Helpful Articles (filter at right)

2 Help Resources Available

The Analytics Edge help site has plenty of resources available for learning and assistance with reporting. This article explains what is available and highlights the ‘account not found’ problem people experience when sharing workbooks. More →

Account Reference Names

Analytics Edge takes account security very seriously. When you use the add-in or one of the connectors to access one of your accounts, the product will encrypt a security token and save it to your computer. You will be asked for an account reference name for this token. More →

Calculating a Weighted Average (Average of Averages)

A common reporting challenge in Excel is merging sets of data, such as combining monthly numbers for a quarterly or annual total. Adding up simple metrics is obvious, but what do you do with things like the average position or conversion rate? [Hint: you should not average or total anything that is already an average or ratio] More →

Constant Contact API Changes

The Analytics Edge Connector for Constant Contact now (2024-06-07) supports the latest (version 3) API from Constant Contact. Many things have changed between the older (version 2) API, and this document gives a brief overview of the differences between them, and how Analytics Edge has changed how used them.

Note that the Constant Contact connector is the first connector released by Analytics Edge (in 2014) and has undegone only minor changes over the years. The new release is a significant update in both the user interface as well as how the data is processed and presented.

Reference IDs and Data Structure Changes

Constant Contact uses different ID numbers in the new API to reference the various data elements (contacts, email campaigns, links, etc). They also structure the data differently; for example, a resend of a campaign in v2 was issued a new campaign ID, but in v3 the campaign is split into 2 campaign activities with a primary email and a resend activity.

The old connector exposed a lot of the inner workings and forced users to cross reference IDs between queries to piece together the information they wanted. The update does a lot of this work behind the scenes; for example, campaign reports actually trigger one API call to get the activities for a campaign, then multiple calls for each activity and additional queries for activity details if needed, merging the data into a single response.

Field Names and Order

The old connector exposed the raw field names from the API (e.g. first_name, last_name) while the update provides more presentable field names (e.g. First Name, Last Name).

The order of the fields between the various queries changed according to how the API delivered them, which tended to change depending on the data. This could cause problems in report formating, forcing additional steps to reorder the fields in a specific way. The update controls the field order and appearance in most cases.

Accounts

The account authentication used by Constant Contact has changed with the new API, so the connector manages separate stored accounts for the v2 and v3 APIs. This means sepaarte Accounts wizards. The new login process uses Oauth, so the login process is a little different.

The old Accounts wizard allowed you to get information about a selected account or a list of available accounts — this extra functionality has been moved to a new Account Information wizard. This wizard allows you to select between using v2 or v3 accounts.

 

Constant Contact: Autoresponder Reporting

Constant Contact offers some simple reports on your autoresponder campaigns, but little detail is available. Even through the API, the data is difficult to extract, but it can be done. This article details how Analytics Edge makes it possible to monitor your email series to see who each message was sent to, which ones bounced, whether they were opened, and whether they clicked on a link.

More →

Constant Contact: Click-Through Data

Downloading Constant Contact click-through data for multiple clients has never been easier than with Analytics Edge and the Constant Contact connector. This article describes the process in detail, so you can get the job done fast! More →

Constant Contact: Email Cohort Analysis

This article explains how to build a cohort analysis report in Excel using the Analytics Edge Add-in with the Constant Contact connector. Cohort Analysis lets you see how one group of subscribers behaves differently from another. More →

Constant Contact: Reporting Automation

branded-report-example (1)With Analytics Edge, your reporting gets a whole lot easier with single-click refreshes, and you don’t lose any of the flexibility that makes Microsoft Excel so popular for Constant Contact analytics reporting. Here’s an example of one engagement that went from idea to “This is AMAZING!!” in 24 hours. More →

Error: Account not found. Check Account wizard

This error usually occurs when you share workbooks with coworkers, or after a computer move or rebuild. Analytics Edge stores a reference to the account in the workbook, but the actual security tokens are stored on your computer.  More →

Error: Invalid/missing dates

This error usually occurs when the cells you referenced in a query have moved or the contents are changed. Analytics Edge connectors offer the ability to use cell references for the dates, but the references can get out of alignment if you add rows or columns in the worksheet, or if you renamed the worksheet. More →

How To: Email Campaign Domain Analysis

email-domain-analysisFind out how your email campaigns are performing with particular domains, so you can see which ISPs your subscribers use most often, and detect if you’re having delivery or compatibility problems. More →