enable a custom report:

1. In the left pane, click Administration > Web Analysis > Report Configuration > Custom Reports.

2. If you want to use a translation file or database to translate values in your logs, select Data Sources and configure a new data source. For more information about translation files, see “Using Lookup Tables for Analytics Reports.”

3. If you want to create a custom dimension, select Dimensions and configure a new dimension.

   Note

   To use regular expressions or fixed patterns to specify a dimension, or to specify a translation file, click Advanced in the Based On dialog. Using Advanced settings requires the Custom Reports in Advanced Mode user right.

4. If you want to create a custom measure, select Measures and create a new measure.

   Note

   To use regular expressions or fixed patterns to specify a measure, or to specify a translation file, click Advanced in the What to Measure dialog. Using Advanced settings requires the Custom Reports in Advanced Mode user right.

5. If you want to limit data for your report, select Filters and create a new filter.

6. Select Custom Reports and click New to create a new custom report.

7. In the left pane, click Web Analysis > Report Designer > Templates.

8. Click the name of the template to which you want to add the custom report. Templates determine the set of report pages that can be generated for the profile.

9. On the Content dialog, click Add Report.

10. From the Available Reports list, select the custom report library (you can view the custom reports alphabetically or by category). Select the check box for the new custom report. From the list you can also select Auto-Populated Folder Library and check the box for the Custom Report folder to create a dynamically add new reports as they are configured.

11. In the left pane, click Web Analysis > Reports & Profiles.

12. Mouse over the profile to which you want to add the custom report and click Edit

13. Click Advanced > Reports and select the check box for the new custom report.

14. Save the profile.

15. If the profile has already run, and you want your custom reports to cover all the data specified in the profile, mouse over the profile and click Reanalyze. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, select the After clearing analysis data, start analysis immediatelycheck box. Alternately, mouse over the profile and click Analyze Now in the Profiles dialog after you confirm the deletion. If you do not reanalyze, your custom report will not include the data from the time frame that was analyzed before you added the new report.

Using Preconfigured Custom Reports

Webtrends Analytics provides a large number of preconfigured custom reports. To use preconfigured custom reports, enable them in the profile and in the template as described in steps 7-16 in “How to Configure Custom Reports Details,” above.

Using Custom Report Filters

You create custom report filters using the Report Configuration options for custom reports, and apply them to individual custom report tables. For more information, see “Creating Custom Report Filters.”

Using Performance Dashboards

Performance Dashboards are interactive reports that provide focused, customizable marketing analytics data in a highly visual form. While these dashboards incorporate data from multiple reports, unlike traditional Webtrends Dashboards, they are freestanding and do not contain links to other reports. Webtrends Analytics includes three Performance Dashboards as part of the Complete View template. You can also add these dashboards to your templates individually.

Understanding the Campaign Performance Dashboard

The Campaign Performance Dashboard is focused on campaign success, and allows you to easily monitor your key performance indicators (KPIs) to get a detailed picture of campaign results. It helps you identify how demand channels are performing, which marketing partners drive sales and which creative details your visitor base responds to. Because the Campaign Performance Dashboard relies on the Campaigns report, the Key Metrics Summary report, and the Visits Trends report for data, these reports must be enabled in both the profile and the template for you to view this Dashboard.

Understanding the Product Performance Dashboard

The Product Performance Dashboard is focused on product purchases. It helps you easily see the overall performance of your product lines, which products are selling best, and which products require more or less exposure in your merchandising mix. Because the Product Performance Dashboard relies on the Products report for data, the Products report must be enabled in both the profile and the template for you to view this Dashboard.

Understanding the Key Metrics Performance Dashboard

The Key Metrics Performance Dashboard provides goal setting and projection options that help you benchmark your site performance, evaluate your progress in meeting key marketing goals, and explore the key factors that can help you meet those goals. Because the Key Metrics Performance Dashboard relies on the Key Metrics Summary report and the Visits Trends report for data, these reports must be enabled in both the profile and the template for you to view this Dashboard.

Enabling Performance Dashboards

Because Performance Dashboards are complete reports and not collections of reports, you add them using the Templates interface in the Report Designer, not the Dashboards interface. Enabling a Performance Dashboard requires you to enable the reports it relies on and ensure they belong to the template you are using. The easiest way to do this is to select a Report Pack containing the required underlying report(s) while you are creating the profile. If you want to add Performance Dashboards to an existing profile, enable the underlying report(s) individually and then make sure both the report(s) and the dashboard are included in the template you are using.

The following table shows the required reports for each Performance Dashboard as well as any Report Packs they belong to.

