The Analysis Dashboard Guide

The Analysis Dashboard can be segmented by different audiences.

You can create up to ten audience segments based on:

• Member Type
• Security Group
• Interests (topics)
• Contact List

Segments enable you to explore the CEO cohort, paying members, prospects, logged-in users, or any other segment on an ongoing basis.

If you have a multi-brand / multi-site setup you can segment the audience on each one of your Zones. The data is stored on your local Affino instance for 30 days, during which the data is aggregated and fed to Affino’s data cloud, meaning that there is no additional investment required for your segmented audience data.

Use the dropdown menu next to the zone selector to segment the data by users within a contact list, security group, member type or interest topic:

Note: when segmenting the audience, we recommend that you run with up to eight audience segments per Zone, and leave two segments for exploring the audience behaviour, something which can be done at any time for up to 30 days.

This is because when you set up a segment Affino is able to build up a behavioural profile of the last 30 days of any segment in your audience for whom you have been capturing data. 

It also means that from the moment you set up a new segment you quickly have solid insight into their behaviour (note it will take up to 24 hours to process the data for your dashboard for each new segment).

It is important also to note that if you do delete a segment, that data will no longer be accessible and you will lose access to it, so think twice before you remove a segment which you have set up.

Control > Structure > Zones > (Edit) > Analysis Dashboard Segments

The Analysis Dashboard Segments settings apply to each zone.

These determine the segments available on the Analysis Dashboard.

Select the key audiences you wish to segment on the Analysis Dashboard by:

• Contact List
• Member Type
• Security Group
• Interest (topic)

These will be made available as a drop-down filter at the top of the Analysis Dashboard screen, and when selected will display targeted analytics for each segment.

You can add up to 10 rows/segments which can be manually sorted.

Depending on the selected segment type, the choices available to you on the Segments field will vary (i.e. if you select Contact List, the pop-up will only display contact lists; if you select member Type, the pop-up will only display the available member types; etc).

Note: you will be able to see 30 days of segmented data from the creation of the segment

Also, if you have changed a segment, then the previous data series will only be updated for the previous 30 days, whilst the newly captured data will take on board the updated setting (not retroactive).

Note: the Analysis Dashboard only supports Segments for Registered users.

It does not support system users, like the Guest user.

Use the Date Range filter to have the results displayed depending on your selection.

Choices are:

• Past 7 Days
• Past 30 Days
• Past 60 Days
• Custom

Note: Please bear in mind that date ranges are a major factor.

Affino only keeps the top 100 channels and articles per day for the dashboard, so if the channel or article is not in the top 100 each day then it might not appear.

Clicking on the Dark Mode button will darken the colour of the screen.

Clicking on the Print button will display a pop-up window with the various print options.

The main chart has two dropdowns.

A Zone selector and a chart selector, which focuses on the desired data (users, sessions,  page view, etc):

Chart options:

• Users: the amount of user visits per zone per day
• New Users: the number of new users per zone per day (Affino checks if the user visited in the previous 29 days and if he did not, he is a new user)
• Returning Users: the number of returning users per zone per day (Affino checks if the user visited in the previous 29 days and if he did, he is a returning user)
• Sessions: the number of sessions per zone per day (a new session occurs after a period of inactivity, it also happens at midnight i.e. a user logs in at 11:59pm and leaves at 12:01am, that counts as 2 sessions)
• Avg Session Duration: the average session duration per zone per day (the session duration is set to 30 mins. For 1 page view, the session duration is set to 10 seconds)
• Bounce Rate: the bounce rate per zone per day
• Page Views: the number of page views per zone per day
• Pages per Session: the average page views per session per zone per day
• Logins: Total number of logins each day during the selected period
• Registrations: Total registrations each day during the selected period
• Registration on Gate 1: the number of registrations linked from the metering page, per zone per day

Imporant: the figures will reflect the selected Timeframe/Date Range

• User Visits: the total amount of daily unique users
  
• New User Visits: the total amount of newly registered users
• Returning Users: the total amount of returning user visits for the selected period
• Sessions: the total amount of unique user sessions (note: a user can have multiple sessions, the total is taken into account)
  
• Avg. Session Duration for each user
  
• Bounce Rate: the percentage of user sessions which only have 1-page view (i.e the user dos not go on to click on any other content, during that session)
  
• Page Views: the total amount of page views 
  
• Pages per (/) Sessions: the average amount of page views per session
• Logins: the total amount of logins for the selected period
• Registrations: total registrations for the selected period
• Reg on Gate 1: the total amount of registrations that have resulted from users clicking through from the Level 1 metering message (see Metering Gate > Metering Level) on an article
  

Hourly Page Views: a 24 hour timeline, showing the average views per hour over the span of data available (up to 63 days).

The comparison is between the average data within the past 63 days VS the hourly values for TODAY.

Mobile vs Desktop Devices: a comparison of the amount of visits by Mobile and Desktop users.

Daily Pageviews: Shows 7 days, with the average views per day over the span of data available (up to 60 days).

New vs Returning Visitors.

Columns for Top Channels and Top Articles

• Position: Rank of the channel/article based on page views
• Name: Channel/Article name
• Page Views: Total number of page views for the channel/article
• Unique Page Views: Number of unique page views.
• Avg Time on Page: Average time users spend on the channel/article page.
• Entrances: Number of times users entered the site via this channel/article.
• % Exits: Percentage of exits from the channel/article page.

