Exploring Performance Analytics data
Learn how create custom queries.
Looks are built using queries of the data in your project and displayed according to the visualization format set for the Look, e.g., Table, Timeline, or Single Value. This page explains how to view the queries behind the Looks and the ways you can explore your data.
The Explore view
The base query of a Look is called an Explore. In any Look, hover and click , then select Explore from here. This opens the Explore view, where you can see the selections, entries, and filters used to generate the information included in the query. From here, you can start customizing queries.

The sections you’ll see:
Sidebar — At the top is the Explore type, followed by a search field for the DimensionsGenerally, a string field in Performance Analytics. They can be grouped and can act as filters or members of a data set. and MeasuresA numeric field in Performance Analytics — like a count or sum. Measures appear in orange within an explore. grouped in fields below it.
Selections made here are immediately reflected in the Filters and Data sections. Separate tabs show All Fields and fields that are In Use for the current query.
Filters — Use this section to configure the filters in the query.
You add filters by clicking for a Measure or Dimension in the sidebar. Click or in a filter row to add or remove filters of the same type. Multiple filters of the same type are processed as a boolean OR.
The default value for the App Name filter is the current Airship project name. Operators and input support vary by field. For example a time dimension supports setting a time range, and text dimensions return matching values as you type.
To manually add filtering expressions, check the box for Custom Filter to expose the entry field.
Click Run after making changes. Only rows for which conditions are true will be returned in results.
Visualization — The Explore view opens to a default visualization format, one of:
- Table
- Column
- Bar
- Scatterplot
- Line
- Area
- Pie
- Map
- Single Value
- Static Map (Regions)
- Static Map (Points)
- Donut Multiples
- Single Record
To view the data in another format, click an icon in the Visualization section header. Hover over an icon to see its label. You may need to click to expose all options. Click Edit for options specific to the current format.
The Visualization section header in the Explore view Some Visualization types may be incompatible with the currently selected Dimensions and Measures.
Data — This section is essentially the Table visualization format. You can set the maximum number of rows to return and whether or not to display totals.
The Data section header in the Explore view
See also: Saving Queries.
You can bookmark queries in your web browser after opening the Explore view in a new window.
- From a Look, hover and click , then hold down Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ (Mac) on your keyboard and select Explore from here.
- From the Explore Glossary, click next to its name and select Navigate to Explore.
Use your browser’s bookmark feature to save the view.
Example data exploration
Let’s find your app’s in-app impression rate. To do this we need to add two Measures to the Messages Look.
- Go to Reports » Performance Analytics and select the Messages Dashboard.
- For the Messages Look, click and select Explore from here.
- In the sidebar, go to Message Metrics » Measures » In-App Impression Metrics and click next to:
- In-App Impression Rate
- In-App Dismissed User Rate
- Click Run.
For more tutorials, see our directory of Common tasks and queries.
Explore names and glossary
When exploring a Look, the top of the sidebar lists the Explore name. There are two categories of Explores:
- App — Explores that are limited to the data in your currently selected project. Go to app Explore descriptions
- Company — Explores that support aggregate metrics across multiple projects, for any projects you have access to. Go to company Explore descriptions
In addition to being able to explore any Look, Airship provides a number of additional pre-defined Explores in the Explore Glossary. Go to » Shared and select Explore Glossary (Explore Glossary EUCS for EU customers) under Looks. To open one in the Explore view, click its name and select Navigate to Explore.
The Explores available in the glossary are named for types of data and tasks, and they are all limited to the data in your currently selected project:
- Audience with Attributes — Current user Device PropertiesMetadata representing the default attributes and property tags of a device, such as language and time zone settings, OS and browser versions, and notification opt-in status. Device properties are used for audience segmentation. The data used for the tags and attributes is collected automatically from the Airship SDKs, and are updated daily.