Performance Dashboard Reports and Report Packs

Creating a New Profile with Performance Dashboards

To enable Performance Dashboards, use the Profile Wizard to create a profile with the following settings:

1. In the Profile Class dialog, select a Webtrends Analytics profile with Full-Featured Analysis. Basic Analysis and Stream profiles do not support Performance Dashboards.

2. In the Report Packs dialog, enabling the appropriate Report Packs provides the simplest configuration for enabling the Campaign and Product Performance Dashboards.

   • To use the Campaigns Performance Dashboard, enable the Marketing Report Pack.
   • To use the Products Performance Dashboard, enable the Commerce Report Pack. Enabling these report packs enables the underlying reports for the Performance Dashboard.
   • To enable the Key Metrics Performance Dashboard, enable either the Site Design and Performance Report Pack or the Marketing Report Pack and select the Include Standard Reports check box.

3. Finish configuring the profile with no further special configuration.

   Note

   You should also make sure you are using a template, such as the Complete View template, that includes the Performance Dashboards you want to use and their underlying reports. To add the Performance Dashboards and their underlying reports to your own template, see Steps 7-13 in “Adding Performance Dashboards to an Existing Profile,” below.

Adding Performance Dashboards to an Existing Profile

To add Performance Dashboards to an existing profile:

1. Edit a Webtrends Analytics standard profile with Full-Featured Analysis. Basic Analysis and Stream profiles do not support Performance Dashboards.

2. Click Advanced > Reports. Select the underlying reports for the Performance Dashboard(s) you want to enable. See the table in “Enabling Performance Dashboards,” above, for a quick reference to the reports for each dashboard.

3. Click Reports > Report Templates.

4. If you want to use an existing template, such as the Complete View template (which includes all Performance Dashboards by default), select the check box for that template.

5. Save the profile.

6. In the left pane, click Web Analysis > Report Designer > Templates.

7. If you selected an existing template in Step 5, edit it and click the Content dialog. Check to ensure that it includes the underlying reports you selected in Step 3.

8. If you want to create a new template, click New and follow the steps in the Template Wizard. Use the Content dialog to complete Step 10.

9. If your template does not already include the Performance Dashboards you want to include as well as the underlying report(s) you selected in Step 3, navigate to the place you want to add each report or Dashboard and click Add Report.

   • If you want to add a Performance Dashboard, select Performance Dashboards Library from the Add Items From Available list and then select the check box for each Performance Dashboard you want to add to the template. Click Done.
   • If you want to add an underlying report for a dashboard, select Custom Reports Library in the Add Items From Available list and select the check box for each underlying report. Click Done.

10. Save the template.

11. If you created a new template, edit the profile again and repeat Steps 4-6

Using Drilldown Reports

If you want to create reports that track sub-items within a primary category of data, you can do so by creating a drilldown dimension and including it in a custom report. With custom drilldown, report users can start at a general level of data and drill down to reach more specific layers. For example, if you create a report that provides information on the electronic equipment purchased from your site, users may want to see information about popular brands of electronics as well as learning which models of computers, televisions, and mobile phones customers purchased. By including multiple dimensions within a single drilldown dimension, you can provide this information.

To use drilldown data, create a custom dimension, select Custom Drilldown in the Based On dialog, and create a list of the dimensions you want to make available in the drilldown. Custom drilldowns are limited to hit-based dimensions based on query or cookie parameters. For more detailed configuration information, see the Help for creating dimensions.

Drilldown reports have the potential to generate very large amounts of data and use a great deal of memory, so you should carefully consider how many unique combinations you could be generating when you combine dimensions in a drilldown report. For more information, see “Optimizing Reports Using Table Limiting.”

Using Drilldown Data with GeoTrends

If you have installed GeoTrends, you can include geographical Drilldown data in a custom report by selecting the preconfigured Geographic Drilldown dimension as a Primary or Secondary Dimension. GeoTrends data allows you to drill down from the country level to the province, state, or city level.

Using Campaigns and Products Drilldowns

Campaigns and Products drilldown reports can provide powerful information for marketing and commerce analysis. They rely on specialized, preconfigured translation files that provide external information about campaigns or products. For example, Campaigns reports can provide hierarchically organized information about campaign demand channels, marketing activities, and creatives. Product reports can provide information about product families and categories. This information is linked to a campaign ID passed in the WT.mc_id parameter (for campaigns reports) or a product ID code passed in the WT.pn_sku parameter (for Products reports).

If you use Webtrends software, you can easily modify these translation files to use the data for your organization. If you use Webtrends On Demand, contact Webtrends Technical Support for information about uploading a translation file.