Logic:

• Tracking occurs for the top 100 channels and articles per day, based on page views
• Channels can be excluded and filtered out via Analysis Dashboard Settings
• Sorting is possible on all columns
• Aggregation tasks run hourly
• For unsegmented data, only channels with at least 10 views per day are included; for segmented data, the threshold is 5 views per day.
• Data is aggregated daily and stored for up to 63 days

Columns for Top Countries

• Country: Country name or ISO code
• Users: Number of users from the country
• Unique Users: For segmented data, displays unique users instead of total users

Logic

• Aggregates the number of users per country per day
• For segmented data, unique users are displayed instead of total users
• Data is aggregated per user per day, preferably based on the first page view in a session
• 55 extra countries (e.g., Jersey) are ignored to align with standard ISO country codes
• Sorting is by Users, highest at the top
• Aggregation tasks run daily, storing top countries per day

Filters

• Show Entries: choose how many records you wish to see on the listing
• Search: use this field to find specific channels or articles
• Page Numbers: click on the Previous, a number or the Next option to see another set of results

You can also click on each header (i.e. Channel Views) to order the results.

Note:

Affino takes into account the top 100 Channels, Articles and Countries:

• per Zone
• per Day
• and averaged over the selected Timeframe/Daterange

- and displays the views, unique views, avg time on page, entrances and exits percentage for the past 63 days.

Example:

• An article has accumulated 10,000 views on one day
• Another article is accumulating 1000 views per day

If you search for the last 20 days, the second article (now with 20,000 views) will appear on the dashboard stats, overtaking the first (which only has 10,000 views).

Note: the average time spent on a page (Avg Time On Page) is calculated by dividing the total duration of all sessions (in seconds) during a specified period by the total number of sessions during that same period. 

This calculation is used to understand User Engagement on your website. It applies to both Channels and Articles.

Also:

1.- Entrances are the amount of sessions started on a particular Channel or Article.

Example: the "QA8 Home" channel has 320 views, and from those, 82 were users that started their session from that channel.

2.- An Exit percentage is the percentage of users that have exited from that Channel

In regards to Country stats, if you see unusually high traffic from the US and Netherlands, its because many VPN providers operate large server networks, with the US and Netherlands being especially common locations. So when users connect via VPN, their traffic appears to originate from these VPN server locations rather than their actual geographic locations.

This causes inflated traffic numbers from these countries in your analytics, which may not reflect your true user distribution. Therefore, it’s important to interpret spikes in US and Netherlands traffic cautiously, understanding that much of it could represent VPN users rather than local visitors.

The Analysis Dashboard retains the following stats for a limited amount of time:

The following tooltips provide details of the data and the available time frame of that data.

Individual Dashboards

• Users: Total number of users each day that visited the site during the selected period. Note: each user could be included multiple times over the date range.
• New Users: Total number of new visits each day that visited the site during the selected period. Note: a new visit is counted if the user did not visit in the past 29 days.
• Returning Users: Total number of returning user visits each day during the selected period. Note: if a user visits the site again within 29 days, they are counted as a returning user.
• Sessions: Total number of sessions each day during the selected period, a session remains live for 20 minutes. Note: each user could have multiple sessions over the date range.
• Avg. Session Duration: Total duration of sessions divided by the total number of sessions each day during the selected period.
• Bounce Rate: Total number of bounces each day during the selected period. A bounce is a user session which only has 1 page view, i.e. the user does not click on other content during that session.
• Page Views: Total number of pages viewed each day during the selected period.
• Pages Per Session: Average number of pages per session each day during the selected period.
• Logins: Total number of logins each day during the selected period.
• Registrations: Total registrations each day during the selected period.
• Registration on Gate 1: Total registrations which have resulted by users clicking through from the level 1 metering message on an article each day during the selected period.

Key Metrics

• User Visits: Total number of users that visited the site during the selected period. Note: each user could be included multiple times over the date range.
• New User Visits: Total number of new visits that visited the site during the selected period. Note: a new visit is counted if the user did not visit in the past 29 days.
• Returning Users: Total number of returning user visits during the selected period. Note: if a user visits the site again within 29 days, they are counted as a returning user.
• Sessions: Total number of sessions during the selected period, a session remains live for 20 minutes. Note: each user could have multiple sessions over the date range.
• Avg. Session Duration: Total average duration of sessions divided by the number of days during the selected period.
• Avg. Bounce Rate: Total bounces each day divided by the number of days during the selected period. A bounce is a user session which only has 1 page view, i.e. the user does not click on other content during that session.
• Page Views: Total number of pages viewed during the selected period.
• Pages / Sessions: Average number of page views per session during the selected period.
• Logins: Total number of logins during the selected period.
• Registrations: Total registrations during the selected period.
• Reg on Gate 1: Total registrations which have resulted by users clicking through from the level 1 metering message on an article during the selected period.
• Hourly Page Views: A 24-hour timeline, showing comparison of today against the average views per hour for the data available (up to 63 days).
• Mobile vs Desktop Devices: Percentage comparison of Mobile vs Desktop devices used during the selected period (up to 63 days).
• Daily Page Views: A 7-day timeline, showing comparison of this week against the average views per week for the data available (up to 63 days).
• New vs Returning Visitors: Percentage comparison of New vs Returning Visitors during the selected period (up to 25 months).
• Top Channels: Channel Views, Unique Channel Views, Average Time on Page, Entrances and Exits during the selected period (up to 63 days).
• Top Articles: Article Views, Unique Article Views, Average Time on Page, Entrances and Exits during the selected period (up to 63 days).
• Countries: Total users each day per country for the data available (up to 25 months). If segmentation is applied, unique users are displayed.