Calculated metrics totals

Last update: 2022-11-07
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How calculated metric totals are displayed differs between Reports & Analytics and Analysis Workspace. This section explains the differences.

Calculated metrics totals in Reports & Analytics

When you view reports in Reports & Analytics, calculated metrics always display n/a under the total. Since all calculated metrics are user-defined, there are many circumstances where this total doesn’t make sense. Consider the following example:

Your organization has created the calculated metric orders / visits to determine the percentage of visits that purchased something on your site. If you brought this metric into a products report, several products are attributed to a single order. And, several products are attributed to a single visit. If a calculated metric total was included in this report, the following questions arise:

Question Answer
Does summing the line items make sense? It doesn’t, since multiple products can be included in a single order, and multiple products can be included in a single visit. If the line items were aggregated, total orders and total visits would not match the actual total orders and total visits.
Does taking total orders and total visits make sense? It doesn’t, as the total doesn’t match the sum of the individual line items. In addition, Total orders and Total visits are separately calculated metrics altogether.

Since there’s no logical and concrete method to determine if a calculated metric makes sense in reporting, the metric total is omitted altogether. If you want to obtain a grand total, you can do one of the following:

  • Create a calculated metric that includes the Total versions of the metrics that you’re looking to include.
  • Create a Data Extract report, which can be scheduled.
  • Create a data request within ReportBuilder.
  • Use Analysis Workspace (see below).

Calculated metric totals in Analysis Workspace

When you view data in Analysis Workspace, calculated metric totals are displayed in most cases. In some cases, providing a total is not possible, such as when the rows of the report are of mixed format (e.g. decimal and currency).

When totals are displayed, they are often calculated server-side, which means that the total de-duplicates metrics like visits or visitors. Under certain circumstances, calculated metrics are generated client-side by summing across rows of the table, which means the total does not de-duplicate metrics like visits or visitors. This occurs:

  • When static rows are used in Freeform tables and the Show as sum of current rows option (default) is selected.
  • In the Donut visualization, so that numbers add up to 100%.

For more information on totals in Analysis Workspace, visit Workspace totals.

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