Setting Up Campaigns and Products Reporting

To set up campaign drilldown reports:

1. Tag your site or URL with the WT.mc_id parameter and any other parameters you want to use to collect information. If you have not already set up your site with the correct parameters for collecting order and revenue information, for example, you may also want to add these parameters for the most complete reporting.

2. Enable Visitor History for each profile you use to track campaigns. You should select the Enable Visitor History check box and the Campaign History check box.

3. Navigate to the following directory:
   installation directory\storage\config\wtm_wtx\datfiles\datasources
   and customize the campaigns.csv file with your own campaign information. For more information, see “Customizing Campaigns and Products Translation Files.” If you use Webtrends On Demand, contact Webtrends Technical Support for information about uploading a translation file.

4. If you want to change the levels shown in campaign drilldown reports, copy and modify the Most Recent Campaign (drilldown) dimension. Then copy and modify any reports that use the Most Recent Campaign (drilldown) dimension so that they use the new version of this dimension. Then modify your templates and profiles so that they use the new version of the report(s).

Preconfigured custom reports that rely on this drilldown dimension include:

• Campaigns
• Campaigns by Countries
• Campaigns by DMA
• Campaigns by Customer Value
• Campaigns by MSA
• Campaigns by New and Repeat Buyers
• Campaigns by New and Returning Visitors
• Campaigns by States/Provinces
• Campaigns by Time
• Email Campaigns

To set up product drilldown reports:

1. Tag your site or URL with the WT.pn_sku parameter and any other parameters you want to use to collect information.

2. Enable Visitor History for each profile you use to track products. You should select the Enable Visitor History check box and the Purchase History check box.

3. Navigate to the following directory:
   installation directory\storage\config\wtm_wtx\datfiles\datasources
   and customize the products.csv file with your own product information. For more information, see “Customizing Campaigns and Products Translation Files,” below. If you use Webtrends On Demand, contact Webtrends Technical Support for information about uploading a translation file.

4. If you want to change the levels shown in campaign drilldown reports, copy and modify the Product (Drilldown) dimension. Then copy and modify any reports that use the Product (Drilldown) dimension so that they use the new version of this dimension. Then modify your templates and profiles so that they use the new version of the report(s).

Preconfigured custom reports that rely on the Product (Drilldown) dimension include:

• Products
• Products by Country
• Products by Creative Types
• Products by Creatives
• Products by Demand Channels
• Products by DMA
• Products by Manufacturers
• Products by Marketing Activities
• Products by Marketing Programs
• Products by MSA
• Products by New vs. Repeat Buyers
• Products by New vs. Returning Visitors
• Products by Offers
• Products by Partners
• Products by Region
• Products by Search Engines
• Products by State/Province
• Products by Suppliers

Customizing Campaigns and Products Translation Files

When modifying the campaigns.csv or products.csv translation files to use your own data, use the guidelines described in the following steps. We recommend modifying these translation files as described below, rather than creating new ones, but if you do need to create more than one version of products.csv or campaigns.csv, copy the original file and preserve the original column structure as described in Step 3.

It is technically possible to create campaigns and products drilldown reports based on a translation file that uses different number of dimension columns or a different order of dimensions than those used in the default CSV files. However, with this method, translation occurs once for each corresponding dimension in each report, rather than only once during Visitor History processing. The number of lookups required to create the drilldowns is thus much larger, and increases dramatically with any increase in the number of drilldown reports or in the size of the translation file. Because of the potential performance and scalability problems associated with these extra lookups, we recommend using only the methods described in this document to modify the campaigns and products translation files.

To customize a product or campaign translation file:

1. Create a backup copy of the .csv file and rename it.

2. Edit the .csv file. The simplest way to edit the file is to replace the information in each column with information from your Web site. For example, in the products.csv file, replace the entries in the Product SKU column with the product codes you will pass using the WT.pn_sku parameter, and replace the entries in the Family column with the name of the product family each product belongs to.

3. If you want to remove dimensions from the analysis, delete any dimensions in the heading row that you do not want to include in your reports. For example, if you want to eliminate the Marketing Activity, Marketing Program, Partner, and Placement dimensions in the campaigns.csv file, edit the standard heading row:
   CampaignID,Description,Creative,Creative Type,Demand Channel,Marketing Activity,Marketing Program,Offer,Partner,Placement

   so it reads as follows:
   CampaignID,Description,Creative,Creative Type,Demand Channel,,,Offer,,

   Caution

   Do not delete any of the commas that delimit the fields. Do not re-order the columns in the file. Deleting the comma delimiters or re-ordering the fields will result in an incomplete analysis or inaccurate data.

