Reporting reference guide
About the Reporting quick reference guide
To make your transition to Reporting a smooth one, we've compiled a list of top tasks that you are most likely to perform. This quick reference guide walks you through the steps to:
- Create a query
- Refine your report data with dimension filters
- Set your query to autorun
- Export your report to Excel-friendly formats
- Discover best practices and tips
- Access additional resources
Next step
Familiarize yourself with Reporting.
Reporting overview
Reporting enables you to create robust, customized reports that display information based on filtered data (for example, dimensions and metrics) and parameters (for example, date range). To keep the data current, all of the reporting data is generated daily so you can run reports for today, yesterday, or up to two years back, if needed.
- View performance breakouts by week, quarter, or month.
- Create and edit queries as needed.
- Set default queries which automatically run whenever Reporting is accessed.
- Produce reports in the local currency.
- Generate reports from predefined system queries or copy and customize system queries.
- Preview queries to quickly see what your reports will look like without having to actually run the query.
- Automate report generation. In other words, schedule reports to run on a regular basis.
- Export your reports in a variety of formats, including Excel, CSV and tab-separated text.
- Share your reports with selected individuals on your team.
Difference between a query and a report
Queries are the parts that make up a report (for instance, dimensions, metrics, dates, filter values, schedules). Queries are created and saved on a per-user basis, which allows each user of an account to create and manage a library of their own custom queries. Since each user has his own queries, the queries can be optionally shared with others.
Reports are generated from queries (for instance, on-screen output and Excel-friendly files). You can edit any query, but reports generated from that query are not linked (they are static), so updates to the query do not affect any report until the query is rerun. From the queries list page, there is a link for all reports associated with a query.
To access and run reports, click the Reporting tab.
Next step
Learn how to create a query.
Two ways to create a query
Queries are the components that make up a report. In other words, dimensions, metrics, dates, and filter values. You can create any query in just a few steps:
- Assign a query name, describe the query and choose a date range for the query.
- (Optional) Apply filters to the query.
- Choose query dimensions.
- Choose query metrics.
- (Optional) Apply schedules to the query.
- Run, save or preview the query.
You can either start with your own parameters or choose to define a customized query from a copied system query. See below for more details.
- From the main navigation bar, click the Reporting tab.
- Click New query. The "New query" page loads.
- Enter a meaningful name.
- Enter a description that explains the query’s purpose.
- To select a date range, click edit.
- Select from a list of preset dates or choose custom dates. You can choose to view relative date ranges (dates on a sliding scale) or absolute date ranges (fixed dates). Click Apply.
If you plan to generate reports on a recurring basis, choose relative dates rather than absolute dates. Absolute date ranges automatically default to allow the reports to run once.
- (Optional) To refine your report data, use the filtering options.
- To customize your query, select dimensions and metrics.
- To complete the process, you have four options:
- Run your report (you can return to save or apply additional edits to the query at a later time)
- Save query and run report
- Save query (no report is generated)
- Preview report layout
To make it easier to generate a basic report and then customize the report to meet your reporting needs, use the system queries option.
- From the top, click System queries. The "System queries" list page loads.
- Select the system query you want to adjust. You can only select to clone one query at a time.
- Click Copy query.
- Update your dimensions and metrics.
- To complete the process, you have four options:
- Run your report (you can return to save or apply additional edits to the query at a later time)
- Save query and run report
- Save query (no report is generated)
- Preview report layout
Next step
Learn how to refine your report with dimension filters.
Best practices and tips
My queries
- Use filters to surface interesting data quickly
- Apply filters for date ranges of 30 days or more
- Use shorter date ranges when possible
- Reduce the number of dimensions in your queries
- Exclude unneeded metrics from your queries to improve performance
System queries
- Use System queries as templates for your own queries
General
- Create separate queries for different reporting purposes
- Run ad hoc queries for one-off reports
- Take advantage of the scheduled report feature
Next step
Learn how to manage My queries or manage System queries.