My data doesn’t look right. Where do I start?
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 10:30 am
There have been times (quite a few actually) when I have been looking at data in a report and what I was expecting is not what I was seeing. From my experience there are 2 possibilities to look at straight away as to what might be occurring.
These are:
1. Is my data being collected correctly?
2. Am I interpreting the data I am looking at correctly?
Let’s look at the first possible cause for the “unexpected” data.
Is my data being collected correctly?
This is an obvious place to start. If your data is not being collected togo email list 106,610 contact leads correctly, then it certainly isn’t magically going to start displaying the results correctly in your reports. But how can you validate that your data is being collected correctly? Fortunately there are quite a few tools at your disposal that allow you to see what is being sent back to your analytics platform. Product specific tools such as DigitalPulse Debugger (which is also free to use) is great for tracking Adobe products such as Adobe’s Reports & Analytics (formerly SiteCatalyst) and Test & Target.
Another product that I use extensively is Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP), which is a Firefox and Chrome plugin. WASP allows you to view data being sent to different analytic tools such as Google Analytics and Reports & Analytics, as well as quite a few other analytics platforms. There is a small fee to purchase this plugin, but well worth the money in my opinion.
Both tools allow you to see the values of variables being set, as well as a range of other information, such as what report suite data is being sent to in Reports & Analytics.
Another tool that you might find useful, especially for mobile app data validation, is Charles. Charles allows you to view all of the HTTP and SSL / HTTPS traffic between your machine and the Internet, or setup an emulator to view data from a mobile app. This comes with a small price tag attached.
If the data isn’t being captured correctly, then it might be time to start looking at code to make sure it has been implemented correctly.
These are:
1. Is my data being collected correctly?
2. Am I interpreting the data I am looking at correctly?
Let’s look at the first possible cause for the “unexpected” data.
Is my data being collected correctly?
This is an obvious place to start. If your data is not being collected togo email list 106,610 contact leads correctly, then it certainly isn’t magically going to start displaying the results correctly in your reports. But how can you validate that your data is being collected correctly? Fortunately there are quite a few tools at your disposal that allow you to see what is being sent back to your analytics platform. Product specific tools such as DigitalPulse Debugger (which is also free to use) is great for tracking Adobe products such as Adobe’s Reports & Analytics (formerly SiteCatalyst) and Test & Target.
Another product that I use extensively is Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP), which is a Firefox and Chrome plugin. WASP allows you to view data being sent to different analytic tools such as Google Analytics and Reports & Analytics, as well as quite a few other analytics platforms. There is a small fee to purchase this plugin, but well worth the money in my opinion.
Both tools allow you to see the values of variables being set, as well as a range of other information, such as what report suite data is being sent to in Reports & Analytics.
Another tool that you might find useful, especially for mobile app data validation, is Charles. Charles allows you to view all of the HTTP and SSL / HTTPS traffic between your machine and the Internet, or setup an emulator to view data from a mobile app. This comes with a small price tag attached.
If the data isn’t being captured correctly, then it might be time to start looking at code to make sure it has been implemented correctly.