Using Multiple Translation Files for Campaigns and Products

By default, all profiles point to the same campaigns and products translation files. This can be an issue if you have more than one profile with different translation needs. To specify translation files per profile, complete the following steps:

1. Open wtm_wtx.ini in a text editor. By default, it is stored in the following directory:
   Webtrends Installation Directory\storage\config\wtm_wtx.

2. Copy the text from [wtt] to the end of the [wtt2] section.

3. Open the file for the profile that uses the translation file in a text editor and paste in the copied text. By default, profile files are stored in the
   Webtrends Installation Directory\storage\config\wtm_wtx\datfiles\profiles directory and have a .wlp extension.

   The profile file name is listed in the General dialog for the profile. For example, if the file name for your profile is owVSmUxuvL5, it is listed in the profiles directory as owVSmUxuvL5.wlp.

4. In the profile file, directly under [wtt] add the following line:
   overrideglobal = 1 to tell Webtrends to use the translation file you specify for this profile.

5. Under [wtt1], locate the filename option and replace the file name campaigns.csv (or products.csv if it is a products translation file) with the name of the translation file to be used with this profile.

6. Put the translation file specified in Step 5 in the .\wtm_wtx\datfiles\datasources directory.

7. Repeat steps 1—6 for every profile using a translation file.

Understanding Calculated Measures in Analytics Reports

Calculated measures are formulas you create from existing measures to compute business specific values for dimensions. For example, business values might include evaluating the effectiveness of your web site, evaluating purchase rates, or identifying products not purchased. Calculated measures formulas that you create are shown as a column in an analytics report table. Once you define a formula in the New Calculated Measure dialog, Webtrends uses this formula to compute values in the Calculated Measures column of an Analytics Report table.

You can add a calculated measure when you create or edit custom reports in Administration. For more information about creating a calculated measure from a new custom report, see “Adding a Calculated Measure to a New Custom Report,” below.

You can also access the Calculated Measures dialog and add a calculate measure to an analytics report from existing and bookmarked reports in Analytics Reports. For more information about creating a calculated measure from an existing or bookmarked report, see “Using Calculated Measures in Analytics Reports” in the Analytics Reports User’s Guide.

Adding a Calculated Measure to a New Custom Report

When you create or edit a new custom report, you have the option to add a calculated measure that will show up as a column in the analytics report.

To create a calculated measure from a new custom report:

1. From Administration, create a new custom report or edit an existing custom report. For more information, see “How to Set up Custom Reports,” above.
2. If you are creating a new custom report, proceed to the Measures dialog. If you are editing an existing custom report, click Measures.
3. Click New in the Measure dialog.
4. Click Calculated Measure on the New menu.
5. In the right pane of the Edit Calculated Measures dialog, drag and drop a combination of measures and values to make up a formula.
6. Click Save.
7. Select the filter you want to apply to the current report.
8. Click Next.
9. Click Save.

When you create a custom report, you also need to add the report to the report template so you have access to it from Analytics Reports.

To add a report to the report template:

1. From Administration, click Report Designer, Templates.
2. Click Content.
3. Click Add Report.
4. Select Custom Report Library from the Add Items From Available list.
5. From the list of items, select the new custom reports that you want used in Analytics Reports.
6. Click Done.
7. Click Save in the Edit Template dialog.

Understanding the Effects of Changing Custom Reports

Webtrends Analytics gives you the flexibility to change settings for existing custom reports, even after your data is analyzed. Because Webtrends Analytics provides aggregate data, historical data might not be compatible with your changes, requiring Webtrends Analytics to delete the historical report data. In such cases, you are cautioned before saving your changes.

About Changes to Custom Report Settings

The following types of changes to custom reports require Webtrends Analytics to delete your historical data:

• Changing a dimension
• Adding a dimension
• Changing a dimension method
• Changing dimension settings
• Deleting a measure

About Changes to Dimension Settings

The following types of changes to custom report dimension settings require Webtrends Analytics to delete historical report data:

• Changing the Value to Base On setting in the Based On dialog.
• Changing the When setting in the When to Collect Data dialog.

About Changes to Measure Settings

The following types of changes to custom report measure settings require Webtrends Analytics to delete historical report data:

• Changing the Value to Base On setting in the What to Measure dialog.
• Changing the When setting in the When to Measure dialog.

Reordering Columns in Analytics Report Tables

You can reorder columns that display in an Analytics report table by using the Template Editor. To access the template editor:

1. From Administration, click Web Analysis, Report Designer, Templates.
2. Select the template your reports use.
3. Click Content.