On Tuesday, October 18, we held a webinar introducing the new DFA Reporting suite covering:
- The vision for how we’re building the next generation of reporting tools
- Details of the new reporting query tool, Report Builder
- Scenarios of how to best use the new Multi-Channel Funnel reports in DFA
For those of you who missed the webinar, a recorded version is now available, which you can watch below. You can also download the materials we covered here.
During the presentation we fielded some great questions from participants; you’ll find responses to the top questions below.
Q. We’ve always been told that since DFA Analytics was in beta, data was not guaranteed and so we were directed to Report Central. Is Report Builder now as trusted and accurate as Report Central?
A. Yes, getting data as accurate as possible between the two systems is a number one priority so yes, you can trust the accuracy of data available in Report Builder. The user interface in Report Builder is in beta so keep in mind that we will be continuously tweaking and improving the user experience of the tool but consider the data as accurate as in ReportCentral.
Q. How far back can you pull data in Report Builder?
A. With Report Builder, we will store data for 24 months - an improvement over the legacy system, ReportCentral, where you can pull the last 16 months of data.
Q. Is ReportCentral being discontinued?
A. Yes but as of now there is no set date as to when that will happen. Of course, we will give clients plenty of lead time to prepare for this. But the end goal is to have DFA Reporting completely replace ReportCentral.
Q. Is there a plan to roll out real-time reporting?
We’re always striving to update DFA data more frequently and will continue to do so. For example, in the old Report Central, we updated data once per day, whereas in the new Report Builder we update data several times a day.
Q. Regarding geo-reporting, can I visualize reports on a map with performance broken down by DMA? Currently, when we pulled maps it only shows statewide delivery and ideally we would like to see multiple DMAs overlayed in the same map.
A. In Report Builder you can pull results by geo dimensions including DMA, country, state, city, but we don’t have that feature available in the map visualizations yet. But it’s a good suggestion to add that feature.
Q. When will geo-reporting be available for Europe?
A. Geo data is currently available for Europe but only down to the country and city level at this point. We will be expanding into more granular geo-data in the future for Europe.
Q. I still don’t understand the attribution report. Where can I see how many (last-click) conversions a publisher generated versus how many assisted conversions generated (not last-click conversions). I can see that in Google Analytics, but I am not seeing the same here.
A. In Google Analytic’s Multi-Channel Funnel Report, they have an Assisted Channel Conversion report which explicitly calls this out.
In DFA, the Attributed Channel report shows you the total number of conversions and if you apply the Assisted Channel filter you’ll see the number of conversions that have an assisting interaction in the path. You can get this information plus if needed, greater detail from the Exposure to Conversion report.
So in DFA we don’t provide you with the total number of assists, but rather the number of conversions that were assisted.
Q: Will the Exposure to Conversion report continue to only be offered as an additional paid service in the system?
A. Yes. The E2C report along with the Cross-Site Duplication and Time Lag will remain premium reports in the new system.
For more information on all your questions, please check out the video to hear the Q&A in its entirety and also check our help center (DFA sign-in required). Thanks to all who attended the webinar, we look forward to hosting additional webinars to update you on the latest in DFA developments.
