Before you begin: A Channel is a combination of multiple Data Sources, With Channels you can define what metrics are displayed and how they are visualized in your Dashboards. There are two types of channels. There are Predefined Channels which already exist within your Dashboards. They include the following:
- Email Services
- Website/Landing Tracking Services
- SEO
- Social Services
- SEM/PPC Services
- Local Listing
- Lead Tracking Services
- Display Services
While you can use these Predefined Channels directly, you may need to make a few changes to meet you needs. Predefined Channels can be copied right from the main Channels page, which will create a new version that you can edit as you see fit.
There are also Custom Channels which you create by selecting multiple data sources of your choice. A common example of a Custom Channel is combining data from Google Analytics and Google Ads.
Table of Contents
How to Create a Custom Channel
How to Specify Data Views for a Channel
Instructions:
How to Create a Custom Channel
Custom Channels allow you to select from among multiple Data Sources to create a new "combination" Data Source you can use in your Dashboard. By creating a Custom Channel, you will be able to generate unique insights in your Dashboards which display as a data single source.
1] On the left side menu, click Data and then click Channels.
2] The Channels Overview page appears.
3] Click the "+" in the upper right.
4] The New Channel screen appears.
5] Enter a Channel name in the Channel name textbox.
6] Click in the Data Sources box. A list of Data Sources appears.
7] Click a Data Source to add it to the Channel.
| NOTE: You must add at least two Data Sources when you create a Channel. |
8] Repeats steps 6 and 7 for every Data Source you want to add to the Channel.
9] Optionally choose a color for the Channel title by clicking the color circle and then clicking on a color in the popup Color wheel.
10] Optionally add an Channel icon by clicking Click to select icon in the upper right and choosing one from the menu.
11] If you want the system to Automatically create channel metrics, leave the checkbox checked.
| NOTE: If you check this box, the system will automatically create metrics which are common between the chosen Data Sources. For example, if you select Google Ads and Facebook Ads as Data Sources, the system will automatically select common metrics like Client Name and Campaign Name without you having to do it manually. |
12] Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. You should see the following confirmation message in the upper right.
13] The Data Views portion of the screen becomes active. Now that your channel has been created, you can start adding more Data Views and Metrics.
How to Specify Data Views for a Channel
Data Views are groups of dimensions and metrics that make up a Data Source. Examples of these are Campaigns, Ad Groups, Ads and Creatives. You select the Data Views you want to align from each data source in your channel before aligning the individual fields like dimensions and metrics. The Data Views available depend on the Data Sources you have added to your channel.
14] To add a Data View to the Channel, click the Add data view "+".
15] The New Data View screen appears, which is used to create a new data view for your channel. Channels are comprised of data views from your different data sources. You can choose a data view from some or all the data sources that are in your channel.
16] Click in the Data Source View dropdown to select an available data view.
17] As you select Data Source Views, be sure to click the add button to make the association for each data source view.
18] Repeat step 17 for every Data Source View you want to add.
| NOTE: The Data Source Views you add appear on the left. You can always remove them by clicking the remove button. |
19] When you're done adding views for all your Data Sources, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
20] Click the back arrow in the upper left to return to the Edit Channel screen. Now that you've added a Data View, the next step is to create metrics in that data view.
How to Choose Channel Metrics
Channel metrics are the individual fields from the data views you selected that will appear in your new channel. Channel metrics can be created by TapClicks, chosen by you or a combination of the two. Since these are the fields that you will see when you create widgets, metric definition is a critical step in creating your own channel. Keep in mind what kind of visualizations will tell your data story and where the data comes from as you define these metrics and you'll be ready to create dashboards in no time.
| NOTE: If you checked the Automatically create channel metrics checkbox, you will see metrics pre-populated under Data Views. |
Add a metric
21] To add a Channel metric, click the "+" next to Add Metric for the desired Channel
22] The New Metric screen appears.
23] Enter a name for the metric in the Metric name textbox.
24] From the Data type dropdown, choose a data type. This step will inform what fields you can bring together in the next step. For example, you can't combine "Number" type and "Text" type fields together to a new metric directly in your channel definition.
25] Now that you have selected a data type, use the Available Metrics dropdowns from each data source to select which fields you want to pipe into this new metric. For example, you may want to create a new metric for "Actions" and associate Google Analytics "Goal Starts" and Google Ads "Interactions". You would do this by selecting the appropriate metric from each data source view and then moving it to the left side after clicking the add button
.
26] Repeat step 25 for every metric you want to add.
27] When you're done adding metrics, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
Delete a metric
28] To delete a metric, click the trashcan icon to the right of the metric you want to delete.
29] When the confirming popup appears, click Yes, Delete It.
How to Use Data Boundaries
Add a data boundary
Remove a data boundary
33] Open the Data Boundaries section and delete the dates that you had filled in previously.
34] Save your changes to remove the boundaries.
Data boundary notes
Entering a start date and/or end date is optional. This provides maximum flexibility for specific use cases.
- If you input no start date and end date, all data from the data source for all time from the database will be included in your channel.
- If you input both a start date and an end date, only data within that period will be included in your channel.
- If you input no start date, all data up until the end date will be included in your channel.
- If you input no end date, all data from the start date forward will be included in your channel.
Congratulations! You've created a custom channel where you associated data source views and then added metrics to those views. Assuming that you have data for the data sources in your channel, you can start building dashboard widgets that have this new channel and associated data views and metrics to tell your data story.