Making comparisons between Pressboard data and native reports

Here's a few pointers on interpreting data syncs and how reports in Pressboard can differ to the native platforms.

A question we get asked a lot!

Why is the data from this [X] report not lining up with the numbers in Pressboard? 

There are few factors at play to be mindful of: 

1. Data sync schedules: data sources each have a unique automatic sync schedule. A handy reference can be found here
2. Each scheduled sync, no matter the data source, will fetch the last 24hr slice of data through to the previous day (UTC). Current day is not included.
3. Not all syncs succeed and some can fail due to API instability or other reasons. You can review the status of each completed sync and manually resync data. 

Put all this together and you can understand the nuances between a data discrepancy and simply comparing different views of data. To make a fair comparison between Pressboard and the reports in native tools, you should exclude the current day from the report in the native app (Meta Ads Manager, GA etc.)

How to decode scheduled syncs on your campaigns:

You can easily and quickly see sync schedules at work for any report added to a campaign. Find your campaign > expand the report and review the sync log Note, the recorded time will be in your timezone. 

You can expand the parameters for each slice, expressed in UTC

 

Sync Statuses 

We display whether the sync is 'Complete', 'In Progress' or 'Incomplete'. 

= Sync Completed / Succeeded

= Sync Failed 
= Sync in Progress 

Manually resync data

You will see the sync all button against all reports added to a campaign. This will initiate a back pull of the data and fetch data that could have been subsequently missed due to an incomplete / failed sync. 

Troubleshooting 

If you've gone through the process of comparing following the guidelines outlined in this article but still cannot explain the variance, you can get in touch with your Customer Success Manager to continue troubleshooting. Make sure to provide details including the campaign name, report type and raw data from the native app being compared to.