To build a Smart Data report on website user actions' cost, you need to have ad cost data and website user behavior data connected.
OWOX BI connects these types of data via user sessions:
Every piece of data within the session is the session's property. By default, Smart Data values each session property equally to the session.
Because of this, metric values duplicate in the table column in the reports that feature the Ad cost metric broken down by a dimension that appears in the session more than once.
As a result, the total value of a metric in the table's header differs from the sum of all the values appearing in the column:
In such reports, you'll see this message:
To deal with this unexpected value duplication, Smart Data offers two methods of metric distribution in user behavior data reports: Associative and Even.
You can choose what method to apply to a column. Which one to choose depends on the task of the specific report.
How the value distribution methods differ and how to use them
Associative distribution is being used in Smart Data by default.
This distribution method is relevant for the reports in which you analyze ad costs by user sessions and dimensions that appear in a session only once. For example, "Ad cost by landing pages":
A user visits a landing page only once per session, so metric values won't get duplicated for this report.
However, in the columns with the associative distribution method applied, metric values get duplicated for the dimensions that appear in a session more than once.
For example, this can happen in a report like "Ad cost by page titles". A user can visit several pages per session. In this case, ad cost will be duplicated for each page the user visited during the session:
To distribute ad costs to each page visited within a session, apply the even metric distribution for the Ad cost column.
If you do so, the ad cost metric values will be evenly distributed between the dimensions within the session:
Note, that it's no use applying even distribution to the Number of sessions column. It will divide the session between the visited pages:
How to change the applied value distribution method
To switch between the value distribution methods, open the metric column properties, click Value distribution, then select the method you want:
If the column can't have a special distribution method applied, there will be no Value distribution option in the column properties.
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