, TagsMetadata that you can associate with channels or named users for audience segmentation. Generally, they are descriptive terms indicating user preferences or other categorizations, e.g.,
wine_enthusiast
orweather_alerts_los_angeles
. Tags are case-sensitive. , and AttributesMetadata that you can use for audience segmentation. Attributes differ from tags in that when evaluating users with attributes, Airship uses operators, e.g., equals, less than/greater than, contains, before/after, to determine whether or not to target a user. Supported attribute types are TEXT, NUMBER, and DATE. - Cohort Analysis — Define a cohort and cohort timelines (users who install per week) and a metric to track (retention by month)
- Device Events — App sessions (Open events), Web sessions, installs, and uninstalls
- Custom Events — Custom EventsEvents that indicate that a user performed a predefined action, such as adding an item to a shopping cart, viewing a screen, or clicking an Unsubscribe button. Custom events can trigger automation, sequences, scenes, and surveys. You can code them into your app or website, or send them to Airship from an external source using the custom event API. Custom events contain
properties
that you can use to personalize messages. - Engagement — Metrics for any and all channels
- Scenes — ScenesMulti-screen experiences that are cached on users’ devices and displayed when your users meet certain conditions within your app, such as viewing a particular screen or opening the app a certain number of times. Scenes can include survey questions or be presented as a story.
- Surveys — SurveysQuestion-and-answer experiences used to collect and aggregate feedback or generate a net promoter score. They are cached on users’ devices and displayed when your users meet certain conditions within your app, such as viewing a particular screen or opening the app a certain number of times.
- SMS Mobile Originated — Mobile originated inbound SMS messages — See also: SMS in Performance Analytics
- Tag Events — Adding and removing TagsMetadata that you can associate with channels or named users for audience segmentation. Generally, they are descriptive terms indicating user preferences or other categorizations, e.g.,
wine_enthusiast
orweather_alerts_los_angeles
. Tags are case-sensitive. to/from users
App Explore descriptions
- Active Users
- Count of the active users in your app.
- Audience
- Devices that are not marked uninstall, and their active tags.
- Audience by Tags
- Audience counts by combinations of tag group and tag value. Make sure to leave default values in for unused filters.
- Audience Opt In
- Metrics about your entire audience, split by opt-in status. This includes any user that currently has an app installed or has opted-in to web notifications.
- Automation Message Report
- Aggregate performance of automated messages.
- Correlated Uninstalls
- Messages and their uninstall rates.
- Custom Event Cohort
- Daily open activity of users performing an activation event (custom event). This helps you understand which goals keep a user retained for longer. See: Custom Events.
- Custom Events
- User-level behavioral events. Understand how people are interacting with your content. See: Custom Events.
- Experiments
- A/B Test push notifications.
- Funnel
- Create a funnel or path based on user behaviors (custom events). See: Custom Events.
- Growth by Day
- Counts by day of users installing, uninstalling, churning, and reactivating. Typically run for a 7-day period.
- In App Message Impressions
- Explore the number of users that have seen an In App Message over time.
- Inactive Users
- Count of inactive users. Export lists of users that have been inactive to target on a different channel, such as email.
- Lifespan
- Explore the lifecycle of your users from install to uninstall.
Company Explore descriptions
- Audience
- Your current audience and their active tags.
- Experiments
- A/B Test performance.
- Opens
- Your app’s open events.
- Tag Events
- Tag adds and removals for users over time. Use this information to understand which user properties are increasing or decreasing.
- Tags Active by Week
- A count of users by active tags per week.
Exploring region events
You can explore your project’s region events using Location Looks. The following are definitions of the filters, Dimensions, and Measures used in Location Looks.
You can not explore this data using the User Locations heat map.
Filter:
- Recent Activity Hours
- If not selected, this filter will default to 12 hours. If multiple numbers are input, it will use the minimum number. If the filter is selected but no number is input, it will use 1 hour.
Measure:
- Direct Open / Indirect Open / Send Count
- The number of each event preceding the Arrival.
Dimensions:
- Dwell Indicator
- Indicates whether an Arrival event has been matched to a Departure event. The events must be consecutive events for the same User in the same Region within 12 hours.
- Dwell Time Tier Hours
- Buckets Dwells by hours. Tiers are [0,1,2,3,4,5,6]. Dwells are placed into the intervals or 6 hours+.
- Dwell Time in Min Tier
- Buckets Dwells by minutes. Tiers are [0,1,5,10,30,60]. Dwells are placed into the intervals or 60 minutes+.
- Had Direct Open/Indirect Open/Send
- For each Arrival event, we look back the number of selected hours (Recent Activity Hours) to see if that Arrival was preceded by the selected action.
- Unique Regions Encountered
- The number of unique regions encountered by each user, Arrival or Departure.
- Unique Regions Encountered Tier
- Buckets unique regions. Tiers are [0,5,10,20,40]. Users are placed into the corresponding interval or 40 Regions+.
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