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Overview

This guide will help you to become familiarized with our proprietary reporting & insights tool to ensure you’re getting the most value from Commerce-Grid via transparent and detailed reporting. In this section, we’ll show you a few of the reporting views that you’re most likely to reference regularly. 

Before diving into this guide, however, we encourage you to navigate to u-Slicer and click on the “Get a tour” dropdown at the top of the screen. Start with the u-Slicer Introduction Tour for an interactive walk-through of the main components of the u-Slicer platform, which will help you to successfully navigate creating basic reports and pulling general insights. Then, return back to this guide to get started!

Below is a quick glossary of dimensions (referred to as Category Fields in the platform) and metrics (referred to as Columns in the platform) that might be useful as you start using the tool for troubleshooting and performance optimization and which are referenced in the quick start guide below.

Categories

Columns

Account: Publisher’s Account Name

Total Traffic: Indicates the total volume of traffic observed for that time period

Account: Publisher’s Account Name

Imps: Indicates the total volume of filled impressions observed for that time period

Publisher: Inventory Groups associated with the Account (typically broken out by Integration type)

Net Media Revenue: Indicates the total net Media Revenue generated for that time period

Ad Unit: For mapped integrations such as Prebid, displays Ad Unit ID and Name

The MediaGrid Bids: Yes Bids passed back to the Publisher

Inventory Type: Indicates type of traffic (Web, App, CTV)

Win Rate %: Impressions Won divided by the total number of Impressions Bid

Media Type: Indicates type of media (Banner, Video)

Fill Rate %: Impressions delivered divided by the number of Ads requested by the Ad Server

Supply Source: indicates type of connection/integration (hbjson - simple client-side; sp - openRTB server-side; amazon_tam - Amazon TAM connection; hb - client-side, but before Prebid version 13; tag - tag-based; criteo - Criteo Direct Bidder)

Unique Reach: Impressions: Indicates the number of unique users we see just on impressions

OS: Indicates operating system

Unique Reach: Ad Requests: Indicates the number of unique users we see on all requests

User is matched: ‘True’ indicates that the user is synced to our 3rd party cookie, which enables matching to DSP cookies as well.

Landing Page Domain: Indicates the advertiser click-through domain for paid impressions

Demand Source New: Indicates the DSP that purchased the traffic

Grid DSP ID: Indicates the DSP that purchased traffic from a Curated deal

u-Slicer Functions

This section aims to outline all of the functions available in u-Slicer and where you can find out more about on each.

  • Add Custom Data Columns u-Slicer lets you add your own custom columns where you can define the function that returns the data, see Adding custom data columns

  • Calendar The calendar function lets you select the date range for which data is returned. Note: The data can only go back as far as the initial deployment date.

  • Chart Types You can display your charts using area, column, line, or line + column charts, use the assessment button to display the options

  • Chart as Image Download You can download an image of any graph you generate, in one of the following formats: pdf, svg, png, jpg, use the arrow_downward button to display the options

  • Custom Chart Lines Using these you can overlay a line on the graph for one of the following functions: SimpleMovingAvg, Trend, Integral

  • Standalone Chart You can display a graph in a standalone window by selecting the content_copy button

  • Column Drag and Drop You can drag and drop columns in the u-Slicer interface, which can be useful to put related figures closer together for analysis

  • Confidence Range The confidence range refers to how accurate the reported figures are. This is due to the data compression mechanism applied to improve performance when processing huge data volumes.

  • Data Filtering You can filter data to see what values are given for the selected data type, for example, language, device type, site.

