Trends in Segmentation

Trends allow you to compare your query results with the results from the immediately preceding date range, or to compare each interval within your results to the immediately preceding interval. The difference between the periods, or the net change, is displayed in the upper right corner of the results field.

To enable trends, simply select the “Trends” icon in the menu bar and select “On.” 

Period vs Interval

If you select Period, Analytics will compare your query results with the results from the immediately preceding date range. For example, if your query’s date range is Last Full Week, then Analytics will calculate the results for the last full week and also the previous full week — for example, “there were 18 fewer signups last week than there were the week before last week.” Both results will be displayed within the chart area, with the previous range appearing in gray. 

If you select Interval, Analytics will compare each interval within your results to the immediately preceding interval. For example, if your query displays daily intervals, then Analytics will calculate the difference each day — for example, “there were 12% more fewer signups on Friday than there were on Thursday.”

Count vs Percent

If you select Count, Analytics will calculate the net change in absolute numbers — for example, “there were 56 more purchases this week than there were last week.”

If you select Percent, Analytics will calculate the net change as a percentage — for example, “there were 35% more purchases this week than there were last week.”

Trends Display

The net change is displayed in the upper right corner of the results field.

If your query results are higher than the previous period, then the text will be green and the arrow will point upward. If your query results are lower than the previous period, then the text will be red and the arrow will point downward. This indicates the direction of travel. Hover over the result to see a definition of the previous date range. To move this display, simply click to toggle between the upper right and upper left corners of the chart area. 

If your query contains multiple rows, you may toggle between trends by hovering over the relevant row name in the chart legend or by hovering over the relevant data points in the results field. 

If you’re using a table visualization, sometimes you will see a dash ’-’ in the change column (represented by Δ). That does not necessarily mean that there is no change between the two date ranges, but rather that there isn’t enough data for Analytics to provide you with the change. Circumstances that could produce this result include:

• The data point did not exist in the previous period.
• The data point did exist in the previous period, but was not among the top/bottom breakouts for the previous period.