Comparing Metrics Across Time Periods

Why compare

A single number rarely tells you anything on its own — 260 form submissions is only meaningful next to last week's 198. The Compare feature puts a metric's current window beside a comparison window and returns the delta and percent change, so you can answer "is this up or down, and by how much?" in one step.

What you can compare

Compare works on the core traffic and intake metrics, including:

• platform_total_events
• page_views
• cta_clicks
• form_submissions
• messenger_events

You choose the metric and two time windows.

The inputs

• metric_key — the metric to compare (default platform_total_events).
• from / to — the current window.
• compare_from / compare_to — the comparison window.

If you don't supply a comparison window, the comparison value is treated as zero.

What you get back

• current — the from/to window and its value.
• comparison — the compare-from/compare-to window and its value.
• delta — current minus comparison.
• percent_change — the percentage change (null when there's nothing to compare against).

Step-by-step: week-over-week

1. Open the Compare view.
2. Choose the metric (for example form_submissions).
3. Set the current window to this week (from/to).
4. Set the comparison window to last week (compare-from/compare-to).
5. Run. Read the delta and percent change.

Step-by-step: before vs. after a launch

1. Choose the metric that a change should move (for example cta_clicks).
2. Set current to the window after your change.
3. Set comparison to an equal-length window before it.
4. Run. The percent change tells you whether the change worked — and equal-length windows keep it honest.

Example

A team ships a new homepage on the 1st. To measure impact they compare cta_clicks: current window the 2nd–8th (value 1,410), comparison window the previous 25th–31st (value 1,120). Compare returns a delta of +290 and roughly +25.9%. They now have a defensible number to report, not a vibe.

Tips

• Always use equal-length windows — comparing seven days to thirty is meaningless.
• Watch for weekly seasonality: compare like days (Mon–Sun vs. Mon–Sun), not arbitrary spans.
• Save frequent comparisons as report views so next period is one click.
• If percent_change comes back null, your comparison window had no value (often it's empty or missing) — set both windows.

Troubleshooting

Percent change is null. The comparison value was zero — usually because no comparison window was set or that window had no activity. Provide both windows.

The delta looks too large. Confirm both windows are the same length and that you didn't accidentally overlap them.

Metric not recognized. Compare supports the core traffic/intake metrics listed above. For anything else, build it in Explore across two ranges and compare manually.