  • Data Sort You can sort each report by one data column. To do this use the filter arrow that appears beside each column header on hover arrow_downward, the arrow remains displayed beside the sorting column

  • Export Functions You can export the data underlying each report to CSV, Excel, or Google Spreadsheets

  • Metric Comparison You can plot two metrics on the chart function, and see if they are in some way correlated

  • Short URL Generator You can generate short URLs for sharing a report more easily amongst those with access to the u-Slicer instance, use the short URL button

  • Saving Charts You can save a chart that you have generated for future reference by adding it to your u-Slicer bookmarks. Select the star_border on the page header to add a chart to your bookmarks

  • Scheduled Reports You can set up scheduled reports from the UI, see the Schedule regular mailing

  • Time Granularity u-Slicer lets you configure the time period which is applied to each data point. The options available are: Day & Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter, and Year.

  • Time Shift You can overlay two sets of data, separate by a time period, the Time Shift option can be configured based on the Time Granularity setting.

Navigating Key Components

Key Component: Chart Visualization

In the center pane, you’ll find one of the key components of the u-Slicer platform: a chart visualizing the data according to the different data slices you

select. At the top left of the chart, you can select up to three different metrics to visualize, or select a Time shift.

At the top right of the chart, you have the option to change the chart granularity by hour, day, week, month, and more. Weeks are displayed in numerical order starting from January 1.

Key Component: Data Table

In the bottom pane, you’ll find a Data Table, which presents data for the metrics selected. Here, you can manage the columns of the table to

dig into specific metrics that best fit your reporting needs by clicking on the More button at the top right of the table.

Key Component: Selecting a date range

Navigate to the top right- hand corner of the screen and click on the date range area. A dropdown will appear, and you’ll have the option to input a date range (in the format of YYYY-MM- DD), select a date range from the calendar, or select a predetermined date range via the bottom row. Change the timezone by clicking the + and - buttons. The default time zone is set to UTC

Key Component: Selecting and adding a Reporting Category

To select a category against which to define your metrics for your data pull, click the header on the top left-hand corner of the data table. You can select from a large variety of categories, including Account, Publisher, Ad Unit, and many more. To select another category in addition to the selection, click on the + within the menu bar

Navigating Key Components Continued

Key Component: Selecting and adding a Reporting Category

To select a category against which to define your metrics for your data pull, click the header on the top left-hand corner of the data table. You can select from a large variety of categories, including Account, Publisher, Ad Unit, and many more. To select another category in addition to the selection, click on the + within the menu bar.

Key Component: Selecting and adding Metrics

To select metrics to display in the data table and chart visualization, click on the “More” button in the top right-hand corner of the data table. Reorder the metrics in your data table by clicking on the header of the metric and dragging it to the desired position in the table.

Key Component: Setting Filters

The left-hand pane of the platform is where you can select specific filters to refine your data view. Click on “Set Filters” to pull up the menu pictured above. Select a number of filters using Boolean operators and click “Apply” to update the chart visualization and data table

Note on Data Compression

Note on Data Compression:

Data compression can occur when too many metrics are selected simultaneously, and will be indicated by an overall ±XX% number that pops up in the upper left corner of the data table in red, as well as on each line of data, upon scrollover. The ±XX% number represents the confidence range of the dataset based on the metrics you selected, meaning how different the actual data may be from what is shown.

If you continue to add more compressed metrics on top of other compressed metrics, the approximation will multiply or increase. If you encounter data compression with your metric selection, try reducing the number of metrics you’re selecting at once or reach out to your Support Team to pull a report.

Report Type: Trading Activity Report

Use this report to understand trading activity by various dimensions, which include but are not limited to Supply Source (Integration Type), Ad Unit, Inventory Type, or Media Type


Categories: Supply Source/Ad Unit/Inventory Type/Media Type

Columns: Imps, Net Media Revenue, Net Media eCPM

Report Type: Daily Net Media Revenue Report

Use this reporting view to quickly understand trends in impressions and revenue on a daily basis and identify discrepancies easily.


Category: Day

Columns: Imps, Net Media Revenue, Net Media eCPM

Report Type Demand Insights Report: DSPs

Use this report to understand the Demand Side Platforms that bought traffic.


Category: Demand Source New

Columns: Imps, Net Media Revenue